Here are some pictures I took for AJ at the North Park Village Nature Center. There are none of Elizabeth since I was wearing her in the Mei Tai sling. I think she was still so young that she took her nap in the sling that day while AJ and I walked around exploring! I can't wait to bring them back soon so that AJ can see how different it looks as all the plants, trees and grasses wake up and turn green.
Little man with a walking stick. He did pretty well at sticking to the path!
This tree was so big and symmetrical and cool...had to take its picture!
Cute little faces!
AJ sat on this rock himself. He told me he "just needed a rest".
OK, so note the sign in the foreground. They have bee hives here and he wanted to look at them. Uhhh, alright, but since I have an allergy to bees, I was a little wary. I didn't want to instill in him a fear of insects (which in hindsight might have been a good thing) so I pretended not to be afraid and led him over to the hives. We stood at a safe distance and observed for a few moments and then I was able to distract him and move back inside where we saw this:
The indoor hive with a tube that leads outdoors. AJ watched them for a while and thought they were pretty cool and liked that they were "making honey for us".
BUT - as I was putting Lizzy into her carseat and asking AJ to get into his, he started SCREAMING and clutching his hand. He had been stung. Oh my goodness. I think it was actually a wasp and not one of the bees since there was no stinger, but no matter at that point. His hand got a little red and swollen as I was driving home and calling his doctor, and by the time we got into the house, he was telling me it didn't hurt anymore. I think I was more freaked out than him, so I tried not to make it a bigger deal than it was after i saw the swelling stop.
So, on the way home, after he had stopped crying, I asked him what happened. He told me that he saw a bug and wanted it to crawl onto his hand like WALL-E's bug friend does in the movie. It took all my self control not to laugh! Instead I told him that bees like to be left alone and don't want to be our friends. I said they are shy and the only way they are nice to us it to make honey for us. (I didn't dwell on the fact that I don't think wasps make honey) Hopefully that sticks and we won't have another sting in 2010!
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