Butterflies

  I started a garden this year and not long after the plants were growing I noticed the beans and tomatoes not doing so well. Their leaves had lots of holes in them and the plants were withering. I looked around a bit and found this monster on the tomato plant:

  And these little guys EVERYWHERE on my bean plants:

  I looked them up and found out that the big one was a tomato hornworm which turns into a 5-spotted hawkmoth. The little one is a long tailed skipper caterpillar which turns into a long tailed skipper butterfly.  I decided it would be cool for the girls to watch them turn into butterflies (and a moth) so we put them into their various containers with some leaves and waited. The tomato hornworm made a cocoon fairly quickly and the other little caterpillars soon followed after.

  A few weeks passed and a huge mouth emerged from the cocoon that the hornworm had made.

  All the while, I continued to pick caterpillars off of my bean plants and add them to my container. We had quite a few butterflies emerge from the cocoons the skipper caterpillars made and the girls had so much fun setting them free outside.

  My bean plants are still suffering from the skipper caterpillars.  There seems to be a new batch of teeny tiny caterpillars every week that I just cannot keep up with.  I have stopped keeping the little ones when picking them off of the leaves but whenever I find a big caterpillar, I put it in a container in hopes that it will form a cocoon in a couple of days.  Next year I think I might just be growing flowers in my garden.

Where's my baby?!

  My baby has disappeared and in her place a walking toddler has formed. Ellie is walking everywhere. Like, everywhere! This baby doesn't crawl anymore! I still can't believe it. Last week she was crawling, this week she's walking. Something clicked on Sunday afternoon and she hasn't stopped since.
  And I don't know if I should pity Ellie or her older sisters. Every time she walks towards them they shriek in fear that their toys are going to be swiped or they gather their things up real quick and run away. So, should I pity them or poor Ellie who just wants to be with her big sisters but can't because they're constantly running from her? 
  I guess I shouldn't cast gloomy clouds over everything. There are rays of sweet, sweet sunshine. Like, when Abby is so happy and proud of Ellie for walking everywhere and beams from ear to ear as she tells me. Or when Kate "helps" Ellie walk by holding her hand. Or when they both rush to help Ellie up when she falls.  They all love each other so much, which makes my heart grow every time I witness their kindness. I'm one lucky momma.

Beach day

  The girls and I went to the beach today. It's been FOREVER since we had last gone. Like 2 1/2 months ish. Maybe more. Kate has been wanting to go for a while now, as have I, so even though it wasn't great beach weather we packed up and went anyways. 
  Kate and Abby spent 90% of the time splashing around in the waves. Ellie and I just hung out in the sand, digging. It was all going great till a nice little wave knocked Kate down and then another wave came up and washed right over her. Man, was she so not happy.
  After wiping away the tears and sand from her eyes she ran right back to the water. Twice more a wave knocked her down. These two times she screamed for me to help her. I would start running at her but she would jump right back up by herself, as fast as she could. She was so scared of being taken over by the waves again, she wanted all the help she could get. Poor thing.
  The last time this happened Kate was done and wanted to go home. I asked Abby if she wanted to go home and it was like she'd been having an awful time the whole time! Her bottom lip started to quiver and she whimpered, "yes! I want to go home, too."
  So we packed it all up, barely an hour later, and went home. Ellie did have fun playing in the sand but I guess we'll be going to the pool for the vast majority of the rest of the summer. Doesn't bother me too much though. It is a ton easier cleaning up after a day at the pool verses an hour at those sandy beaches.

Alligator Alley

  After talking to a new friend who has been here in Navarre for all of 5 minutes, I realized I need to get out and do more. If not for my sake, then for my family's. So we went to Alligator Alley up in Summerdale, Alabama this past Saturday. 

  The girls were looking forward to it very much, as were Andrew and I. Abby always talks about the alligators at the zoo here in gulf breeze and how the babies are "so cute!".  After looking at pictures online and seeing that you can hold a baby alligator, I knew we had to go to Alligator Alley.

  We arrived right as the feeding for the big gators was starting. The big ones are anywhere from 6-13 feet long. Pretty dang big. After the feeding we continued down the path where they had a pit of 1-2 year old gators and another pit of 4-5 year old gators. When throwing in a food pellet they crawled all over each other to get it, just like they do in the movies. It was cool. 

  They also had a lady set up at a picnic table with a one year old gator for anyone to hold if they wanted to. Of course, I was all about that and knew my girls would be too. ... Wrong! They were quite intimated by all the onlookers and just a little bit nervous about that baby gator. Andrew held the baby gator for a family picture and then I held it after him to show Kate and Abby that they had nothing to be afraid of. They weren't fooled, so we moved on. 

   The end of the cement path led to a bridge that went up onto a wooden path/bridge so you could walk "safely" around and above the gator infested swamp. The gators didn't bother me one tiny bit. It was the SPIDERS that terrified me. Like, massive spiders, everywhere! The size of your entire hand. It was awful. Right out of jarasic park. Like, this is where nightmares come true. 

  We noticed the spiders, like how could you not?, all the way back in the parking lot when we arrived. There were a few dozen spun up in between the tree tops. And once in the park, they were in the bushes and trees along the path. But when we were on the wooden walk way over the swamp, they seemed so in your face, it was terrifying. I told Kate and Abby that they were to stay in the middle of the path because the spiders were only a couple inches on the other side of the chain linked fence. So, absolutely NO touching the fence. 

