Killer Butterflies

There is some weather over San Francisco these days. Last night, after I put Ada to bed, I crept out the back door and down to the garden to get some dill for the cucumber salad. The wind was howling up on top of our hill and the misty rain was swirling violently. Imagine stereotypical scary Halloween weather and that's what it was like. I raced back up the stairs like I was coming up from the basement of my childhood home in Ohio - as if the hounds of hell were snapping at my heels. Shiver.

Today, it was just blah out there. High clouds mixed with low fog meant there was no hope of seeing the sun. Consequently my energy was low. Ada's too. She started asking for 'mottie' (= milk) about an hour and a half before her usual nap time. On days like this I like to put on some cute earrings and my favorite red lip gloss so that I feel a little better when I slam on the brakes and turn the day around. There is majesty to be found even on the gray days, which are the days when I need most to witness something beautiful and good.

As soon as Ada woke up I grabbed our backpack and we went to the Academy of Sciences. The nanny usually is the one who has the pleasure of bringing Ada here. They come so often that we went ahead and got an annual pass. It's worth it since Ada can easily spend the whole afternoon in the aquarium alone.

"Ada, what does the fishy do?" 

In the Amazon rainforest exhibit there's a tank that has a tunnel you can walk through. So there we were with these giant fish swimming on either side and over head and Ada was totally engrossed. Then she was suddenly terrified. I looked up to see a pair of scuba divers cleaning the inside of the tank. This was too much for her - she ran to me, jumped in my arms and buried her head. She hasn't seen her Daddy in his scuba stuff yet. He has plans to get her in the water. He'll take her cave diving with him over my dead body.

This was BEFORE the scuba divers swam overhead. 

Of course, to get out of the aquarium you have to go by the gift shop. That's OK - there was fun to be had there too.

When the albino alligator tried to kiss her knees, Ada's response was to pull her shoulders up to her ears and giggle. I love how she figured out all on her own how to squeeze the handle to make the gecko mouth move. 

There is a second, fully enclosed, hot and humid rainforest exhibit. I felt like we were back in Florida! We spiraled our way up to the third story, passing colorful birds, lush vegetation, and
dum
dum
dum...
butterflies.



Butterflies that made her do this:



Hold me back!! I couldn't believe it that the same colorful butterflies she proudly points to in her story books brought her to within a hair of losing her shit.
The fluttering! The flight! Oh, for the love! It's all too much!!
It reminds me of back in the day when sand and bubbles were her mortal enemies. So let's try this again.




Ok, so maybe we should take it down a notch and go look at the playful water fountain in the snakes and lizard display? Yes, that was apparently much better since snakes and lizards are way less scary to two-year-olds than butterflies.




We came home to make pizza and read some books before bedtime. My girl is worn out. Maybe tomorrow it will be sunnier in our city but if not, we will still find a way to have a good day. I have some buttoning up to do so maybe that will make it up before the weekend but if not, have a great weekend!