Anaconda goes after caiman!

Our 2-week winter break is almost ending... so soon! All break long, I've been nagging Jon to please sit down and write something, but he'd rather read only, or do some Math, over writing. And of course, given a choice, he and Ben would rather just play and watch TV all day long, over anything else!

Finally, Jon wrote this one entry in his journal, something we started awhile back to encourage him to get into the habit of writing (which as you can see, needs more work!). And he churned out "a short one!", he assured me it would be, because it was already bedtime. A charming little tale, and I really like that cute drawing he did, of the snake going after the croc! Once the anaconda got its prey, he could go without food for months, wrote Jon, and then, it was "The End"!

See? Short and sweet, like he promised it would be! But now, Jon also included a fact or two, like the green anaconda being the largest, and that it is not venomous. These are things he gleaned from not just Bear Grylls encountering a reptile here and there in his "Man Vs. Wild" exploits, or Ben watching "Bindi the Jungle Girl", Bindi who shares the same love as her late father Steve Irwin for not just crocs but other animals as well.

We have been reading about reptiles for awhile now!

Reptile Reads
For a quick, fun read, may I suggest:
Lizards, Frogs and Polliwogs
by poet-painter Douglas Florian, who is also the author of Insectlopedia. Both books have illustrations that are as delightful, besides themselves being clever visual puns, as the poems.

More great reads here, that the boys themselves picked out from the library this week. There is a little section on reptiles, that they would go look up, whenever I take them there! And with enough books we haven't exhausted!



The World of Reptiles
Maybe it's a boy thing, Jon and Ben are quite into reptiles, and especially after I took them to the zoo back in summer, hoping to catch the blue-tongued skink. And we ended up seeing more than just an anaconda and caiman in the Herpetarium, for which the St Louis zoo has a nice one, and we are thankful!

Going over the rest of the pictures from our recent Chicago vacation, I realised reptiles was also quite the theme for what we saw, although they weren't entirely all we set out to do!

So, if you are heading that way, here are some of the cool spots where you can come up-close with all kinds of reptiles, from dinosaurs (as close to the real thing as you can get), to the one komodo dragon (yes, a live one!) we saw!

The Shedd Aquarium
Besides fishes and dolphins, stingrays and sharks, there is a brightly-lit section on reptiles! I especially like the three-sided glass that wraps around each exhibit, so you can get a good view of the reptile!



It's here that the komodo dragon resides, not a very big one, but safe behind the glass. Now komodo dragons are not venomous, though there is enough bacteria in their saliva to cause a fatal infection.



The Field Museum
So you are greeted by a dinosaur, not just an elephant (don't think it was the mammoth) at the entrance. In addition, there's a whole section dedicated to just the prehistoric reptiles!



And more than just Sue the T-rex discovered, there are others from the different periods, including Ben's favourite Triceratops, one of the last dinosaurs to roam the earth!

The Children's Museum
Toddlers and preschoolers may like to hunt for dinosaur bones in one of the sections here, although Jon who's older, didn't quite dig the place as much.

Ben had less reservations, about that T-rex!



The Nature Museum
Go on a Thurs or Sat, for those are the two days, when there is a feeding of the snakes, and watch the rattlesnake and the cobra devour a rat each! Not for the faint-hearted!


The python was too sedentary to go for the rabbit, though, because of its low metabolic rate, to even flinch.

While there, we also got to touch a corn snake, the kind an older schoolmate had brought to show Jon's class before, and he had been asking to own one, too.



But OK to touch and feel, not so OK, I tell Jon and Ben, to keep as a pet! Somehow, I have to admit, I do find reptiles rather creepy! So while I took a turn, too, I touched that non-venomous snake very very squeamishly!

The lengths we go for our children, but some things, we just have to say no! ;p



P.S. You know, the thing with a travel post like this one, even when no one's reading, if I don't write it soon enough, I'll never get round to it. But when I do, it does help us make better sense of the pictures, when we look back afterwards!

Thank goodness for the holiday, to slow down some, but also to try and catch up on this and that. But now, I'd better get cracking on that closet full of absolutely must-iron, unironed clothes, except ironing is not something I can do, with kids running and jumping all around! But the pace is going to pick up, once school resumes!

Butterfly Beauty

It was wonderful to see these butterflies at the Notebaert Nature Museum, in Chicago slightly over a month ago, and there were quite a lot of them! More, it seemed than the lovely collection in the St Louis zoo, but I've not been to the butterfly park that's a drive away, the other place around here where we can find these fluttering beauties.




And look, just like our unique thumbprints, each one of these butterflies is different from the other! How creative, precise, and attentive to detail the Master Craftsman is indeed!

I could sit there, and watch them for awhile longer, if we weren't heading back here that same day, but was really glad we made the stopover!





The Nature Museum is one great indoor place, perhaps not as high on other tourists' lists, that I would personally recommend if you are in the area, and have half a day to spend leisurely. It's family friendly, and I'll like to tell you more about what else you can see there (coming up!). The exhibits all look new and updated, if not well-maintained, and there isn't the wear and tear commonly seen in more popular spots. The staff were really friendly, too, and approached us to let us know what not to miss out on, while there!

Now, isn't that something?

How many are your works, O LORD!

In wisdom you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

- Psalm 104:24

And we're off to a 'fishy' start!

Yay, the Do Do's back! Not the bird, eh, but these made-in-Singapore fishballs, the only place here we know that sells them hadn't restocked in awhile, but of the kind we've tried, they are still the ones with the most "boing"!

I cooked them at the first chance we got, for a simple New Year's Day noodle lunch, using the stock from some chicken soup left over from the day before!



Then, because the salmon was already out of the freezer, thawing in the fridge, we had that for dinner. And so, as it turned out, it was quite the 'fishy' start to 2008, for us, yesterday!

It's not the Lunar New Year, but you know the Chinese phrase, "Nian Nian You Yu"?

Here's then, to a year of ABUNDANCE, for you and yours, for us, and with more than enough to spread around!!!



No, this is not an ad for Do Do. But are you also a fishball fan fanatic?

Vern gave the correct answer when my best friends turned interrogating bridesmaids quizzed him a decade ago, on what was my favourite hawker food! Of course, some fishball stalls were more "sought after" than others, and closest to my dad's place, I liked the Siglap one, that served fishballs with bean sprouts and vermicelli, and the must-have sliced red chilli (for me, not my spice-challenged husband) for extra kick!

And now, when at least one of our kids asks to have "seconds, please", I know it's true, that all it takes is simple joys like this -- good old yummy fishballs, to add some "bounce" to our lives! ;p

And my God will meet all your needs

according to his glorious riches

in Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 4:19

How do we like our fishballs? Let me count the ways...

There are other simple ways to incorporate this delectable ingredient into our food, that's worked, but by and large, it's flexible enough to go with not just most things soupy, but stir-fried also (think fried noodles or vegetables).

I especially also like to add the Do Do's to our winter melon soup, and if the other Asian vegetables here were any fresher, fishballs are wonderful, too, with Dou Miao (just toss everything with oyster sauce), and with watercress soup (but only if you are not going to cook the watercress till it's all withered and brown, just nice and green).

How do you like your fishballs?

Fishballs aside, I'm not quite a fish person...
For this simple salmon, I seasoned it with salt and pepper, but when it still smelled fishy while pan-fried, I added some lime juice, too! The asparagus I left to cook briefly in a skillet, with some Italian seasoning, Teriyaki sauce, and orange juice, and a pinch of sugar -- for a bit of a savoury, sweet-sour mix! Actually, the sauce is meant for the fish, but I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone? It worked for us!