She's here!!

Elaine Ashley joined us on October 18, 2012. She was our biggest baby at 8lbs, 1oz and 20 inches long. Such a sweetheart too!! More pictures coming soon.

Hickory Horned Devil

 I heard Rowdy barking like crazy in the back yard, which she rarely does. I went down there to see what she was barking at. She was very fixated on something. So I grabbed the shovel (in case it was a snake) and walked out to the back part of the back yard. This is what I found:

 Zac & Allie & I looked it up online and found it very quickly. It's called a Hickory Horned Devil caterpillar. And apparently, it's the largest caterpillar in North America. Here's some information about it. VERY interesting, honestly! It's really big and creepy looking, for sure!

Once I realized it wasn't poisonous, I agreed to let Zac build a little home for it so he could take it to school next week. The information says that it likes to burrow under soil (and will do so to form its cocoon once it's ready), so we put a lot of soil and some branches of its favorite trees. It's been in the "home" for 12 hours and seems fine. I'm planning to let Zac take it to school and let it loose at their property. His school is designated as a wildlife preserve. I figure that's a good place for it! The kids named it spikey and they think it's a boy (only because it's blue!).

Kinda

Quote from Zachary (it started in the context of an adoption conversation, so I was prepping an adoption answer...until I realized he had shifted and was actually now asking about conceiving a baby...! Once I realized that, I laughed out loud at his second question.)

"How do you get a baby? Do you just scream & bounce and then the baby starts growing?"

Recently Overheard

 This conversation made me laugh because I can see where several of their thoughts stem from different sets of questions they've asked me. They put the answers I gave them all together and made some fairly true conclusions about eating healthy. Funny kids -

 Allie: "My tummy is getting fatter because I ate so much."

Zachary: "No, it's just full. You aren't getting fatter."

Allie: "Yea, people who eat bad foods get fatter."

Zachary: "And we don't eat bad foods."

Allie: "Some kids have moms who give them bad foods and they get fatter."

Zachary: "Yea, but our mom gives us the best foods, so we are growing good."

Poor self-awareness

Allie was in the kids' tent yesterday by herself, just playing & talking, etc...She stops for a second and says to me, "Momma, when I breathe out, the tent smells like Zachy's breath when he doesn't brush his teeth."