A Week in Pictures ... and a few words too

Has it been only 9 days since my last blog? What a full and eventful 9 days it's been.

First, I'm sad to report that we lost the praying mantises. :( We still don't know what went wrong, but every last one of them had died by the time 3 days had passed.

On a brighter note, on Friday we released our butterflies. It actually took some coaxing to get them out of their habitat (I think I was envisioning them just gratefully bursting forth as soon as it was opened) but they eventually found their wings - and their freedom - among the bushes in our backyard.




In other animal news, Paxton's leopard frog tadpoles are still doing well, but Everett's tadpole is... off. We can't yet tell if he is dying or if he has just slowed way down because he is a critcal stage of his transition. I've been following the instructions, feeding him regularly (but not too regularly), keeping his water cloudy (but not too cloudy) etc. I guess all we can do now is wait.

We actually haven't had a lot of time to think about butterflies and tadpoles lately anyway, because we've been busy visiting! Our good friends Doug and Erika were here for five days and we had such a great time. We hadn't seen each other in six months so we had lots to catch up, necessitating lots of busy days and late nights... and in one case, staying up till 4 in the morning playing Wii, PS2 and baking cookies.

Our first order of business was going geocaching. We'd been wanting to do it forever, and were happy to finally have an excuse to go, and some willing cohorts to go with us. For the uniformed, geocaching is like a big treasure hunt game. You plug in some coordinates into a GPS, hunt for the cache - which is filled with little trinkets - sign the log book, take something & leave something, and re-hide it for the next person. It was a blast and it is now officially our new favorite family hobby. We can't wait to go out and do it again.






We also went to the Phoenix Children's Museum for the second time, and it was every bit as fun as the first.







Last, but most definitely not least, we celebrated both Spencer and Tegan's birthdays in one big party on Saturday. Tegan loved spending time with her grandparents and aunt and uncle, and she had a blast opening her presents






But the highlight for Tegan, in traditional Tegan style, had to be eating and enjoying her first ever birthday cake. I have to note again, for the people who have not yet heard me say it, that the lamb cake was made from the very same cake mold that made my first birthday cake 34 years ago. I was so very excited to make it for my own daughter, and what made it even more special was learning from my Mom that she too had a lamb cake for her first birthday. Three generations of little lambs! She commented that my grandmother - who passed away 5 years ago and whom I still dearly miss - would be tickled to know that Tegan had a lamb cake too... and I know that she was.






Spencer loved his cake too



and his presents




and having a real life police officer to show him how to use his new fingerprinting kit



All in all, it was a great day, and a great week... with great family, and great friends.

Praying Mantises, Butterflies, and ER Visits

I had just about given up on the egg sac ever hatching, then the other day I went into the boys' room to find this:


And this:


And this:


And this...


Our butterflies hatched this week as well, and while we didn't get to actually see them come out of the chrysalis (darn it!) we did watch the last one gradually uncurl and stretch his wings. They were a drab brown at first, and over the course of a few days, their bright orange and black markings came to the surface. They are beautiful! We're going to watch them for just a couple more days, and then release them into the backyard.




The praying mantises and butterflies were the highlights of an otherwise difficult and stressful week. Last Sunday we watched the Superbowl while enjoying our traditional carpet picnic feast. The game was one of the most exciting Superbowls I've seen, and we were heartbroken that the Cardinals lost! The next day I woke up in pain, and first attributed it to the guacamole, chips, and other various not-very-good-for-you goodies I consumed in mass quantities on Sunday. I felt like I was having a gall bladder attack all day on Monday, and by Tuesday it had spread to my upper back between my shoulder blades. To make a long, boring story shorter, I spent all afternoon Wednesday in the Emergency Room, having test after test... only to be told that they couldn't find anything wrong with me, but that they'd be happy to send me home with a prescription. One week later, I'm still in pain, eating ibuprofens like they're m&ms, and going to bed with a Percocet. I'm ready to stop feeling it, thinking about it, and talking about it.

And finally, I am reading a book by Alfie Kohn, called Punished by Rewards, that I think all parents and teachers should read. It's not an easy book to read, and it goes against everything that most people believe (really, should this surprise you? I don't read any other kind...) But he makes a compelling point, and I am finding myself nodding my head over and over as I read. Good stuff.

Tadpoles, Baseball & Flaming Arrows

The last of the creatures arrived last week - the leopard tadpoles that Paxton has been waiting for with bated breath. They too lived on our kitchen counter for a few days until a space was cleared and a permanent spot was made for them in the boys' bedroom.

Floating in their bottles so they get could acclimated to the water's temperature:


All set up and ready to go:


Tonight Mike helped the boys get their cocoons situated in their new habitat, where they will hatch into butterflies. It involved using a safety pin to attach the paper disc to the mesh on the side of the structure. Strangely enough - especially given my fondness for office supplies - but we couldn't find a single safety pin the house. Thankfully, there is a revolving door when it comes to borrowing from the next door neighbors (which goes both ways), and they came through in the clutch.





Here they are all settled in on Everett's dresser.


I wish there was sound with this picture, because after they were disturbed during the whole pinning process, a few of them started to shake violently, a natural instinct to protect against predators. It was one of the eeriest things I've seen, and heard, in awhile, and it made a rat-tat-tat sound like a spinning roulette wheel on the wall of the habitat. I don't know how long it continued because I left the room before it stopped (and might not return again until morning!)

In non-creature news, this Saturday was Paxton's baseball tryouts for the spring season. He did very well, especially at fielding, and he barely resembled the unsure child who just started playing this past fall! We'll find out who his coach is and what team he'll be playing on next week, and practices start in earnest the second week of February. Spencer is finishing up his final weeks of being a Cub Scout, and just received his Citizenship and Traveler pins. On February 28th he'll be getting his Arrow of Light at a fancy dinner banquet and ceremony, where he and the other boys in his den will get to shoot an actual flaming arrow. Cool!

We have cocoons!

OK, this is why I homeschool. Setting aside all the waxing poetic that I did a few days ago, the simple simple reason I homeschool is that I want to be here for this. I want to be here when I tell the boys to come see what their caterpillars did overnight, and to watch them jump up from their seats in that super-human way that's reminiscent of Tom and Jerry cartoons, watch them trip all over themselves as they run across the house, and watch how excited they are to tell their dad when he gets home from work.

While the butterflies have been working quickly, the changes in Taddy the tadpole have been more gradual. It's hard to take a picture of a tadpole, but if you look closely, you can see his little legs growing... legs that now have teeny tiny feet with teeny tiny toes. Watching him grow has been like looking at a perpetual ultrasound reading.