Picture update

Pheasant's Eye Narcissus bulbs getting a little antsy for spring...in JANUARY!

Robert lost a tooth last week and promptly lost another one today. One more loose one on top, then we're done for a while.

Matthew selfie

Only little kids are cute this close up. I might miss this when it's gone.

Alice reading stories from the phone while we hang out after church. Check out the FitBit knock-off strapped to her ankle. This girl loves it. Loves it!

The boys and I met some friends at Soccer Planet today for a private field trip/party. James ran himself silly and fell asleep on the way home. Matthew kept telling me over and over at lunch, "Me happy! Sockuh pawty. Me go sockuh pawty. Play ball-ee! Me happy!"

Little Ham.

Lookin' up to Little Ham.

Good Food Festival in Chicago

I really, really, reeeeeeeeeeeeeally want to attend this 1-day event in Chicago, including the urban farm bus tour (*squeeeeeee*), but I don't want to go alone.

Is anyone crazy enough to come with me?  Saturday, March 18th, 10am-5pm. We can split the gas and parking costs. Festival is free. Bus tour is $75.

http://www.goodfoodfestivals.com/program/saturday/

Please? PLEASE?!

I need more urban farming friends who also happen to be foodies...*sigh*

"My fwend"

Robert and James were sliding on the new dining room floor yesterday while Matthew looked on from Bobby's arms in the kitchen. Out of nowhere, Matthew points to the boys playing and says, "He my fwend."

I had never heard him use the word "friend" before, and it's a word I think about a lot, so this caught my attention.

"Who's your friend? Robert?"

"No." He shakes his head and points again, emphasizing the first word, "He my fwend."

Incredulous, I ask, "You mean James?!"

"Yah," and he smiles and lays his head on Bobby's shoulder.

Then I started thinking back over the last couple weeks...James has been kinder to Matthew...they do a lot more together these days. In fact, they've even started spending Quiet Time together. Matthew doesn't really need a nap every day, and it's better for everyone if James doesn't take a nap, so I've been letting them play together during Quiet Time.

Then I suddenly remembered something James had said earlier this week...

"Mommy, I used to not like Quiet Time, but now I really like it." Then he beamed at me and turned to Matthew, "C'mon, Matthew, let's go!" And they bounced back to James' room for more fun.

I did not know if this would ever happen. I'm completely astonished. And so happy. I'm not counting on it staying this way, just enjoying the moment.

James and Matthew enjoying the view down into the atrium from the 8th floor of the Psychology Building at the U of I. We went there this week to participate in another language study.

Mantis Obsession

Okay, I think I need to step back from this whole mantis thing for a while.

Whew.

Here's what happened. I could not sleep that first night because I knew these baby mantises were STARVING and they would all be dead in a few hours because of me.

Turned out, I didn't kill them. Yet.

Feeding the mantises became my obsession. I called pet stores about fruit flies (all out). I emailed friends about fruit flies and ants (weird looks). I dug around my backyard, through frozen soil, where some anthills were last summer (kid nuclear war erupted inside the house). I've had half-rotten food on my counter every day for the last three months (compost bucket). No fruit flies! To no avail. One pet store finally offered pinpoint crickets which were about the size of black ants and looked possibly small enough to work.

Bought five.

$0.44

I'm pretty sure the guy who sold them to me was thinking this transaction was a complete waste of his time. Thank goodness I had a dollar in my coat, or I would have had to use a credit card. He scooped a few crickets into a plastic baggie and inflated it before tying a knot in the top. After handing over my change, he asked if I wanted a bag to carry my purchase outside in.

I couldn't tell if he was serious or just trying to make a joke. I was a little more concerned about how to peel James and Matthew away from the Koi pond without causing a scene.

Well, I got the crickets home and peeked in the jar. I was expecting six mantises and counted about fifteen. WHAT?! Apparently, the egg case had not completely finished hatching.

So, they needed a bigger space.

I accidentally drowned a few mantises in the transfer. Ugh. Mom guilt!

The five crickets went in with the fifteen mantises and there they have stayed for the last 24 hours, completely unharmed. Actually, once I saw one of the bigger crickets beating up on a weak, semi-drowned mantis. Total mom guilt.

So maybe they aren't as hungry as I thought? Maybe crickets aren't the right food? Do they sell baby praying mantis formula!?

Sheesh. I'm worrying too much about this. At least they now have a food source besides each other :) I'll keep looking for fruit flies. In the meantime, they sit on our kitchen counter, in the middle of winter, with a slim chance of ever seeing the outside world.

James enjoying our new dining room floor. It's soooooo slippery that he can lay on his tummy and push off the wall to fly. It's the closest he's ever been to fulfilling one of his Superman dreams.

Mantis Haiku

Six survive the night

Exoskeleton now brown

Hungry for first meal

Here's a picture for scale. One is perched on the empty egg case.

Robert had found the egg case in our stick pile, which makes me think that I knew the mother. You see, there were a couple praying mantises around our house last year that I watched grow up. Or maybe it was just one and he/she moved around a lot. They/It started out green and half an inch long in the early summer and finally reached 4-5 inches and totally brown by fall. They were especially fond of the corner of our house near the stick pile. I'm wondering if maybe these were that mantis's first brood. That might explain why we only had nine babies on Robert's shelf instead of a hundred. Yikes!

And now that they've turned brown, I'm thinking Robert must have discovered them very, very soon after they hatched when their exoskeletons were still soft and yellow.

Less than a day old and they're already so strong and so fierce! I'm kinda getting attached to them. I'd like to try and feed them small insects. So, if you live near me and you happen to know where I could collect a few gnats/fruit flies in the middle of winter, please let me know.

Soon.

I hope they don't eat each other.