Fishing - The Complete Process

On Fridays, I have made it my habit to clean out the van and gas it up. The gas station I usually go to caters to boaters (we live near a marina) and gives free bags of ice along with any $20 purchase. I don't always get it, but this Friday I envisioned a full weekend of no ice cracking and got my free bag!

Caleb saw the bag and had one thought - FISHING. Rob had the same idea when he saw it and was going to Clewiston for a meeting and asked if we wanted to tag along and then go fishing on Lake Okeechobee. All I had going on was laundry, so we very spontaneously left for our fishing trip.

On our way up, Rob got some night-crawlers at the bait shop. Annalise adopted this one as her pet. She was very enamored with it for a while, then she lovingly tore it in half and eventually buried it...well half of it.

The big catch of the day - Rob's catfish. A certain other member of our group caught two bluegill, but that member does not have a fishing license and was technically helping two very small fisher people (with short attention spans) hold the pole.

Annalise gets a turn at the pole. I think this was her first fishing trip.

Equally exciting was cleaning the fish at home. I wish I could express how many tears were shed over who would get to be closest when Daddy cut them up.

And cleaning fish is just not the same when the head cleaner is also a marine biologist. Here they are "finding the brain". He also determined the catfish was a boy and the two bluegill were both girls. Caleb really wanted to put the eggs in water and let them hatch, but I talked him out of it.

And the much anticipated moment - eating fish you caught yourself!

Field Trip C: FIU and the Frost Art Museum

We did it - 3 field trips before the end of May! Yesterday we visited Florida International University and got to check out the Frost Art Museum. Annalise requested a picture with this panther paw in the parking garage :)

Caleb insisted we take a picture of this aquarium. Visiting the FIU campus was interesting for me, since I worked there. Everything still seemed pretty familiar, except that the grill area is now a computer lab, such a shame!

The fountain behind the Graham Center (the main student union building on campus, hereafter: "GC") is still there though. The kids really liked walking around campus and seeing the artwork and fountains.

After walking around the GC area, we headed over to the Frost Art Museum. Admission to the museum is free, but parking costs $1 per hour.

In the grassy area in front of the museum there are several sculptures.

This one was Annalise's favorite - I'm not sure why!

Inside the museum, we only visited The Kenan-Flagler Family Discovery Gallery, which is a kid friendly section. It is kind of small, but the kids really had a fun time. There were several hands-on art stations.

Computer finger painting.

A big wall like those smaller pin covered toys you can press your hand into.

Caleb's self portrait - they had a computer that would take your picture and then you could trace your face and print it out. He did about 4 of them!

And it wouldn't be a true visit to FIU without lunch at Pollo Tropical in the GC. I ate at that Pollo Tropical on my very first trip to Miami! I was so un-Miami that I ordered a Chicken Sandwich and french fries! (For clarity, that's the equivalent of ordering a hamburger at a Chinese restaurant.) I haven't sold Annalise on black beans yet, but Caleb likes them, and they both love the plantains.

Our little Field Trip trio turned out very well! The kids really enjoyed all three trips and I feel like they were each uniquely reflective of the community we live in.

Caleb's Cow

Cows are not what Caleb usually draws, so I thought this was pretty interesting :)

An Educated Guess

After 33 weeks, I am kind of surprised at how nonchalant I feel about whether the baby is a boy or a girl. I am looking forward to finding out, but either way is ok with me. And as far as a gut feeling, I keep going back and forth - one week feeling certain it's a boy, the next it has to be a girl. I like not knowing, but I am curious to know what the baby is, so I thought I'd weigh my pregnancy against some old wives tales and see what they think it will be:

1. Carry high, it's a girl...I am in general carrying high, but I thought I carried Annalise a little low and Caleb, well he was just stuck in one corner, so who knows!

2. Baby's heartbeat is above/below 140 it's a girl/boy - this one is totally neutral, the baby's heartbeat has been all over the place.

3. Craving sweets? It's a girl...I definitely have wanted more sweets than sours, although I did go through that whole grapefruit thing.

4. Basketball belly - it's a boy...what can I say? It is what it is.

5. Clumsy? It's a boy - I am dropping EVERYTHING

6. Prefer sleeping on your right side - girl...I really thought that I liked the right side better because it's facing off the bed and seems to have more room for all my pillows!

7. No morning sickness? It's a boy - I have heard the opposite on this one, but my first trimesters with both Caleb and Annalise were kind of icky, not so this time around.

8. Slowed leg hair growth - it's a girl...I had this happen with Annalise and it is happening again. I thought this would be my fool-proof test, but in comparing notes with a friend, she had it happen with her son. So who knows!

9. Extra moody? - it's a girl...everybody try to stay on my good side!

10. Don't look pregnant from behind - it's a boy...Rob told me that I don't look pregnant from behind, so I'm sure it's true :)

With 10 tales, I get 55% girl, 45% boy. I'd say I guess girl, except that this week is one of those boy weeks for me.

