Sunday, January 30, 2011

Transparent Animals

Hello my raviolis.  Grandma-ma found an article about transparent animals and thought you might like to see some of these unique creatures.

This is called a glasswing butterfly.  The wings are so transparent that they look like glass. 

Jelly fish or "jellies" are transparent and they look like ghosts of the sea.  Grandma-ma loves to watch them swim.

This is a transparent flounder. 

This little frog is transparent too.l  You can see through it's skin and look at all of its organs. 

This is grandma-ma favorite transparent animal.  It is a barrel eye fish.  Only the head of this fish is transparent. 

If  you look at the top of the head you will see two green eyes.  Yes, these are the eyes of the fish.  Not the little eyes you see above the mouth.  Those are actually nostrils or like gills for the fish to breathe.  The green eyes at the top of his head move all around so he can see from side to side and from top to front.  There are lots of other animals that are transparent.  Can you share one with grandma-ma?  If so, post the name of a transparent animal.  Grandma-ma loves you all.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Grandma-ma has braces

Hello my raviolis.  This has been a busy week for grandma-ma.  Busy at work, busy at home and busy at the dentist. Today. grandma-ma had braces put on her teeth to straighten them out.  Yes, even grandma-ma's get braces.

It took two hours for the dentist and his staff to put the braces on my teeth and he also had to extract a tooth to make room for my crowded teeth.  Did it hurt to have it pulled?  NO, it did not. The doctor gave me a shot of Novocaine and then after my mouth went numb, he extracted the middle center tooth. It was very, very crooked and in the way of my other teeth.

Here is a picture of what grandma-ma's teeth looked like before they put the braces on.

They are very crooked and close together.  It makes flossing very difficult.

Here are my new braces.  Can you see where the missing tooth used to be?  That little hole will heal up and then you won't see it.  See how crooked the wires are?  As the weeks go by, they will begin to straighten up grandma-ma's teeth.  I'm excited about that. It will be nice to have a pretty smile. 

Now, do braces hurt?  No, the braces do not hurt.   But, my teeth tingle because of the pressure of the wires.  I will eat soups and jello for a few days.  The hard part about braces is getting used to the plastic on my teeth that scraps the inside of my mouth.  That is sore and it will take about a week to build up a callous on the inside of my mouth.  Then it will no longer be sore.  I will put a new picture up in March when I go for an adjustment.  The dentist will tighten up the wire and it will add more pressure to my teeth to straighten up.

Have a wonderful weekend my ravs. Grandma-ma loves you.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Word of the Week Wednesday

Hello my raviolis.  Today is word of the week Wednesday and today's word comes from Owen's spelling bee.  This is one of the words he had to spell (and he spelled it correctly) and it is a favorite word of grandma-ma's.  That word is

"paramecium"

What is a paramecium you ask.  Well, a paramecium is a small, one celled (unicellular) living organism that can move, digest food, and reproduce. They belong to the kingdom of Protista, which is a group (family) of similar living micro-organisms.  Micro-organism means they are a very small living cell. I like them because they look like little footprints in sand.  A paramecium is an oval, slipper shaped micro-organism, rounded at the front/top and pointed at the back/bottom.  Covering the outside of the organism are many tiny hairs, called cilia.



Here is a video of a paramecium eating yeast (the yeast has been dyed red so you can see how this little once celled animal stuffs itself with the food).  Look how quickly it moves.

This may be a difficult word to use in three sentences, but let's give it a go anyway.  Here is grandma-ma's first sentence:

The paramecium moves very quickly with the aid of the tiny hairs around the animal.

Have a wonderful day my loves.  Grandma-ma

Monday, January 3, 2011

Gang of lunch snatchers

Hello my wonderful raviolis.  I'm so glad to be back posting on your blog.  I have missed you all.  Grampy and I were in Mexico the last week in December and stayed at a pretty resort in Playa del Carmen.  We had a large lunch restaurant at the pool area that served good things to eat.  But, you could not leave any food on your table for a moment or a "gang" of little thieves would take over your table and eat your food and drinks.  This little gang of Mexican raccoons are called Coati or Coatimundo.  They are from the raccoon family and very friendly.  A family left their lunch on the table and went into the pool and this group of Coati's came running out of the jungle and descended on the food.  It was funny to watch them, especially when they had the soda glass over their head.


This is my favorite picture of the Coati's that were eating and drinking all of the food.  They are so cute and friendly.  They sure left a mess though.

Here is a little video of them.  I think they liked the food the people had ordered.  Well my loves, I hope you enjoy this post and know that grandma-ma loves you all.