Pests

Okay, so this has nothing to do with either of the little P's, but it's interesting (read: gross) nonetheless. Yesterday, I noticed that a few of the leaves were dying on the grapevine outside our kitchen window, but I didn't think much of it. When Gus came home, he noticed it, too-- but looked more closely than I had. And he discovered this:

After doing a little research, we found out that they are called (appropriately enough) "Grapeleaf Skeletonizers." They turn into these spooky black moths that I have seen a few times in the house recently. And these little caterpillars are ALL OVER all of our grapevines! YUCK!! And they are apparently pretty hard to get rid of, though they do respond to a type of bacteria known as BT, which is supposedly sold at gardening stores. Guess we'll find out this weekend!

On a less gross (and completely unrelated note), I have to brag about Nikos for a minute. Thanks to his increased TV watching since Maya arrived, he can now correctly identify and name the following animals: puma, chinchilla ("sinsilla"), condor ("condo"), tapir, and pygmy marmoset ("mar-set"). He went through the whole repertoire this morning while watching "Go Diego Go." While I'm not a huge fan of kids watching TV, it has been a huge lifesaver when I am trying to nurse Maya while simultaneously keeping Nikos out of trouble. And hey, it's educational-- I doubt there are that many kids who could correctly identify a tapir before age two, haha!