Butterflies, Beans, and Blue

It has been a week of Bs apparently. It began on Monday with butterflies. Jill and I went to Krohn Conservatory with our neighbors to see the Japanese butterfly exhibit. It was amazing! I've never seen that many butterflies at once before. They have one room that you can look at through a window; the room contains hundreds of chrysalises. (Which brings up a point. I always thought that butterflies came from cocoons. The exhibit called them chrysalises though. Are chrysalises just a specific type of cocoon?) Anyway, it would be cool to watch a butterfly emerge. I didn't catch any of that happening when Jill and I walked through though.

I had one land on my arm, one on my head, one on Jill's leg, and two on the stroller. I felt like we got pretty lucky! (In the picture on the left, there is one hanging out on my arm.) The whole Conservatory was quite beautiful. There were different rooms, like an orchid room, the butterfly room, a desert room, etc. There was one room with a waterfall and another with a stream. I definitely know what I'd like to do with my parents the next time I am here. You had to pay to see the butterflies, but the rest of the Conservatory is free. (I believe.)

If you look closely at the picture below, you'll see two butterflies in flight on the top left, and you'll see two rather camouflaged butterflies on the tree trunk. Well, I zoomed in, so maybe you won't have to look closely, but I glanced at the tree quite a few times (when I was at the exhibit) before I noticed there were butterflies on it.

I thought this butterfly chair was pretty unique. If you'll notice, Jill is wearing a shirt with a large butterfly on it. I thought that was very appropriate, considering.

You might also notice that her shirt and shorts are blue. But, the shirt does have a butterfly on it. Her sneakers had flowers on them, and her binkie that day was pink. However, none of those could overcome the power of a blue shirt. I am going to put her in that shirt again, next time with a bow in her hair and a skirt instead of shorts.

Stay tuned to see if that will be enough to overpower the mightiness of a blue shirt. I've decided that blue shirts are powerful. No matter what else your daughter is wearing, if she has a blue shirt on, everyone will assume she is a boy.

Now I don't mind if people assume she's a boy (the shirt is blue after all), but it puts me in an awkward situation. I usually don't correct them, because it doesn't matter, but sometimes questions are asked. Then I have to decide, well do I lie and go along and say "he," or do I say "she" or "Jill" and then have the person feel bad and apologize for the mistake. Sigh. I don't like those moments. I'm not deliberately out to trick people. I just think Jill looks good in blue, because her eyes are blue.

Jill does not have very many words yet, but she is getting very good at telling me what she wants through very subtle physical actions. For instance, in front of the waterfall at the Conservatory, she put her mouth on one of the bars on the bridge over the stream and started sucking on it. Hm. She was thirsty. Very thirsty. Haha. We promptly found a drinking fountain. :) In the picture above, I believe she's making it clear that she would like the camera. Well done, Jill. Good communication.

One last thing about the Conservatory, if you click on this picture to view its large size, then you can read the sign, but for those who don't want to click, I'll type it for you:
"This tree is from the petrified forest of Arizona. This section was taken from a tree which was 110 ft. long and weighed hundreds of tons. It is blood red in the interior and takes a beautiful polish. It probably was used as a shade tree by prehistoric monsters." Don't you love signs with a sense of humor?

The rest of the week was spent organizing music for the ward choir and going out with the sister missionaries. We did get to attend a graduation open house for a friend. That was a lot of fun. The cake was divine! It was made with bananas. So it was kind of like banana bread, but cake. I did get to go to Zumba at the Y this morning, and that was a lot of fun.

Part of today was spent on Laurie's present for Mother's Day. Laurie was away from the house all day at the golf outing she helped organize to raise funds for the high school boys golf team, so she was completely surprised to come home to the finished product.

I think it turned out great! Check out the before and after shots.

Also today, Jeff went golfing with his best man (haha) (seriously though, he was the best man in our wedding party), and I got to go to a choir concert with one of my friends. We listened to the Cincinnati Choral Society, and I thought they did a great job. Their pieces were varied and performed well. They had some really beautiful solo voices. It would be a fun group to join maybe. I do really miss the Mapleton Chorale, but obviously I am too far away to still be in that group!

A highlight of the concert was the guest performer, Michael Chertock. He did a Gershwin number and another piece called "Bring out the Clowns." (Or something with "clowns" in the title . . . ) They were both amazing. It was pretty humbling. Sara and I were seated way to the left, so I could see his hands as they performed magic on the keyboard, and it was somewhat unbelievable. I am currently in the process of teaching myself how to play the piano, and I'm awful. I'm positive that there are many five year olds out there who play the piano better than I do, and well, yeah. It was humbling to watch a master at work.

Before Jeff finished golfing and after I went to the concert, Jill obviously needed a place to be. Our wonderful friend Amy took Jill during that time. When I dropped her off, she mentioned her family was about to eat dinner, and I asked what they were having. She mentioned beans, and I said, "Oh, Jill loves beans!" Amy later sent me this picture.

Jill did not make a liar out of me!

It has been a great week.