The only other old wives tale I know if that if you have heartburn your baby will have a lot of hair. I read somewhere that this has been proven. I have had only a little heartburn, so I expect to have a baby with only a little hair :)

A Few Pretty Much Unrelated Pictures

My mom gave me a little book called 365 TV Free Activites and it has a lot of creative ideas in it. One is to make a stuffed animal zoo - which we did last week.You would be surprised at how many seemingly exotic animals are native to Ohio, Arkansas and the North Pole.

This is my mother's day present from Caleb:It's an Apple Snail shell - and this is a small one!

Annalise usually doesn't like things in her hair, but lately she's asked for pony tails a few times. She was very pleased with this:Her exact reaction was, "I have palm trees on my head!"

Mako is now 6 1/2 years old and is starting to go gray - note his goteeAnd evidently you can teach an old dog new tricks. We have tried in vain to keep him from barking at the neighbor's dogs. In a sudden stroke of inspiration I decided to spray him with the water hose when he started in on the dogs and it made an impression! Yesterday one of the dogs barked tauntingly at him and he sniffed and walked away!

And finally, I can't let a good piece of cardboard go to waste:We got a new vacuum recently and it just seemed like such a nice big box to throw away without making something out of it - and the kids were very pleased with their flat selves. Annalise did her own face, but asked me to draw her clothes and shoes.

Just Off the Nightstand: Lost Moon

A few years ago, Rob wanted to rent a movie. He went out and brought back Apollo 13. Great, I thought.

But as it turned out, it was great. Great enough that I really wanted to read the book it was based on: Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. If you've ever blithely quoted, "Houston, we have a problem." You can thank Apollo 13.

Lost Moon is the autobiographical story of Jim Lovell, an astronaut from the pre-shuttle era. Lovell flew on 4 missions - more than any other astronaut at the time, twice as many as either Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin. During the Apollo 8 mission, Lovell was one of the first men to orbit the moon. His trip on Apollo 13 was to be his opportunity to land on the moon in the Fra Mauro area. Instead, there was an explosion in the service module, the moon mission was scrapped, and the entire ship was at risk of being lost. The book (and the movie) details the ship's multiple problems - from lack of water to faulty air filters to a critical energy shortage. The command module is unusable and the crew is saved only because of the attached lunar vehicle, where they are able to survive 6 days in space. The story is incredibly tense as every available asset in the space craft is taxed to over-perform and bring the crew home safely.

One thing the book highlighted for me is that everyone at NASA wanted to go to the moon. Only a few select people got that opportunity - obviously, Lovell got incredibly close before losing his - but many others at NASA lost out because of health problems that kept them out of space entirely. Becoming an astronaut was and is not something just anyone can do. You couldn't just be persistent and end up on the moon, for most people that opportunity just was not going to come around.

Another interesting thing about this book is how relevant the issues are to current events. I was reminded of both the oil spill in the Gulf and the current plans to scrap the shuttle program. Like the oil spill, this was a disaster that affected history. NASA was planning several more missions, some that flew and others that were canceled because of the public growing more skeptical of the safety and importance of space flight. And in a time where economic concerns are great, people once again question why we would spend so much money to go to space. Personally, I have no ambitions to go there, but I think there is danger in cutting off from it - especially since other nations will not be doing that.

In short, this is a book worth reading...or at least a movie worth renting! The movie gives plenty of drama and detail, but if you want the whole story read the book.

Wordless Wednesday

Bountiful Harvest

I'm still learning the ins and outs of butterfly gardening, but I have successfully collected 10-15 mature seed pods and saved their seeds. Each pod has about 100 seeds in it, so I have TONS of milkweed seeds. I would be happy to share them with anyone who wants them! They are the red and orange flowering milkweed - the tropical variety - and if you want a long term butterfly garden, you might want to research what kind of milkweed grows best in your area. However, it grows fast and if you plant it now, even in pots, you might be able to see some butterfly life cycles up close and personal before it gets too cold for Monarchs. This kind of milkweed is pretty hearty. It had no problems with our unseasonably cold winter.

Let me know if you'd like me to mail you some seeds.

***************

I've also had a bountiful harvest of Caleb's artwork, which has been in bloom lately. He took a break from being crafty, primarily, to dig in dirt for a while, but suddenly has rediscovered the art box. Here are a couple of "keepers":

This one is Annalise in the Rain. I am pretty sure it is inspired by the "kid umbrella" we found at a yard sale recently. I LOVE the single finger holding the umbrella!


This one really hit my soft spot - it's Caleb and me walking Mako (notice where the leash is attached?)

