Butterflies

After writing that title, I realized some people may think this is an insightful post about how the life cycle of a butterfly is a metaphor for life. This is not. It's just about the project we did today. Paint butterflies! Or maybe creating our own Rorschach Tests, however you want to see it. (I saw butterflies, Nich saw kidneys...I saw a heart, Nich saw a fat woman ready for a pelvic exam...)

When I got out the Tempera paint, Ian immediately began stacking the bottles - his favorite thing to do right now! And if I have a chance, the next post is going to be pictures of all the things Ian has been stacking lately.

Step 1: Pick colors

Step 2: Dribble dots of paint all over one half of a folded piece of construction paper. (Yes, my 20 month old was doing this by himself...he's getting much better at following simple commands!)

Step 3: No no, don't spread it with your fingers...

Oliver doing his dots

Step 4: Fold paper back in half and pat or smooth it with your hands. This was the boys second favorite part...I wish I'd taken pictures of Ian going to town on his paper. He was beating his papers with a huge grin and lots of sound effects! I was too busy watching them and laughing along with him to get pictures.

Step 5: Open the paper and see what you created! The favorite part for both the boys. No matter what part of the process the boys were in, when there was a paper ready to be opened, the other would stop, hold their breath, and watch in complete awe! Oliver was always very careful in opening his paper. Ian would almost rip his apart with his excitement! 

Step 6: Repeat above steps!

We made quite a few of these butterflies! Aren't they something?? I love this project because it offers immediate results, always looks cool, always looks different, super easy for kids, and cheap cheap cheap!

Pardon the messy kitchen counters...

It's a great chance to teach words like, "half," "symmetry," "cool colors," "warm colors," "complimentary colors," etc. We didn't do that this time, just enjoyed the process. Maybe next time I'll make it more of an academic experience.

Finally off the couch!

So much has happened this week, it's a far cry from a month ago when I wondered if I was ever going to feel good enough to get off the couch again! I'll start with today and work my way back...
PREGNANCY STUFF
We are a little over 17 weeks pregnant now and have been upgraded from oral Porgesterone to a weekly SHOT of Progesterone! Man, do I feel like a pin cushion! A shot a day, an extra one a week, and got my blood drawn twice this week...goodness gracious! Thank goodness for sterile needles and alcohol rubs! So today I got my first Progesterone shot, and it's with a nice long needle since it has to go into the muscle - ah, feels so GREAT! Nich came to get trained, but neither of us are sure I want him doing it - I may just go in weekly and have a nurse with 30 years of practice do it :) She was so sweet, she let us listen to our baby's heartbeat with the doppler (150 beats per minute today) since I had to wait 15 minutes before getting up...I might go in every week just for that!! Ha!

I've also been feeling this little guy move for quite a while, and he's now strong enough to where I can feel him with my hands, but stops moving when Nich tries - Nich has this natural vibration to his hands that probably startles him. So COOL though!

We also got our first appointment with our OB set up, and he likes to do an ultrasound every time you come in...so, the nurses said they would coordinate with my high risk guy so that we get an ultrasound every 2 weeks instead of 4 :) How awesome is THAT!

About a week ago, Heather, a friend and photographer, took some great pictures of me and my belly :) She's really good and you can get to her site and see all her great pictures via the link toward the bottom, left hand side of this page - under "FRIENDS AND FAMILY" her's is "Heather." She's going to do more belly shots as it grows, and Nich will be making an appearance in them too. AND I can't wait for when this baby's born, she's going to be doing his baby pictures! Here's one of the many pictures and more are on my Facebook page (you need a Facebook account to view them) and on Heather's page :)

NON-PREGNANCY STUFF

We have flowers! No Snapdragons :( It turns out, after reading the label, they don't like as much sun as our front yard allows, so we've got Merrigolds and other bright flowers. One plant has flowers that look like pink shooting stars that the butterflies LOVE. The day I planted it, I had a butterfly the size of a hummingbird come about 1,000 times! He was a FAT butterfly with crazy fast black and pinkish wings, and not too smart...he checked the same flowers at least 15 times over about 30 minutes! I'd like more of THOSE flowers :) The little white butterflies like the purple flowers I got, whatever kind of flowers they are, who knows!

I also pulled a bunch of grass growing on my pathway and swept the stepping stones off, and that pretty much did me in that day!

I also hosted an Alliance get together this week - the Alliance is a club? support group? for spouses of medical students, and we made paper batiks! Very cool!! Several ladies showed up for "Dine and Design" where we ate desserts and played with oil pastels and paint :) I thought it would take a lot longer than it did and was very pleasantly suprised that everyone finished their designs! And it was so much fun with a nice CLEAN house and lots of chit chat in our usually quiet house :) Even the dogs were on their best behavior in their crates - absolutely silent :) I took pictures of the batiks (They can be seen on my Facebook page if you are so inclined) that stayed overnight to dry, but they hardly do the artwork justice...I think I am in need of a new camera! This one was a replacement for my nice one that broke a little over a year ago, but since we have very limited funds, we have a very limited camera :( It's not good at close-ups, makes things blurry, the shutter speed is too slow so you have to be absolutely frozen to take a picture - it doesn't help to put it in the "action mode" - I think they just made up all the modes, close-up, action, night, distant, none of them change anything!! I can't take pictures in dark places - I've tried to take pictures of Nich's band playing at clubs and you can't tell what's going on with the flash on, and with it off, you just see blurs of motion. Oh how I miss my old, trusty camera!