it's almost friday

Okay, yesterday in traffic Maria and I were on a hill, and the city skyline was perfectly framed with all these wild storm clouds. Well, the stop light changed as she fiddled with the camera, and I had to drive down the hill, and this is all we got. I don't blame her. It was a moment quickly gone.

The clouds are cool, hey.


Our caterpillars--(please don't smack me like that!)--we had one caterpillar who did the J thing, spun a cocoon and then stopped before it was done. We didn't know what to think. And then a day or two later, it fell from where it had initially latched, and lay in the leaves in the bottom of the tumbler. We thought it died--a bit unfortunate, but out of our control.

(Okay, the vet was by here yesterday to see the dogs, and the kids showed him the cocoons. He thought that fallen one was dead too.)

Well, this morning I checked the cocoons and realized there was a butterfly wiggling in the bottom of the glass. The delicate legs were fine, and the minuscule antennae, the tiny, exquisite body, but the wings were not right. There was one half a normal looking wing, and the other was wonky.

The butterfly was stuck on its back in a water tumbler. I took the cup out to the garden and put the butterfly right side up in the shade under the peonies--not gonna die on its back in a glass on MY on dining room buffet.

A couple hours later I checked on it, and it was gone. Maybe a bird snatched it. Maybe it flew away on its little funny wings.

I don't claim this as a serious world problem, but I couldn't believe it lived at all to be placed in the flower bed on a June morning.

Today we had b.g. here. He was tired right away, and so was I. I took him to our bed, to the pile of pillows and sheets, and he rolled around for half an hour chewing on the TV remote, drinking his bottle, showing me So Big, little soft arms flung over his head. Finally he fell asleep as I smoothed his blonde hair while his eyes rolled in opposite directions. I cuddled him in the crook of my arm and slept too.

When he woke up though, he looked at me, surprised. (I'm not his mother.) Then he dove over on my chest and stayed there in a big hug. (He didn't even laugh at my outrageous bed hair.) I loved it.

Later he ate snacks with Julia and took another nap in a nest on our bedroom floor.

I love this crazy cuddly baby, and his little aunt too.

Heidi came later and took Julia and Tim to a parade where they were thrown candy. (Tim remembered the candy part from when Dan and Alicia took him last year.) They're asleep, and I'm feeling a bit like a little chocolate now, actually. It's been a great Thursday. With a bit of luck, I might even steal a tootsie roll here. love, Val