Tyler's spring break began Friday so I took the boys to the zoo. We stopped at the butterfly house before going home and Tyler was fascinated by a woman who had the luck of having a butterfly land on her arm. Tyler was determined to replicate her experience and froze like a statue, not even moving his eyeballs, and held his arm straight out in front of him with his hand in the perfect butterfly landing-pad position. He looked quite odd and I was almost embarrassed because he looked like something was wrong with him. I decided to just humor him and let him learn this disappointing lesson on his own-even if you hold really still like a statue, the butterfly still knows you are a scary kid capable of squashing him without a thought and it's not going to come anywhere near you. Well much to my surprise Tyler's patience and paralyzed stance paid off. An obviously misinformed butterfly landed on his hand and appeared to be quite comfortable there! Then it left and came back a number times. Other children began to take notice of Tyler with his butterfly pal and immediately tried to copy him. Strangely, no other child could attract a butterfly and soon Tyler had two butterflies on his hand! Still, no butterfly would land on any other child's hand! I found it absolutely remarkable until I remembered that Tyler ate bubblegum ice cream earlier that afternoon and he probably had the filthiest and stickiest hands in the whole butterfly house. They must have been nibbling on the sweet, gooey remnants of bubblegum Dippin' Dots. 
