Landak

Jovan sangat suka dibacakan buku. Dari milis sekolah rumah, kami mendapatkan site Tumblebooks, animated picture books online. Dengan adanya site ini, Jovan bisa duduk manis di depan komputer untuk mendengarkan dan membaca buku sendiri (mamanya bisa kabur sejenak, hehe). Nah, beberapa hari yang lalu dia memilih buku Porcupining: A Prickly Love Story oleh Lisa Wheeler.

Selama ini saya pikir porcupine dan hedgehog adalah binatang yang sama, yaitu landak. Eh, di cerita itu, gambarnya kok beda?

Ternyata setelah saya check di Wikipedia, porcupine dan hedgehog adalah dua jenis binatang yang berbeda, bahkan tidak bersaudara. Malahan ada satu jenis binatang lagi yang mirip yaitu Echidna.

Dan ternyata, dalam Bahasa Indonesia, hedgehog dinamakan landak susu. Sementara yang disebut landak adalah porcupine.

Thank God for Google and Wikipedia!

*pic is taken from Wikipedia

trip to taman safari

Last Sunday, we went to Taman Safari. It has been our dream to bring Jove to see the animals and we were so excited when it finally came true with a blast! :)


Jove seemed to enjoy looking at all the animals and feeding them carrots from the car window. We were quite surprised that this little guy had the courage to feed small skinny carrots to those smelly big mouths! He surprised us more when he was willing to pose with a naughty little baby orangutan called Aming and touched the two-month old baby tiger.

Our trip was disturbed by a heavy downpour. We had to take turn walking from shelter to shelter with one umbrella that we brought. Grandpa, grandma, and Jove managed to have a fun ride in the cable car when the rain turned to drizzle. Then we went to feed the leftover carrots to the hungry elephants (they ate 200kg of grass per day, said the trainer). Jove, with his little hand was brave enough to put the carrots on the trunk.

Jove also managed to ride elephant and camel with his aunts, and a pony by himself, after the rain stopped. We went home tired, but happy and satisfied. Jove slept soundly on our way home.

chrysiridia rhipheus

Beautiful sunset moth. I actually gasped in awe when I saw the pictures.

The caterpillar and The Very Hungry Caterpillar brought me to Eric Carle's website, and one of the FAQ questions about chrysalis and cocoon prompted me to do a bit of research on butterflies and moths in Wikipedia.

Internet is really cool.

Oh, and I stumbled upon Encyclopedia of Life a few days ago. I've started to bookmarks these kind of sites for the future when inquisitive Jove start asking me questions. Err, but after another thought, why should I bother when I can ask him to google for answers himself?

caterpillar on the flower

We found this caterpillar two days ago. It was sitting on a leaf in my neighbor's pink flower plant when I took Jove out to breathe in some fresh air.


I took a picture of it this morning. We visited the caterpillar often during the two days. But this afternoon, it was missing. This evening, when we waited for daddy outside, Jove said that the caterpillar was sleeping being cradled by his mother. I was quite disappointed when I found it gone. I was hoping to see its metamorphosis into a beautiful butterfly.

Thanks to you, La, for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Jove asked me to read the book to him after each visit to the caterpillar.