parker's butterflies have "given birth!" (her words). it's really cool. we got them as caterpillars from dan's dad for her birthday in november. i actually received a ups package labeled "live insects." i admit, i thought they were kinda gross, i imagined them crawling around the house or worse yet, on me, but that's just how i am. i lived through a summer in new england where we had a gypsy moth caterpillar scourge that felt like an old testament pestilence. i remember killing them with sticks. you had to. they were everywhere. it was disgusting.
then, i was afraid that we had neglected them, but it was ok, turns out they were cocooning anyway.
we moved them to their habitat to hatch (is that the word? do butterflies hatch?...) and lo, here they are, and they are amazing. i've really fallen for a deformed little monarch, that will doubtfully survive but is still pumping one wing outside it chrysalis and moving his antennae . i hope every day it will work out for him.
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it's nice, now that i'm unemployed, i've been able to spend some time at parker's pre-k. i had a lucid and lovely moment friday, when i sat in the class while jim was reading to the kids before they were dismissed. the sun was streaming in purple room from the west, lighting the whole space with golden rays, the children sat quietly in red beanbag chairs riveted by the story about "outer space." the whole scene was incredibly sweet and beautiful
i thought to myself, i hope this is how parker remembers her childhood. a little snippet like this, lodged in her memory landscape. it made me glad to have given her this gift of an extra year of preschool. she has totally thrived in this small pre-k program of 13 kids, with quirky jim, who understands these children in a way most adults never will.
I’ve been looking for a long time for this! Thank God I found it on Yahoo.
Thx
Hydrolyze