A Renaissance, If You Will

Ever since I became a mom to a toddler, I have experienced a renewed vigor to learn more about the world around us. When Little J was a baby, he was content with pretty much everything, and my knowledge set was never in question. Now that he's much more curious and pointing and wondering what things are, and what bird made that sound, I'm feeling like I need to know everything!

It's a wonderful experience to be curious. I love the satisfaction and relief of gaining more knowledge, and then in turn sharing that knowledge with the wee one.

We went out in the desert the other day with some friends, and I was dismayed with my lack of knowledge of desert flora and fauna. I know my Oregon and Utah birds pretty well, but there are lots of migrants here, and I feel like I'm at a turning point in my knowledge set. Either I am ok with calling everything an LBJ (unidentifiable little brown jobbie), or I make an effort to increase my knowledge and turn those LBJs into cactus wrens and vireos. I chose the latter.

Coincidentally, there was free admission to the Desert Botanical Gardens on the day I decided to plunge into my little renaissance, so Little J and I went on an adventure. It was marvelous. Marvelous! There were lots of people (mostly elderly, and ALL of them thought Little J was the cutest) and lots to learn. Here are the results of our foray:

I meant to take a nice picture of a seated curve billed thrasher, but it took
off a bit early and turned itself into a piece of art instead.

The aforementioned cactus wren sitting on its namesake.
He was no more than five feet from me.

Little J spent a lot of time playing on chairs and
making truck noises that sounded uncomfortably like
constipation noises.

I told him he wasn't allowed to walk off the path, so he would sit down and
put his feet on the gravel. What a goober.

Unlike their name implies, these teddy bear cholla cacti are in no way cuddly.

Little J getting to know a little leaf palo verde.

The gardens had some beautiful views of Papago Peak. Interestingly enough,
the park is smack in the middle of the Phoenix Valley, but you would never guess.

They had INCREDIBLE cacti gardens with hundreds of species.
Pretty mind-boggling.

I'm not sure if they did this on purpose, but much of the concrete had animal
prints in them. Rabbits, deer, mice, etc. 

Sometimes I think Little J is the cutest thing on the planet. Actually,
I think that all the time. Sorry other moms. That's just how I feel.

 I can't get this picture to be in the middle. GAH!

This last picture has a sad, yet amusing story. Little J was really wanting to touch the cacti, and for obvious reasons, I let him know that was something that would not benefit him physically. He had one run-in with a saguaro a few weeks ago, so he was inclined to listen to me. Well, I finally found a cactus that looked like it didn't have any spines, so I encouraged him to touch it, being the adventurous mother I am. I was wrong. SO WRONG. It did have spines. Tiny ones. The kind that get everywhere and make you feel like you rolled in needles. 

So, I figure this out, and I hastily pull Little J away from it, but not before he gets them all over his hands, shirt and seat of his pants. At the time I only knew about the ones on his hands, and we took a seat and pulled them out. He was patient with me plucking them all out, thank heavens. So, we look at a few more things, and we decide to go home. I pick him up, and hold him with my right arm, and BAM! It feels like I was just sat on by a porcupine. A miniature, extra-poky porcupine.

We high-tail it to the car, and off come his pants. Luckily he wore extra thick pants that day, so not all of them made it to his skin. Poor kid looks like he want to a lilliputian acupuncture appointment. We got out as many as we could and drove home. I later discovered they were all over his shirt too. In fact, I just changed his diaper (a day after the event) and pulled out another spine.

Moral of the story: Don't even THINK about touching any sort of cactus or anything remotely related to a cactus. They will lure you in with their velvety green flesh and then strike with their tiny spears of pain!