It was another happy, if busy day in the Kang house, and I am beat. Here’s a quick little post to entertain you till tomorrow.
When we woke up this morning, the chrysalis had turned clear and it was obvious that our butterfly was going to emerge soon. The girls and I glanced at it all through breakfast, then I took Julie out to the bus and when I came back in about 15 minutes later the butterfly had emerged. It was sort of stuck at the bottom with the dead leaves, so I cleared some of the leaves out and stuck in the first straight stick-like object I could find of a length that would fit in the container.
That’s one of Sophie’s spoons. Over the next hour, the butterfly dried its wings (and some nasty orange fluid dripped off it – yick!)
Sophie enjoyed looking at the butterfly, maybe a bit too much. She kept wanting to climb up on the stool to look at, and touch, the cage.
Julie came home happy from school again, and was excited to see the butterfly. I got her to agree to wait till Daddy came home to release it.
After a while, it was time to get ready for her first ballet lesson.
Awww…isn’t she cute in her little leotard? She was, um, just a little happy to get to put it on finally.
And Sophie was just her cute little self.
I mean, really. She’s super-cute. Even though she wants me to hold her all the time.
It is practically impossible to take a decent picture through a one-way mirror, but trust me, I tried. Julie had fun at her class, but had a hard time focusing on what the teacher was doing. She was just so excited, she wanted to jump around and do her own little dance.
Finally, Daddy came home, and we had a little butterfly-release ceremony. It sat on Julie’s finger for a moment, then fluttered off over the rooftops. I hope it finds a mate.
By the way, rest in peace, caterpillar number two. It died a couple of days ago, and we had much sadness over it – I think I took it the hardest since I felt responsible. I would have given it fresh leaves if I had known where to find some milkweed. Alas.
Now, I’m going to bed. It’s record-early, but I’m pooped. I have some really good news to share next time – good news for me, maybe less happy for some of you.
Ah, don’t feel bad about the caterpillar, Shelly. We got a pair at the State Fair, too, and ours went through both milkweed leaves by the next morning. My Sophia had raised a monarch caterpillar in her fourth grade class (huge science unit) and she knew a lot about them, including where to get more milkweed (behind the school), but a search of the spot where she’d been able to get it two years ago, plus a search at two local wetlands gave us nothing, so our $10 caterpillars were released to the wild to find their own food. After one day in our house. Very sad.
Awww . . . your girls are the cutest! And the butterfly that came out looked beautiful! It sounds like you all had a lot of fun with it, even if the other one didn’t make it.
Hope Julie is enjoying school! Hope Sophie doesn’t miss her too much during the day!
Oh, very sweet. It reminds me when Buck was about Julie’s age and I captured a salamander on a walk. I put him in a gallon jar to show him because he loved reptiles. I explained that we couldn’t keep it, because I had no idea what to feed it, so we waited for Kurt to get home and then we let him go, as it skiddered away across the lawn toward the woods, Bucky cried, “Bucky love, Bucky love.”
Your girls are just the sweetest things ever!
Your girls are truly very cute. So amazing to have a butterfly come to maturity in your home! We didn’t have the experience at our house. It would be very exciting. The one that didn’t make it – it is part of life’s cycle isn’t it? Hard for us all to understand. . .
I like the ballet picture! It has a very artistic quality. In my house, it would be framed and hung on my “strange and ironic photos” wall. My thirteen year old came up with that moniker. It has nothing to do with the quality of the photos.
I think that Julie is looking more and more like you as she grows up! I can really see it in the butterfly release photo. And Sophie is very cute too!