"Butterfly Dabillian"

I love this picture: my babies looking up at the butterflies, as captured through the misty lens of my camera. Gavin used to call this place the "Butterfly Dabillian," and only recently (darn it!) did he start pronouncing it correctly: the Butterfly Pavilion. Thanks to Groupon, we just got a very sweet deal: $32 for an annual pass to the BP for our whole family + three guest passes!!!

Gavin was dressed in red to try to attract the butterflies to his clothes, and when that didn't work he resorted to straight inviting them to climb aboard his sleeve. Notice Gage on standby, as if he were saying, "So this is how we get 'er done?"


And just in the time that it took me to snap this picture of Gage with the butterflies, he nearly crushed this one in the picture.

This is the craziest thing that's happened twice in our lives recently: My little Gavin has held Rosie (the "pet" tarantula) at the Butterfly Pavilion!!! I won't even do it, but he's done it twice now, and it's unlocked a keen interest in spiders in general (oh goodie!), so we're reading about them and looking out for them everywhere now. Here's what I don't get: He's still pretty grossed out by them when we find them around the house, but if you present him with a GIANT fuzzy tarantula in his hand, he'll hold it!!! Go figure.

Here Gavin is "petting" a giant cockroach. Yep, that's my son! And I'm the one deathly afraid of moths!!!! (I can't stand those things, flying around our house and spreading their moth dust everywhere. Yuck! My son will be the first one to tell you that it has taken every ounce of bravery in me to "handle" the moths with a tissue at home.) I dare say that I may be passing this fear onto my kids, and it was so cute the other day when I heard Gavin telling one of his little buddies, "You know, Daddy says that moths are just brown butterflies." That may be semi-true, but can any of us believe that?!