The Butterflies

Well, we put the jar with the caterpillars in it up on the counter for a week or so and watched it. We also discussed what they were quite a bit. The two little cabbage worms made very different cocoons, and thanks to C's researching skills, by the time they emerged, we had pretty much figured out what they were.

First, the Imported Cabbage Worm, which became a Small White Butterfly.





Then, the cabbage looper, which became a brown moth - quite ugly after the pretty little white butterfly. I was still trying to get a good picture of it when it flew away, so this is all we've got.

Swimming

I got quite a shock this afternoon at the pool. I heard the lifeguard behind me sound two short blasts with her whistle, then a spash as she entered the water. I turned around to see her lifting a little boy, probably a little younger than L, out of the water, gasping and choking. She was only maybe 8 feet behind me. I watched as she carried him past me and up the steps out of the water. Lifeguards from all around the pool (except those with specific posts) decended upon them.

Another lifeguard met her at the edge of the pool, and only then did I bother to look around and wonder where his mother was. About then, a small voice behind me said, "Mom! Mom!" I turned again to see an older kid splashing his mom to get her attention. She was taking care of a baby in a floaty thing, also only feet behind me. She had been oblivious to the whole thing - how I don't know, since the lifeguard would have had to get past her to get to her son. How scary is that?! I'd looked over some water safety information lately that said, while people expect screaming and splashing when someone drowns, usually it's silent, and they just slip under the water unnoticed. But I didn't think it could happen right behind me without my noticing!

Anyway, the kid was fine, and his mom immediately scolded him for taking off his lifejacket (poor thing, I bet it was all she could do to keep from crying). It just took me a minute to get over the thought of what might have happened, if not for the lifeguard.

Here's my question, though. I grew up on swimteam, we spent countless hours at pools growing up. The only other incident I remember happened when I was little, and someone cracked their head open on a diving board. How often do you think lifeguards really have to jump in and get someone? To those of you who were lifeguards, how many times did you have to?

A Message for Young People

Caterpillars

Thanks to a good friend with a good garden, my girls have two new pets.  It’s partially my fault.  I’d never seen Broccoli growing, and when my friend offered anything in her garden to me, I was excited to take some fresh broccoli. 

Well, as I was getting dinner ready that night, pulling the leaves off the broccoli, I grabbed a leaf and was surprised to find it curling around my finger.  I shrieked.  C came running.  The fat, green, squirming thing dropped to the counter.

After I’d explained myself to C and pointed out the small creature, I was surprised when his next question was, “Do we have anything to keep it in?” 

Well, everyone has a spare mason jar, right?  And I’m sure I can poke holes in the top of it with something … and so we ended up with our two largest caterpillars staying on in the house.  I even got sent back to pick some leaves to feed them, at C’s insistence that caterpillars are very picky, and we need to have the same food they were feeding on where I found them.

I would have posted pics of the caterpillars, but I didn’t expect them to make their cocoons within 24 hrs of putting them in the jars.  Now we’re waiting to see what comes out.   From what I could tell, they’re cabbage loopers, who will be nocturnal brown moths when they come out.  We shall see …

Life these days

C called me the other day and asked me when the last time I had looked north was.  We don’t really have north-facing windows, so I stepped out front to see what he was asking about. The smoke is coming from the Canyon about 5 miles north from where we live.  Then he told me he’d been down in the canyon when the fire started.  And he’d driven the truck along the only exit road with fire up to the road to get out.  He’d been inspecting some home sites, and he had seen a bunch of people with ATVs sitting around smoking where the fire started.  It burned about 1200 acres, so it wasn’t huge, but there was sure a lot of smoke.

Sometimes the girls find interesting things to do with their books.  Here they’ve emptied their entire bookshelf and put it on their chair.   Silly girls.

And I can’t resist posting this picture, just because they were sharing so nicely … which isn’t always the case.

Swimming Lessons!

I signed my big girl up for her first extra-curricular activity of her life this summer … swimming lessons!  L was so excited to go learn to swim.  Especially since I signed her up to have lessons with her best friend.

Her first lesson went really well, considering how little exposure she’s had to the water in her life.  She does her best to keep her face way out of the water, but she’s more than happy to float on her back and kick around with the kickboard.  The only problem came at the end of class, when the teacher took the kids over to the water slide.  L isn’t used to having to wait for someone to catch her at the bottom of the slide, so as soon as the little boy in front of her went, down she went.  The poor teacher, with the little boy in her arms, wasn’t expecting L to come so quickly, so under the water she stayed for 2-3 seconds until the teacher could pull her up.

She came up coughing and gasping – and entirely inconsolable, poor thing.  The teacher brought her over to me with this, “Oh, great, now I’m going to get lectured by an angry parent,” look on her face.  I smiled and took L, assured her she was okay, and got her calmed down.  She was just fine until we got over to where C was waiting, then she broke down again (for another round of sympathy – it barely took anything from C to have her calm again).

I’d assumed I could take S and let her play in the kiddie pool while L had lessons, but we got there to find the kiddie pool broken and drained.  To keep S happy, we waited a 1/2 hr until free swim and I took both the girls swimming.  They loved it!  L was eager to show off the things she’d learned, and S was giddy just being in the water.  I took them both over to the slide.  S was quick to go down over and over again, and L even went down twice.  As long as I was at the bottom, she was okay with it.

But her little dunk the first day still wasn’t enough to dampen her enthusiasm.  She was thrilled to be back in the water with her teacher the second night – although she downright refused to go down the slide with her teacher at the bottom.  And when I didn’t let her stay for free-swim, she was put out with me.  Next year I will definitely sign both girls up for swimming – just so poor S doesn’t have to throw a fit every time I put L in her swimming suit and leave S alone at home with Dad.

Our Yard

After a long wait, our yard is finally starting to feel like a yard.  It actually looks green now, when you look at it from a distance, and I think it’s fantastic for 2 weeks of growth.  The grass is still a bit small to go running around on, but we’ll lay down some fertilizer this coming weekend to give it another boost.  According to the hydro-seed guy, it should be sod-quality by the end of the summer.  I’m very hopeful.

You can also see our pretty little maple in the front corner of the yard.  L is so excited about the tree, and she’ll look at it, then come announce, “Our tree grew!”  I was tickled the other day to see a pair of finches flitting around in it.   Yeah for grass!