So a ladybug, a monkey, and a caterpillar go into a Bears' den...

On Thursday, we took Keira (formerly known during her baby years as "Monkeyface") and Ellie-Bug (the ladybug, of course) to a children's museum. What follows are umpteen zillion photos I took during our little trip, which, based on the number of activities shown here, may appear to have lasted eight to ten hours...but in actuality lasted a grand total of an hour and a half, because Keira's attention span for each individual activity was about twelve seconds. We all had a great time, though:

At the end of the trip, I purchased (okay, "adopted") our very own caterpillar to take home and raise, for the bargain price of $5 plus tax (which is approximately a 6,000% markup compared to their actual retail value, but can you really put a price on the experience? I say, nay.). Keira pondered names for quite a while, employing Aunt Jen's naming method:

Keira (looking around the room and spying a chair): "What about Chairy?"

Me: "Hmmmm...what about Spike, since he's spiky?"

Keira (looking at a nearby man's shirt): "What about Shirty?"

Me: "Hmmmmm..."

Keira (seeing a flag outside the window): "Wait, how about Flaggy?"

She settled on Ropey for quite a while, which Bear really enjoyed, but ultimately decided to name him Tiny, because...well, he's tiny. She did clarify today, though, that when he grows bigger, she's going to change his name to--you guessed it--Biggy.

Stay tuned to see whether we manage not to destroy this poor creature before he's able to transform into a butterfly...and whether our butterfly release (either here at home, or back at the children's museum, if Tiny/Biggy makes his transformation in time) is a success. I'm a little nervous about the idea of returning for the massive butterfly release, thanks to my kindergarten colleagues' tale of a few years ago: the classes all raised caterpillars, gathered on the playground to release the butterflies...and then watched in horror as a flock of birds swooped in and ate them. (It is not okay to laugh at that story. Not even a little bit....No, not even a chuckle. This means you.)

Hang in there, Tiny!