The bigger picture

My husband never really paid much attention to nature before he met me. I don't think he really noticed birds, and probably killed the insects that he did notice. He was particularly not fond of spiders. Which makes this little story all the more compelling.

The lightbulb in our laundry room burned out a few nights ago, and neither one of us has had the extra energy it takes to pull a kitchen chair over there to clean off the light fixture and put a new bulb in. Last night I finally said something to Jav, and reminded him about cleaning it out since there were alot of dead bugs inside the light. He replied that he had been putting it off because of the spider that has spun a web all around the light. He said that it was such a clever place for a web, since we get moths in from the garage at night all the time, and he didn't really have the heart to tear it down after all this time.

Excuse me, but who are you and what have you done with my husband?

I agreed to try to very gingerly change out the lightbulb the next day, which was today. Jav stood below me and watched, and while I was carefully trying not to scare the spider, Jav said, "Oliver. That's a good name". I replied, "Yes. Yes it is." I looked to see if this was for the kids' sake, but they were no where to be seen. So I said, "Oliver, I'm really sorry about your web, but there's a whole bunch of it left that hopefully you can piece back together when I'm done." I gave the fixture to Jav and he just stood there looking at it, and I said, "You don't really want to clean it off, do you?" He shook his head. "OK, I guess it will be ok to put it back just like this." Oliver was obviously a little freaked out and stood hunkered down to the side while I finished re-attaching the light.

I checked an hour ago, and he seems to have moved back to the web like all is back to normal. Which Jav was happy to hear.

I have such a strong belief that all life on this earth is life given from God and therefore should be valued. It's not that I won't kill something, but it has to be something harming me or the ones I love before I'll get to that point. And now I guess my husband has seen the light and feels that way too, which makes me so very happy. It probably makes Oliver really happy too!

Another crazy zoo trip

We had my niece, Macy, over to spend the night last weekend. We decided to take her to the zoo, partly because they were having a new dinosaur exhibit and partly because it was absolutely beautiful outside that day. Every time we've been to the zoo lately, we've seen some really neat things. This time did not disappoint, and was just made even more fun since Macy was with us. This was the first dinosaur we walked up on. Gabriel is not convinced at this point that it's not real. They all moved and made noise, and were just so cool!

This guy was the biggest one. A little while after this was taken, we ended up at Gabriel's favorite spot - the birds of prey. (Which just happens to be mine too.) We always see something pretty amazing from these beautiful (and big) birds. And this time was no different. One of the Bataleur Eagles was sitting on a nest, and looked quite content to be there no matter how many visitors were staring at her. Then, we realized that one of the Harpy Eagles had landed just over the walkway and was causing quite a stir. He was literally two feet above our heads, but we were coming at him from behind. When I started winding around to try to take his picture from the front I overheard other zoo patrons saying something about being sorry for the mouse. I thought, uh-oh. And sure enough, he was clutching a little mouse between his gigantic talons. I tried to tell Macy and Gabriel to just walk on by and not look too close. But what does a little kid do when you tell him/her not to look at something. They gawked. And were so excited to see the mouse. Luckily, just after we all had cleared him and were looking for the Andean Condor, we heard the crowd go, "eeeeeeewwwwwwwww!!!!!" So I guess we just barely missed seeing him eat his dinner, which would have been a little too much nature, even for me.

This looks like a triceratops, but is something called a torosaurus.

I just love it when Gabriel can spend time with his cousins. These two aren't very far apart in age, but when Cade and Macy are both at our house they have a tendency to play with each other and sort of forget about Gabriel (which I totally understand!). But that's why I decided to start having them over one at a time, alternate months. Gabriel and Macy had a GREAT time together and really bonded this time.

My very cute chubby-cheeked men.

She is such a cutie! We had so much fun with her, and laughed so much our sides hurt during dinner. I love she and Cade SO MUCH and am so glad they are close enough to be able to see them so often. Next we'll get Cade in May. Yay!

All kinds of stuff

We have a possum that's eating birdseed spillage from the feeder late nights. We've never seen another possum with his coloring before. His fur is a dark gray, but it's kind of silvery in the lights of the backyard. Jav has taken to this little guy for some reason. Any time I mentioned anything about feeding one before now he would scowl and protest. But he doesn't say a word when I say maybe I should throw a handful of trail mix out there every evening. The problem is he doesn't grace us with his presence every night. So if I throw food out there and he doesn't come, Molly gets an unintentional snack. One night he was out there grazing for quite awhile, and I needed to let Molly out for the last time before bedtime. So I went out on the porch and started making noise, and he slowly sauntered to the back corner of the yard and crawled up on top of the fence. I came in to get Jav to try to scare him on over, because Molly will charge a fence and possibly could have knocked him off of there. But even though Jav was only about 3 feet away, the possum just sat and stared at him when he tried to shoo him away. Before last night we hadn't seen him for about 5 days and were starting to think something happened to him. But I noticed Zoe with her nose pressed against the French doors and there he was. I went to tell Jav, who was about to take a shower. He came almost running out of the bathroom to get to the window so he could see for himself. He's named him Pepe, even though I told him that was silly. Everyone knows that's a skunk name.

Joel is doing so many wonderful things right now, and has started playing while on his knees, which I think is so cute. He's also sitting still much more to play with things, and he has the best posture. I guess babies haven't been beaten down by life stress yet. I used to stand pretty straight, but for the last 3-4 years my posture has really slipped. Joel is inspiring me to try and stand straighter. He's still not walking yet, but I'm in no hurry. He loves to open and close drawers and cabinets and hide toys in them. I could watch him play all day. He still has crazy happy legs when something delights him, but now he's added a fake laugh for effect. It's hilarious.

And then there's Gabriel. We have a new "Elf on the Shelf", a gift from our neighbor. It is a little elf that supposed to sit high up in different rooms to watch what's happening all day, then flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa each night. According to the book, he will land in different places around the house when he comes back, and it's supposed to be a game to try and find him. At least that's how it's supposed to work. Our son does not like Dipsy (Gabriel got to name him.) We're not sure if it's because he's not supposed to touch him (according to the book, it could take away the elf's magic), or if it's because Gabriel's planning to be bad and doesn't want anyone to report that to Santa, or if he's genuinely afraid of the little guy. Even I have to admit that he looks a tiny bit creepy, kind of like pinocchio with a red suit on. The last few days Gabriel seems to be accepting him a little more, but maybe he's just a little young for the concept.

We're watching Scrooged. I love Buster Poindexter as the ghost of Christmas past. "It's a bone!" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !