our very own hungry caterpillar

every kid should have a copy of The Very Hungry Catepillar, and I have a suspicion that just about every kid does. it's gotta be almost as popular as "Goodnight Moon." Caleb loves it. he can even point out the catepillar on the pages when I ask him to, and he has fun with the holes in the pages, and always has a big smile at the end as we flap the butterfly wings for him. a kids classic, no doubt.

so I havent been tending the garden very well lately. actually that's an exaggeration. I havent done jack in the garden, besides bringing in a few tomatoes right before they're completely rotten. it's just too dang hot out for me these days. but the garden is in view from the back door, so I at least look out at it often enough. and tonight we spotted our very own very hungry caterpillar! merrily munching away at one of my lovely cherry tomatoes. if it was early in the season, he'd be toast, but since things are winding down, I figured we should enjoy him.

the light wasnt all that good, so I didnt get very good pictures, but it was wicked cool, as Bear might say. and I was so concerned about getting a decent picture that I forgot to point it out to Caleb. he was on my hip the whole time, but getting rather sleepy, so I doubt he noticed it. I've got to remeber to point out cool creepy crawly things like that to him, although this thing looked fierce and beautiful enough to keep me from wanting him to touch it, especially considering the treatment he gave a poor grasshopper not long ago.

after googling for a bit, I figured out that this guy is a tomato hornworm, which turns into a moth. and while we're on the subject, check out Eric Carle's site, as well as the picture book museum he's got in MA. hopefully we'll get to visit it next time we're up north.