The three

The big girls adore Beatrice.

And she thinks they are pretty hilarious.

Free fun

Our seminary budget has prompted me to look especially hard for all the free activities in our area.  So far there has been an abundance of opportunities.  The nearby Mt Laurel Fall Festival was great - I painted their faces before we went (the face painting there cost $10 each!), and the bounce house, hay ride, photos with Disney princesses, candy, and live music were all free!  

Caterpillars

When I was going through my photos to update the blog, I was amused to find that the images were about 25% baby photos, 25% photos of everyone and everything else, and 50% caterpillars.  Elsa and Nora were given some Imperial Moth caterpillars when they visited my parents in August.  At first we thought, "What cute little black, spiney caterpillars!  We'll watch them for a few weeks until they turn into little moths!"  But they changed colors and kept being caterpillars for a very long time and soon were not very little at all, so I finally did my research.  Imperial moths can be the size of your hand!  And take all winter before they turn into months in the spring/summer!  

After passing through all 8 instars (when the caterpillars shed their skin so they can grow larger) the caterpillars were 4 inches long and eating a small branch of leaves every day.  They were rather high maintenance pets, but, as you can tell from the amount of photographs I took of them, I was absolutely fascinated with them.  I don't have any photos of their very first instars when they were still black, but you can still see how they change a bit between these last few stages.  

Once they start on a type of host plant for food, they will only eat that particular host plant for their whole life, so there's not much left of the red oak in the brush in back of our building!

We caught this one in action shedding it's skin and beginning the last instar.  It will get darker orange-brown as it fills out it's new skin. 

Ok, so I hope this is not too much information, but as I said, I found these creatures fascinating.  After I took this photo I realized he was pooping!!!

They were green inside!

And they don't even have to stop eating!  Their back "panels" were harder than the rest of their body and closed up tightly when it was all done.

Their patterning was beautiful.  I read that the Imperial Moth caterpillars can be orange, brown, or bright green - ours were all orange.

By the time they were fully grown (in a little less than two months) you could hear them biting and crunching the leaves in the adjoining room.

Imperial Moths are a bit unusual because the caterpillar does not make a cocoon.  Most moths spin a cottony, silky web sack around themselves in which they then make a pupa.  Imperial moths instead burrow in the ground and form a pupa without a cocoon around it.  Sure enough, one day we found that one of the caterpillars had come down from the branches and was working his way into the soil in the bottom our the bucket.

I'm a rather nosy scientific observer, so I kept checking on them under the soil.  In a few days we found one had just wiggled out from his old skin:

The pupa was brand new and rather soft still so we were very careful, and it would twitch and wiggle when touched.

By the end of the day the vibrant yellow-orange hardened into a much safer brown-black:

They still twitch when gently poked, and I'll keep checking on them throughout the winter.

So there's your biology lesson for the day, and I'll post an update next year when they emerge if we manage to keep them alive through the winter.

Loves her Little Ones

Whether it is her pretend babies or her real babies, Nora knows how to take care of them.  

A tip for living in Birmingham

The BEST time to go grocery shopping is Saturday afternoon.  That's right - Walmart, the grocery stores, and the roads are EMPTY on Saturday afternoons right now.  Its FOOTBALL SEASON!  

We were picking up a few items one Saturday afternoon at Winn Dixie and the store was so quiet except for the football game over the radio in the meat department.  One of the employees confirmed that the store emptied out just before kickoff every week.  

The first day we were in Birmingham, the first personal conversation I had outside of our family or the seminary was with the guy from Charter to hook up our internet.  His first question for me was, "So, which side are you on?" (um, what?)  My confused expression prompted him to continue, "Alabama or Auburn?"  He was hardcore for Auburn, but thankfully didn't take offence to my indifference.

We've been told that little girls wear their cheer leading outfits year-round, and that bank tellers say "Thank you for banking with us today, Roll Tide Roll!" when you complete your transaction. 

BAMA!  Roll Tide Roll!  War Eagle!  Or Tigers!  or whatever... 

Cats and Cannas

Cannas from our new backyard, many thanks to some unknown previous resident!

Growing and Remembering

She reminds me of Oliver so much.  She looks like him, but she can do so much more than he ever could.  Since Oliver's life was so challenging I had forgotten the joys of healthy baby development.  It doesn't lessen how proud I am of how well he did as he tried to do things, it is just different.  When I see her succeeding at rolling over to get her play things I remember how Oliver would try to hold himself up and grab at toys.  I am sad but also impressed with how much he did try to do considering all imbalances his body was dealing with.  After doing so much physical therapy "playing" with Oliver, Beatrice's unhindered development feels so easy and surprising.  Elsa and Nora are delighted with each of her new skills as well, and tell me gleefully whenever they see her roll over or snuggle with a new toy.  And I don't have a good picture of them yet, but she grew some tremendous thighs the week we moved to Birmingham - by her 3 month check up she was at the 80th percentile for weight and height!