Butterfly Brothers

Today, Matthew found a beautiful monarch butterfly near the milkweed in our garden. She hung out with us for quite a while which is probably evidence of her being on her last legs. But it was still magical to see her move and marvel at the magnificence of her wings.

Matthew wanted to put the butterfly on something so he could carry her around. His solution: the rip up one of my newly blooming zinnias, roots and all. The good part is that the butterfly liked her new home and let us gawk at her for a good half hour.

Speaking of insects, Buzz has been complaining of a bee in his bed for the last three nights. It sounds something like this, "Bed. Bee." Of course, those are two of only about 20-30 words that he knows, so I didn't think he meant it literally. Maybe there was something sharp on his sheets or something. But I checked. At 2AM I checked. I pulled back the covers in the morning and checked. No bee. We even made a game of it, "Look Buzz, no bees!"

So this morning, guess what I found in his bed - that's right, a bee. And when I looked at his ear, it was the size of Texas with a big swollen sting. So I'm the worst mom ever because my barely-speaking child TOLD me there was a bee in his bed and didn't do all that I could to protect him. Nana had a good theory that maybe the bee was in his pillowcase the whole time, which is why I couldn't find it before. She also had a theory that there might be a hive of bees in the wall, so I'm not sure how credible she is. (I love you, Mom. And y'all watch, I'm going to make fun and sure enough they'll be a damn bee hive in the wall. Just wait...)

After playing in the water for a while this afternoon, the boys were psyched to cozy up in their new robes, courtesy of Grandma Susan. They are doing so well right now, even with Matthew's hurt leg (a story for another time). I'm so proud of how strong and capable they are, and the love they show one another. They also bop each other routinely, but when push comes to shove they are loyal and kind. Like brothers. Butterfly brothers.