p.s. we found out that he was an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail;  

and that he was, in fact, a she.

Also, please notice Selma's warning that if you touch a chrysalis too much, it dies (as depicted by the sad, blue butterfly above).  Malachai's scoldings really made an impact, I guess.

We were at a nearby metro plaza recently where we snatched a little caterpillar out of the jaws of sure death-by-human-shoe; we carried him home (into the jaws of sure death-by-child-adoration?).  He was placed into a beautiful habitat, abundantly admired, and promptly left on a sunny windowsill.  We found him the next day - shriveled and most certainly dead.
ah no . . . not dead; after a good 12 hours we could see a clearly defined chrysalis.
Malachai hovered over that chrysalis;  During weeks I could hear him daily - scolding Selma for touching it, or updating Josu on new developments in its color or shape.
I was sure it was dead.
But it wasn't!
because look!  he came out!
(isn't he lovely?)

We gave him a few hours to dry out his wings, called over the neighbors to have a good look, and then opened a window for him.

Certainly, God's majestic creativity and generous guiding hand is on display every time a caterpillar wraps himself into a chrysalis and emerges as a butterfly;  I do think, though, that this guy may have received an extra dose of divine protection . . .

How it went down: Friday's adventure

1. receive invitation from good friends to see Mexico City atop the turibus - - everyone's favorite city tour bus.

2. cancel school   get the kids excited about our field trip

3. wake up early; pack the sunscreen.

4. run to the metro; stop for some tamales along the way.

5. do that totally newbie thing where we take the metro the wrong way;  get out of the metro and turn around;  convince the kids that anyone could have made the same mistake. no biggie.

6. exit the correct metro stop (finally).  

7. realize that we only have 15 minutes to make it to the turibus instead of the 30 we had planned on

8. convince the kids that it will be super fun to run for a mile

9. tell my whimpering boy that his knee doesn't really hurt as much as he thinks it does; then cheer him on.

10. arrive, panting and sweating at the turibus one minute early.  

11. high fives all around

12. wait fifteen minutes for the bus to leave.

13. see our city; love it a little bit more than we did before.

We walk past this little stand almost every day; it sits on the sidewalk between our home and the fruit and vegetable store on the corner.  

In keeping with my new year's proposition (because I'm a stickler like that), when the kids and I were out buying our day's vegetables yesterday,  we decided to take a seat and make our order.  I was glad we did.  We found out that the stand owner - Aida - has been serving up tlacoyos and quesadillas at this location for four years, that she has a daughter who is an architect and another who is an engineer - both of whom are looking to learn english, and that there is a great tamale stand just down the street.

huh.

good to know. 

We tried a new pastry shop today.
(it's just two streets down and one street over)

They had good coffee
and good pastries.
We'll go again
(if you come visit, we'll take you too!)

You'll be hard pressed to get new year's resolutions out of me
but,
sometimes I make new year's propositions.

Like - this year, I propose that it would be a pretty good idea to take the kids to lunch once a week to one of the street taco stands in our neighborhood (there are a billion of them). . .

(I'm thinking it will help us to get to know the rhythms and joys and hurts of our neighborhood, plus I'm pretty sure it will give us some serious street-cred)

We were so afraid to pass this nasty cold on to our friends that we turned down (an extremely attractive) invitation to spend New Year's Eve eating barbacoa with some of our favorite Mexicans.

Instead, we pulled out Risk and taught our children the fine art of world domination; and then we had banana splits. (FYI - I am waaaay better at making chocolate sauce than I am at world domination)

We  had planned to put the kids down to bed at 8:30pm and then wake them up right before midnight so that we could all go up on the rooftop and watch for the city fireworks,
but
world domination kept going on and oooooooon
and by the time our (weeping, hacking) children were brushing their teeth, we knew that the compassionate parenting choice was to let them sleep, undisturbed, into the new year.

Joshua and I did make it up to the rooftop though, where we ran into a couple of neighbors who poured us champagne, joined us in looking for fireworks, and confessed that they had liked our christmas cookies so much, that they had stollen a bag of cookies that we had tied to another (absent) neighbor's door. That was a serious - albeit shady - compliment.  And, I'm reminded why we pass out Christmas cookies:  because of the doors it opens and the conversations it starts.

So, happy new year, my friends.
if you haven't passed out cookies yet, it's not too late.