Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Friday, April 23, 2010

Aspen

Yesterday I spent the day at the zoo, helping out with the Earth day extravaganza. I'm not certified on any of the cool animals yet and didn't want to sit in the heat with a large and disgusting Rococo Toad, so I attached myself to one of the Senior Docents early on, helping her out with the birds of prey. This is Aspen, the Golden Eagle I spent the day with. She is really beautiful and loves the attention she draws, but I still am blown away how much I had to tell people to back up. Those are two inch long talons of pain and infection; please don't hold your toddler that close. My job beyond crowd control was holding onto one of her eggs. This led to countless explanations about what "unfertilized" means. Do kids not take sex ed any more?
When a momma bird and a daddy bird love each other very much... More people correctly identified her as a Golden Eagle than I expected, considering they do not live in this area. It turns out that Auburn has one that they fly around the stadium before football games. Since one in ten people here are wearing an Auburn shirt at any time, hearing people happily shout "War Eagle!" probably should have been no surprise.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Bug love

More bugs today for my future Entomologist.




He wanted me to hold this one. No freaking way.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Bees

In our front yard we have two holly bushes, which are currently blossoming. They smell amazing, and not just to me but hundreds of bees as well. Case could not be happier. Every day he gets off the bus yelling "Say hi to da bees!" He runs right past me to the shrubs, where happy little honey bees buzz.
He is completely uninterested in them. Note this bee's size relative to the tiny white blossoms. Case's love is all for these GIANT bumble bees. They are enormous, fat and happy bees that have the bizarre habit of flying up about a foot or two from his head and looking back at him. They buzz at each other. I'm convinced that they are communicating.
Case's love for the bumble bees is so complete that he chase them around the back yard: "Huggin da bumble bee!" His efforts so far are unsuccessful, to his great disappointment. Thank you for your patience, bumble bees.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Easter

For the first time, we had a Easter egg hunt at home for Case. Last year we were on pins and needles due to our history, and the THREE years before that we were in the hospital. So Easter isn't my favorite holiday, and Case has received far more rabbit-themed baskets from caring hospital volunteers than us. No cute Easter clothes for us slackers either. Case wore his Buzz Lightyear jammies (thanks Grandma!)
Case didn't seem to hold it against us though. He was only moderately interested in the eggs, requiring much pointing and excitement from Marc and I before exploring them. No killer instinct, that kid. He did like the treats though; plastic eggs full of grapes and chocolates and marbles.
Afterwards we had a breakfast of waffles and Conference, and an Easter feast that night of smoked ribs.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Yipee!

Alabama trampoline

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Sunglasses

Man, it is so hard to be cool around your mom.