When we came home from the State Fair on Sunday, we brought home some new little pets:
Julie saw these little guys in the butterfly house and wanted to bring them home. Actually, in the interest of full disclosure, I wanted them at least as much as she did. When we bought the little cage, there were two caterpillars in it. Then, yesterday morning, one of the caterpillars had attached itself to the side and over the course of the morning formed itself a pretty green chrysalis. The other caterpillar has been busy on and off since we got it eating up the milkweed leaves. The leaves are starting to dry, so today we were able to hear it making little crunching noises. Sort of like potato chips, only much smaller. We are very pleased, and I think we have already almost gotten our $6.50 worth of value from the little plastic cage – especially if you include the anticipation for what happens next.
This morning we spent some time with our friends J* and W*. Here the girls are playing piano with W*, who was singing the ABC song as he tunelessly pounded on the keys. It was adorable.
I’m really liking this new technique of holding the camera away from myself and taking a picture pointed back over their heads.
Oh, and when we came home the caterpillar was still eating, and our hidden friend had done a little decorating on its green pod…
There is now a gold metallic-looking ring around the chrysallis. I have no idea what’s up with that, but it is SO COOL! And we are very pleased.
Finally, the item which pleases us most this evening – an FO of the brightest variety.
Sophie was very pleased in her own little way, and seemed to enjoy modeling her new pants, turning around and raising her arms like a little toddler super-model.
The pants fit just as I hoped they would, with plenty of room in the back for her cloth diapers (she’s wearing a paper one in this photo since she was getting ready for bed, and I got tired of getting up at 3 a.m. to change wet cloth ones.) There are about four inches of extra length in the legs, and that was intentional as I’m hoping she’ll wear these for the next eight or so months.
They look great rolled up to her ankles, and there is enough looseness in the width that she shouldn’t have any trouble fitting them even if she fills out a bit in that direction – she’s on the thinnish side at the moment.
They even seemed comfortable enough as she crawled into the bathroom to say hello to Julie, who was “indisposed.”
A blocking shot:
The picot edge at the cuff:
The smooth edge at the waist band, and the seamless casing for the elastic, with which we are indeed quite pleased.
oh.so.freaking.cute.
I babysat tonight, and I really do think that the toddler age is one of the cutest ages, and rainbow striped knit pants just make those little toddler squats even cuter.
How did you do the seamless elastic waistband casing?
cute cute – and aren’t Monarch chrysalis (plural?) the most beautiful thing? I don’t know what the gold is for, but they are like jewels and I am amazed every time I find one. I may have to go to the fair and buy myself one. I have plenty of milkweed!
Cute cute FO (and cute model of course). They look warm enough to get through a MN winter for sure.
Both my kids raised a monarch larva to an adult butterfly. It’s a mandatory 7th grade science project in the Rochester Public Schools ( Minnesota’s Rochester).
When the caterpillar stops eating and starts hanging in a ‘J’ shape it’s getting ready to form the chysalis. We put our camcoder on a tripod and started continually filming when this happened and did manage to catch this transformation. The video was facinating.
Then a day or two before the adult monarch emerges the milky-green chrysalis will turn clear and you will be able to see the squashed up monarch wings inside it.
Again, at this point we started filming until the adult emerged, unfolded and dried off. It made for another cool video. My son’s science teacher was thrilled to get these two videos and showed them to all her science classes. Most of the 7th graders were sleeping or at school when their larvae transformed. It’s really easy to miss.
I’m not sure if you got instructions with yours or not but it helps the monarch to have a few sticks or window screen propped up very near its chrysalis so when it emerges it has something to climb to, hold on with its feet and let its wings unfold. They like to hang vertically to do this.
Those toddler pants are just too fun – I love the look on her face in the second modeling shot.
The kids brought home caterpillars last year from camp. It was the greatest thing. The best was that they were able to let the Monarch walk on their hands for quite a while before the butterflies took off forever. We were careful not to touch the wings. Oh, and what thrilled the kids the most? My DD had the girl butterfly and my DS had the boy butterfly. Even DH got into the whole thing. It’s a wonderful family activity!! Enjoy!!
BTW males have two dots on their hind wings, females do not.
Love the pants! Sophie looks like she is certainly enjoying them, too!
next spring you need to plant some fennel in a corner of your yard, up against a fence or wall.
The Spice Swallowtails like it and lay their eggs…….then you get all these caterpillars crawling all over it..it’s really exciting to see them go from tiny to big.
The girls would LOVE it!
I’m moving soon, and can’t wait to get to my new place so I can plant a butterfly garden!
those pants are great! and sophie looks just SO happy in them. great job. GREAT!!!
and the caterpillars!? i wish that we had some similar thing at a state fair, but i’ve never seen anything like them, to purchase.
Wow! The pants look amazing.
Great job on the pants! They really look cute on miss Sophie.
Those are so gorgeous! Can’t wait to see the butterflies.