Birthdays and Butterflies

My baby turned one yesterday! I can hardly believe it. I also can hardly believe that I'll be busting out that number "1" cake mold again a year and a half from now! Benjamin had a small family party on Saturday, at our neighborhood park. We had gorgeous weather and flowering trees, and a boy who absolutely LOVED his cake. The next day, on his actual birthday, my brother came from Iowa City to accompany us to Ames to visit the butterfly gardens and to treat Benj to his first birthday sundae at Hickory Park.












He sat on his cake. There were actually corduroy prints on the cake.

After a whole cake, I'd be thirsty, too

Both boys have been enjoying the new water table Benj received as a birthday gift from his grandparents


I neglected to take photos inside the butterfly garden, but I took a few of the tulip gardens. We all learned some very interesting things about butterflies and moths at our visit. In the hatching window, a huge (seriously, HUGE) moth had just hatched from his cocoon. One of the anthamologists transferred him into the gardens while we were there. We found out that his lifespan is FOUR days and he would not eat at all. They don't even have eating/digestion parts for this reason. Their whole purpose in those 4 days is to find a mate in order to lay eggs. Because the gardens didn't have another of his species right now, it won't happen for him. So he'll sit there looking pretty for a total of 4 days, and then die. Talk about needing to life life to the fullest. Most other butterfly species have a lifespan of 2 weeks. Can you believe it? It makes me feel just a teensy weensy bit better about the science project I did in 7th grade where I had to catch them, kill them, and mount them on a board. Not much better, but at least I know I didn't shave years off their lives.







Benjamin took his first steps a month ago, but in the past week or two has been starting to preference walking over crawling. He's still about 50/50, but he's getting better and it's cute to watch. He had his 1 yr wellness check-up at the pediatrician's office today, and he's only 50th percentile. He's a little tall, at 75%. He was very tough with the finger prick and shots :) Tomorrow he'll get his 1-yr photos (by himself; no big brother intrusions).






Our garden is tilled and ready to plant this afternoon. The blueberry bushes went in yesterday. Here's hoping they thrive!