"As for me, I know of nothing else but miracles."   

                                                                                                                    -Walt Whitman 

At the museum of play they had a butterfly garden.  I had been to one in 2007 with Chloe and the boys but Chloe was so young then and did not remember.  It was just her and I this time, it really did feel like a fantasy, flowers and the sound of water everywhere.  Hundreds of butterflies flying past us, each one like a line from a poem. 

The butterflies were so used to people that the lady who was working there said that if we were very still they would land on us and that if we would like she could catch one and put it on our arm.

I wish I had sound for the picture above, it was just pure 100% glee!  The little legs of the butterflies tickled, do you see how she is grabbing her arm so tightly?  But she was laughing and beside herself.  The women enjoyed Chloe's response and continued to bring butterflies to her until Chloe relaxed and could stand still for the butterflies.

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."

                                                                                                               Hans Christian Anderson

It is the Monarchs that have captured my affection and Steve's as well.  We get choked up watching PBS documentaries on the story of their migrations.  Thousands of them end up on the mountain tops in one location in Mexico every year.  Having never been there before, and if captured in the middle of their journey (some coming from as far as Canada) and taken to a different state in the wrong direction far away they will still find their way to where they were supposed to go.  All creation tells us that there is a Creator.

"The butterfly upon the road

preaches contentment to the toad."

-Rudyard Kipling

Had fun with this one, she looks so grown up and so small at the same time.  So determined to keep the butterflies on her arm and at the same time exploding with joy inside. She kept saying "I want to live here, Mom can we please live here, I love it here."  I didn't know when I first became a mother, they do not explain it well in parenting books, how when your child is truly happy and full of joy like this, it feels deeper and richer than if it was your own experience.

 When it was time to go she blew them all kisses and told them she loved them.  I played with this picture for her room, she was sitting next to me while I had Photoshop open and was telling me what to do.  I told her she could pretend to be the queen of the butterflies.