the importance of being stacey

Fly, fly, little butterfly

From last summer.

 

A year later Sarita still loves her butterflies, with a little less drama and much clearer pronunciation. She thoroughly enjoys the book about butterflies and moths I found in Target's dollar section, which is surprisingly educational. Thus, I thought The Butterfly Place would be a perfect Mother's Day destination for Sarita and Ragav's Mum. I was right. The butterflies were impressive.

Everyone was intrigued by the butterflies snacking on bananas, especially when they flaunted their vibrant blue wings hiding under their brown spotted exteriors (a challenging task to capture, but with patience I succeeded).

When Sarita spied the monarch butterflies and Ragav asked what they eat she remembered they eat milkweed from the Target book; another sign of of her budding interest in nature and her fantastic retention.

I have to pause to add that butterflies hold a special place in my heart since I like to think of my late Gramma as being a butterfly. I realize that may sounds strange, but we all have our ways of maintaining connections to special people we have lost. Sarita never got to meet my Gramma, but I like to mention her whenever I can. Sarita knows she is in heaven and just today she recalled me telling her Gramma "lives in our hearts". I melted when I realized she remembered.

Apparently the butterflies confused Sarita's bright orange cardigan knitted by Ragav's Mum with a flower. To our delight, two butterflies landed on her. Aside from her comical expression, it warmed my heart to think Sarita got a visit from my Gramma. Hokey as it may be, I hope Sarita is lucky enough to form the same bond with her grandmothers. I think she is on her way.

  

Our budding geek

Having spent 20 plus years in telecom, befriending many a coworker, including marrying one, I have been surrounded by telecom geeks and drawn network diagrams on bar napkins for the great majority of my adult life. As a result I had forgotten about the plethora of employment possibilities. However, some jobs just never occur to me. Thus, I was intrigued when I first met our friends' son who was studying ants in Palau (go on look it up, you know you have too, geek or not. I had to!). With Sarita's new found interest in "insects", "wiggly worms" (that she will happily pick up), and observing the ant holes in our driveway (and at her cousin's baseball game), a tutorial from an expert (now back in the States) would be fantastic.

 

[Note: That's a dolphin on Sarita's face from a fair at the local school. Our budding biologist is interested in all sorts of creatures these days. More to come on that.]

Can I have a smooch?

Who can resist those pursed lips? It's a good thing I moved the camera away before the lens was smudged with slimy girl germs.

Sarita has yet to master the actual smooching; her kisses are noiseless. [Yes, that IS a word; I checked. Sometimes I just relish in using the odd words that bounce around my brain in lieu of the mundane. (In lieu = instead of in this case Ragav. Post for another day.)] Instead you just get pursed lips on your lips, but thankfully they are dry kisses. No slobber. Sarita prefers lips to cheeks right now, which sometimes horrifies me since it seems a little creepy and I didn't teach her that way, but I imagine she'll adjust over time. Of course, I don't have to ask for kisses every 10 seconds, e.g. "how about a peanut butter kiss" as she's munching her sandwich. My favourite is when we are "snuggling in the rocking chair" before bed, I ask for a smooch, and she grabs my head to pull it down to hers. Makes me laugh every time and very often she'll say, "Did I pull your head down?" You sure did and I'll take it Little Smooch Magooch.

Feliz month ? (where did I leave off)

Mi querida Sarita,

Three months behind? How did I let that happen? Let's just say Mom's brain has had limited capacity to write lately. In order to play catch up and still sleep, I pledge to choose a theme or photo a day (or every other day) for the next week to play catch up. Once and for all, a shorter format is going to be the order of the day so as to not let another 3 months go by!

Your budding imagination is inspiring. On the night I took photos for what should have introduced your month 26 letter, you were playing with my work-badge-retractor-thingy (anyone know what that's called?). 

Since it reminded you of the little tape measure we let you play with, you started measuring books on the book shelf. Then you said, "That looks right."

Last weekend your old tubby was a boat and you "fished" for stingrays with the make-shift rod I crafted out of a hanger and elastic band. 

Though not evident from the next snap, you were easily entertained in your new boat for about 40 minutes whilst I packed a bunch of your old things for charity including the blue hat I dubbed your fishing hat. Fantastic!

Thanks for reminding me how much fun it is to pretend. I look forward to more adventures climbing "mountains", "looking for volcanoes", and flying like butterflies. It sure beats some of the grown up junk cluttering my brain these days.

Love,
Mom 

No letter, but I have a video

How cool is that?

I'd like to say a letter and LOTS of photos are forthcoming tomorrow on Sarita's monthly birthday, but I am not making any promises so you'll just have to enjoy this video instead.