middle of the night ramble

I'm not a person who does this- wakes up in the middle of the night and gets on the computer. The last time I can remember not being able to sleep (not counting when baby Thomas was involved) was the year "our" football team was playing for the national championship. (The school I graduated from and now work for.) We were having a party that night and I was excited/nervous- I got up and started cooking and cleaning.

My body and mind are out of whack this week. It's spring break for Henry and Kate. Henry went along with Thomas to the sitter Monday and Tuesday and I planned to take Thursday and Friday off. Wednesday morning I woke up with the tummy bug that has been through the rest of the family. Kate was able to take care of Henry as we had planned, and I asked Bill to come home from work to take Tommy to the sitter's. Then I went back to bed from 9 am to 1 pm. It was one of those days where it felt nice to sleep so much, but then my back started hurting from laying around for hours on end. But I still wanted to sleep more...

Then yesterday I felt better. But I felt hungry. I have been eating a lot better lately and exercising about 3 times a week. Yesterday all of that went out the window. I ate a lot of stuff that I haven't eaten for awhile, and I wonder if that is why my body has me up at 3 am. I don't feel sick exactly, but I just don't feel right.

I also started worrying about my little mental to-do list: we need to replace the gutters, shop for a new(used) car, figure out why the dryer stopped working again... Of course, I can't do any of those things right now, can I?

I had a nice day with the boys yesterday. We took lunch to daddy at work and then went to see the butterfly exhibit at the conservatory (right in line with Henry's recent homework project.) We got there just as they were doing a "release" of butterflies that had recently emerged. I thought that would be good timing, but it was not. There were too many people (including gangs of school kids on field trips) and a person talking loudly on a poor soundsystem so she sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher.

We tried to stop and watch and listen, but Henry got agitated and said "let's keep moving!" So we did. We made the obligatory stop in the gift shop (Henry got a spiders sticker book and Tommy got a bouncy ball. I got a half-price shamrock plant) and then went through the whole place again. The second time through was not as crowded and we stopped to look a little more.

They have indoor rooms representing 4 different regions. Each one has paths and bridges and waterfalls that are lots of fun for little boys. (Yes, of course Tommy is wearing his cut-off Batman pajamas. This is the 3rd day straight for those.)

Our second time through the butterfly room was MUCH more satisfying. It was not as crowded, and the sun had come out so the butterflies were more active. Everywhere you turned, there was another one!

Henry was mildly interested in the butterflies, but really got more excited about the running water:

(Actually, I just noticed that in that picture Tommy is LAYING DOWN looking over the edge of the bridge. Real safe time for me to take a picture, eh?)

The boys also enjoyed making wishes in this fountain at the end of our visit.

I am so grateful that we are at this stage- where we can visit places and it is truly enjoyable for everyone. We each might have a different agenda, but (knock on wood) most of the time it manages to come together.

Oh, one other cool thing- I'm so disappointed that my camera died before I could capture a picture, but we stopped in the education room before we left. They had hands-on kid butterfly activities, like you could look through "butterfly eyes" to see what their vision is like, and try to place butterfly magnets on a scene so that they would be hidden from predators. They also had these butterfly wings a child could strap on. Thomas did it (of course) and then I was very surprised that Henry did it too! He pretended to fly around and left them on for quite awhile. He is showing more interest in pretending lately. He is learning some things from his little brother, I think. There is a post on that rattling around in my brain, but it needs more thought.

Thanks for keeping me company, internet. Maybe I will drink a cup of tea and try to go back to sleep. Tomorrow morning (or this morning, I guess) we are attempting a photo of the kids at the Target photo studio, so I need to be rested!