Downtown in Hindsight and Evidence Defined

Although he really enjoyed riding the bus and trains, I think in hindsight, going downtown was kind of overwhelming for Caleb. Mostly because I don't think he had ever noticed homeless people before. There are plenty of panhandlers in our part of Miami - all over Miami really, so Caleb has seen people begging from cars stopped in intersections. What he hadn't seen was people sleeping on the back steps of buildings, on benches and at bus stops. At one place, the man he saw looked particularly disturbing and he pointed him out to Rob. Rob told him that the man had probably been using drugs and was in bad shape because of them. He told him he should never use drugs and that they were addictive like smoking, but worse. Well of course Caleb didn't understand at all! We tried to explain on his level, but it was kind of useless. I guess there are just things that you understand over time. For now I think it's enough for him to know that they are something to be avoided.

But there are other things you understand more quickly. Yesterday I was washing dishes and Caleb was drawing and he suddenly asked, "Mom, what is evidence?" Not a word I was prepared to define! I thought of an example instead: "Do you remember when we found the travel mug by the door? Who did we know had been there?" "Daddy" "Well the mug was evidence that Daddy had been there, you didn't have to see him to know he had been by the door earlier." At first he thought that meant that evidence meant a travel coffee mug! But he got it figured out...

A little later I told the kids to pick up a pile of scattered puzzle pieces and put them away. "But Mom!" Caleb objected, "If we do that, there won't be any evidence that we were playing here!"

Field Trip B: "Big City Day"

Today we checked Field Trip B off our list: "Big City Day" - it's billed title to the kids, but privately I called it Public Transportation Day - because that was what we experienced mostly. And lest anyone think that Public Transportation would have any remote connection with public restrooms, I must let you know, pregnant women of the world, there is not.

Our day started by catching a bus in our part of town. Caleb has begged to ride the city bus since he was tiny, but bus travel has always been sort of mysterious to me. I couldn't find out if it was ok to take carseat bound kids on the bus. I did eventually learn that not only can they ride, they can ride for free - provided they are 42 inches tall or shorter. Caleb is 41 inches in shoes! Whew!

I also knew from experience that bus drivers are the secretaries of the road. You don't pull anything past them. Rob and I mistakenly thought we could buy rail transfers from the bus (you could in the past), but the bus driver corrected us...firmly!
Fortunately, a super helpful attendant at the Metrorail identified us immediately at non-regulars and helped us buy an Easy Pass for the day. For $5 you can ride bus or rail where ever you want, as much as you want. Otherwise, it's $2 each time you board.

The Metrorail is much less intimidating to me. I rode it 5 days a week when I worked near downtown. It is really a shame that it only goes a few places in Miami because it is fast and convenient.

Yea trains!

Once downtown, Rob had made arrangements to visit an attorney he knew who worked in the SunTrust building.

He let us look out the conference room window (17 stories up). On the roof of the building next door, we saw a playground! I guess there was a school in the building.

Caleb at an important meeting.

The door of the SunTrust building.

While in the area, we had lunch from a street vendor. This is my giant hot dog. Nitrates, smitrates! It was good :) And the vendor was the sweetest lady. She saw we had our hands full and Annalise really wanted the ketchup wiped off her face, so she came over and helped her out.

Most of our downtown experience came while riding the Metromover. Even without the Easy Pass, the Metromover is free. Plus it comes often and stops just about everywhere.

From the Metromover we saw the Freedom Tower (pictured), the bay (cruise ships), and of course all the big buildings.

Caleb in the driver's seat - the Metromovers are run by computer.

I think she has this public transportation thing down!

One of the Metromover stops is Riverwalk. I read a review of Riverwalk online that wasn't very flattering. The reviewer thought it wasn't pedestrian friendly enough and that parts of it are blocked. But for a family traveling with small kids, it was just long enough for us. Plus it was shady and cooler.

Artwork at the Riverwalk station.

Caleb really wanted a picture with this statue by the drawbridge!

This is the famous Miami Circle - yes that little patch of grass. You can read more about the Miami Circle HERE, but the short of it is mysterious ancient circle shaped cutting in the rock by the river. No one is exactly sure who made it or why it is there, but it's presumed to be a special native-American site. You can't really get that close to it, hence the unimpressive picture.

So Miami! Caleb asked me to take this picture!

Being downtown we saw a lot of interesting signs, like...

There was no explanation as to who was kissing and riding.

Here is the sign for the historic Ft. Dallas Park - and the funding must have run out because the sign was all there was to see!

This is an advertisement on the Metrorail for a church that is led by our church's former associate pastor. It actually meets at the BCM on the UM campus. It is not a big church and we were surprised to see so many signs for it.

And this one made me think - if this is a no panhandling zone, does that mean there is an official panhandling zone somewhere?

Part of my motivation for going downtown was that I want to let the kids experience what their neighborhood has to offer - if we lived in South Arkansas, I'd want them to go see a wild dogwood tree in the woods (actually I'd still like for them to see that), but we live in Miami and it has a major downtown area! It was a nice day trip and being locals we knew better than to get stuck at Bayside the whole time. I put together a quick video about our day: