Quick SF Observations - Preschool Education, Aggressive Cars, Butterfly Wing

I've been watching a couple of kids (almost three and someone older) negotiate some pretty fancy playgrounds the last couple of days and I'm impressed at all the learning they're doing.  It's all about testing balance and strength and grip.  They're learning what their muscles can do, how far they can stretch or lean.  I watched my grandson today (the one under three) as he worked his way across a net.  He had to step on a shaky surface, keep from slipping through the holes, find handholds, and pull himself up onto a platform.  When he finally made it to the top he did a little dance shouting, "I did it!"

This is serious work.  Can you jump from rock to rock?  How do you get up different kinds of 'ladders'?  And while both the kids worked hard to master their challenges, it was also amazing the difference in ability the four months difference makes.

Sometimes they need a little help - a hand to hold, a suggested hand hold - but mostly they were better off just working it out themselves.

This is why I haven't had time to write here.

But here are a couple more pictures from the last two days.

This butterfly wing was caught while feeding on orange slices at the California Academy of Sciences rain forest exhibit.




And these two cars were in the underground garage.  These were two human-less parked cars, that struck me as appearing unusually aggressive.  Maybe there should be a special word for anthropomorphic for objects that were created by humans (as opposed to natural objects.)  And, I guess words that distinguish between living and non-living things.