On Sunday, we went to the playground for a farewell playdate with Madeleine before she moves away to Sebastopol. Then we all went down the street to Joe's Ice Cream for dinner and the kids somehow talked me into letting them go to the comic book store next door, where they each got an "inexpensive" toy - a couple of cars and a tiny little pony.
On the way home, we realized that we were coming up on the beginning of the Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse. The kids' school has a solar system set up hanging from the ceiling and they are always excited to show me which planet is which, so I was sure they'd be into checking out the eclipse.
Sadly, it was really foggy and we couldn't see the moon when we got home. So we went inside and I promised Caroline I would set an alarm and we would go back out in a half an hour to see if it had cleared up.
When we did, it was still foggy, but there were patches of clearing. I have an app on my phone that will GPS locate you and then project the constellations and other celestial bodies onto the image that shows from the camera, and we identified that the moon was somewhere behind our house. We walked up to the corner so we could look down the street and bumped into two young men who were looking for the same thing, but the street is lined with streetlights and there was no glimpse of any moon. So we walked down to the other corner to see if we could get a better look. As we walked, Caroline clutched the phone, looking at all the different stars and squealing when she saw Saturn on the screen. We squinted and are fairly certain we saw the faint glow of the planet off in the distance.
We still didn't see the moon, but Caroline was jazzed about the activity of it. As she walked back up the hill with me, holding my phone and watching the stars dance in front of her she told me this was "the best night of my whole life!" When I giggled, she said, "Well, maybe not really, but it's really good!"
We went back inside to put on pajamas and then she insisted we go back out one more time. At that point, the app showed that the moon should be right above our house, so we went across the street to look. Still foggy. I was disappointed on her behalf and started thumbing through Instagram looking for pictures from other people in clearer climes to show her.
At this point, she said, "I see it! I see the moon!"
I looked up, but it wasn't there. So I looked back down, still scrolling for pictures of the moon. And she tugged at my arm and pointed up and, wouldn't you know it? There was the moon!
The fog was rolling across it and so it came and went, but she'd found it. She was so proud of herself - she claimed she had used her "Superman eyes". She screamed at the top of her little lungs (which she does often and which is quite loud) for her brothers and Uncle to come outside to see. They came across the street, looked up, saw the moon, and asked if they could go back inside and finish watching Rocket Raccoon.
So it was back to just me and Caroline. She didn't want to give up, but eventually we went back inside and to bed. Not the stargazing experience I had imagined, but a success overall.
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| That faint little blip is the red moon that Caroline saw through the fog |
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| I couldn't get her to stand still for a picture - she was too busy dancing and singing "Oh yeah, it's the moon, oh yeah" |
