Zoo

We had a nice cool break in the weather today, so we headed to the zoo. Guess what we are doing here?

Watching the flamingos!

Case always is so happy talking with the Macaw.We saw the otters, another favorite.

Case can communicate with Monitor lizards too. There are baby animals everywhere this spring. Cute little elephants splashing in the water,baby ducks everywhere,and so many baby turtles they were stacking them two deep.

We also got to go behind the scenes, to see the big birds of prey that I work with. By the time we left, Case was completely out of gas.

Firefly 2

More fireflies tonight; they started blinking even before dinner. Case ran around under the trees in his underpants for quite a while, chasing the bugs. I insisted on some boxers for the camera.

It is wonderful fun to chase around the slow moving little beetles in the dusk. Case would catch them, they would crawl on his hands for a few seconds, then take off again. Magical fun.

No visible lightning bugs, but still a great shot.

It took about 100 pictures to get 2 where both the boy and the bug are lit up and focused. There is definitely a beetle here, but he's in stealth mode.

I'm so glad Case got to chase them around and really see them!

Firefly

We saw fireflies tonight! I believe they are actually magic. Case was already in bed, but I found one in the grass and brought it in his room.

Bugs are always amazing to him, but an insect that lit up while crawling on him? Tremendous giggles :)

Tennis

Case has been playing a lot of tennis lately. We finally figured out a good system for ball suspension that doesn't have me picking the ball out of the gutter or tree every other whack, and this improves the game for all of us.

He is markedly better than he was; this has really improved his hand-eye coordination.

It is a game you can play with him too, passing the ball back and forth. It is a fast way to work up a sweat (that may be related to the 90 degree heat).

Check out that intensity!

Busy Saturday

Very busy Saturday for the three of us. After some serious shopping, Case relaxed by working on an art project/occupational therapy. Our garden is growing like crazy-

we have tiny tomatoes!
We packed the smoker full and cooked dinner for the next week,

then finished up the day hanging out with Jill and Rob and eating transcendent chocolate cake (sorry we couldn't share). Make this recipe and eat it immediately after it comes out of the oven. Trust me.

Feather

Case has been really sick the past week, despite an emergency trip to the beach. (The emergency was that Marc and I really miss the beach.)

We had quite a few miserable days where he never even changed out of jammies. He spent hours sleeping, or whining about sleeping. We did have a little fun one afternoon between naps though. This was entirely his idea.

Toad

While doing yard work this morning, Marc spotted a toad. Case was, not surprisingly, over the moon for this "frog".

Doesn't the toad look like he's having fun?

They danced and hopped together for a long time. Case made the toad give him hugs and wave "hi".

Eventually my concern for the toad's well-being won out (the bugs don't get this consideration; I only care about vertebrates), and we put him back in the flowers to live and hop another day. This was obviously an unpopular idea, and Case had to be bought off with noodles, a hot dog octopus AND a cookie.

Zoo

This is Dusty, an Eastern Screech Owl. He came to the zoo through the Auburn Raptor Center, where he recovered from his pirate injury. He is a tiny little thing, with a body only 7 or 8 inches long. Check out those wicked toenails though!

Weekend

Our weekend was just packed, hardly a minute of down time.

There were bugs, and choresand birdwatching. There were dogs to be snuggled,books to be read,and a whole railroad to be run.And there was lots

and lots

of dancing.