   When rounding a corner Abby started to let her arm hang a bit too freely and she came within an INCH to touching a spider that happened to be on our side of the fence! Gaahhhh! I kinda freaked out and jumped back a few feet. I told Abby and Kate that if a spider got on them I'd run the other way so they'd better not get one on them, as my previous reaction had attested. Andrew believed me. 

  One minute after that encounter I was done. Too many monstrous spiders for me to handle. We headed back to solid ground.  

  On the way back to the car we stopped by the lady with the baby gator for the girls' second chance to hold it. Abby decided to give it a go. And she fell in love. 20 seconds after giving it back to the nice lady, she started to ask to hold it again. The lady was kind enough to oblige our 3 year old. 

  A second holding wasn't enough for Abby. She was sad the whole way back to the car because she wanted to hold the gator yet again. She cheered up after a bit and was proud she held the gator all by herself.  All in all, a great experience for our family.

CPR classes anyone?

  I got the scare of my life this week.  Probably THE scariest day of my life.  Little Ellie Mae turned blue.
  Wednesday was our last day of swim lessons. Ellie usually has somewhat of a rough time at swim lessons. They start at 10:15 and go till 11:40 so we're there from about 10-12. Ellie's nap time is usually at 11 so she's tired right when we get there. Once we get home it's a little after 12 so into bed goes Ellie.
  She got a good nap in on Wednesday. Once she woke up, I put her in her highchair for an afternoon snack and then down onto the floor to wander about once she was done.
  I started to cut up the watermelon that had been sitting in our fridge for a few days when Ellie crawled over to me. She loves watermelon so I gave her a piece. And another. And another. She was standing up next to me, clinging to my legs and wanting me to hold her so I yelled for Kate to come get her sister. She did and took Ellie into the toy room. 5 minutes later Ellie was back.
  I popped another piece of watermelon into Ellie's mouth to pacify her for the moment. It didn't work. I yelled for Kate again. She started coming but Ellie was choking on the watermelon in her mouth so I rinsed my hands, shook them off and picked up Ellie. By now I can tell she's choking on the watermelon pretty good. I lean her over the sink and wack her back a few times. She's turning purple and still hasn't taken a breath yet so I wack her back harder. Still nothing. All of a sudden she is as stiff as a board and blue. I put her right side up and I scream twice, really loud. I'm hysterical but trying to not totally loose my mind so I can help my baby.
  In my head I'm trying to remember how to do the heimlich and remembering if you don't do it right you can break ribs. It all happened in just a few seconds, from me turning Ellie right side up, the screaming, and all those thoughts running through my head. As this was going on, I hear the door to our garage open.  It's gotta be Andrew. I yell his name and he runs to me, takes blue Ellie, holds her so that her head is down at a 45 degree angle and wacks her back hard, about 7 times.
  Ellie coughs and then starts crying. Oh, thank you God!! Andrew tries to comfort Ellie and I cry. I cannot believe what just happened. All I want to do is hold my baby, so I take my Ellie Mae from Andrew and calm her down.
  The world is okay again.
  Talking about what happened with Andrew that night, I realized I need to be better prepared for emergencies, especially when it has to do with my kids' well being. My world would shatter if something happened to one of them.
  So onto CPR classes I go. And forever will I praise God for all the miracles, big and small, he has seen fit to bless me and my family with. With God and some extra learning on my side, I hope to be better prepared for the future.

Swim lessons

  I knew after last summer I was going to sign Kate up for swim lessons this summer. We live in Florida which means we also live at the pool or the beach the majority of the year. Learning how to swim is needed for keeping my sanity around water because, well, my 3 little ones.
  So Kate was signed up a month in advance. I didn't realize I could also sign Abby up for lessons, however, I was able to get her a spot last minute.
  And I'm so glad I did.  They are totally different kids at the pool because of their lessons. Neither of them liked to put their face in the water 3 weeks ago but now they are swimming under the water constantly! I am so proud of both of them!  
  Kate is now able to swim without a life jacket or floaties. She's got the front stroke down pat and is trying hard to be able to float on her back. She is quick at getting things from the bottom of the pool and has turned into a little fish these past few weeks.
  Abby is able to hold her breath for 5 seconds under water! and can swim with her face in the water for a few feet. She loves to swim down to the bottom of the pool to pick up the frogs in swim lessons and can usually get the frog on the first try. When swimming without help she has a little square floaty tied onto her back which helps cement all the things she learned during her lessons.  No more life jackets allowed at the pool, says her swim teacher.
  With one lesson left this summer, we are looking forward to next years lessons already.

Ellie is ONE!

  I can't believe my baby is one already. It seems like 6 months ago she was still in my belly, but, she wasn't.

  She's walking around already, taking her first step a week or two before her birthday but not really taking lots of steps till just this past week. She's got a good set of lungs on her and keeps up with the girls chatter just fine. She will be heard. And don't even try and take something away from her cause everyone and their dog will hear about it.
  She's doing great with her naps which we've almost pushed down to one a day. She has, in the past, slept through the night but she's over that and back to midnight snacking.
  I asked her if she wanted a birthday party this year and she said she doesn't really care as long as she gets cake. ;)  So, I made her a super yummy chocolate sheet cake and invited a few friends over to share in the calories. It was a good time had by all.