So the kids learned all about butterflies at school. Starts as a caterpillar, turns into a chrysalis, becomes a butterfly, yada, yada, yada. My mom gave M a butterfly cage and an order form to get little caterpillars for Christmas so once it got warm we ordered the bugs. They came in a little jar, gross little caterpillars with enough food in the jar to see them through their metamorphosis. All we had to do was set the jar out and watch and wait. Eventually they did their thing and turned into little hanging sleeping bag looking things, at which point per the instructions we moved the cocoons into the butterfly habitat. After about a week, out came a beautiful butterfly...well, actually 5. Very neat.
Along about that time, D's class went on a nature hike and the teacher let anyone who found a caterpillar egg on a leaf put the leaf in a petri dish and bring it home. D told us all about the caterpillar eggs, how they lay them only on this one kind of plant called milkweed and that this egg would hatch into a caterpillar which would then become a butterfly. I was unconvinced.
However, D was very concerned that once the egg hatched we would HAVE to find the caterpillar milkweed to eat so off we went on our own nature hike to find milkweed. For an egg. That was in a petri dish. That I was pretty sure was going to start mildewing any day now. But, off we went, to a place in our neighborhood that is close to a pond (or a tiny lake...since we are in Minnesota we might as well use the local tongue and refer to everything bigger than a pothole as a "lake" (land of 10,000 lakes and all). Anyway, I had no idea what milkweed was or if it really would grow there but D picked it out right away and showed me how the "milk" would come right on out of the milkweed plant if you broke a leaf off. Which he did.
And there in the milkweed leaves he found two tiny baby caterpillars. Somehow, he convinced me to bring them home. On a recent high from the success with M's butterflies, I was an easy target. However, I was not all that convinced that this was going to be successful. I mean, those other things (and they are THINGS...its hard to believe that those gross little bugs turn into lovely butterflies...almost makes you think there may be hope for humanity after being at the movie theatre on a Friday night and seeing all those teenagers...but I digress....) that we ordered from M's Christmas present came with food and all we really had to do was open the package and set them out. This little adventure of D's was going to require me to like, find a jar and poke holes and stuff...was I really up for this?
Anyway, home we went and a spaghetti sauce jar became the home to two caterpillars. One succumbed almost immediately...we tried to put water in the jar and that was a mistake. Take it from me, all they need is milkweed, nothing else. Don't try and get fancy...a jar and some milkweed...then just watch.
D knew just what to do. We proceeded to feed that little thing a new milkweed leaf every two days. At one point it started going through the leaves rather more quickly. One night I put a new leaf in there at about midnight and by dawn it was all gone. "And it wasn't a little caterpillar anymore...it was a great, big caterpillar"...Eric Carle was right on...those things get big fast! Its phenomenal. Literally, a phenomena (or something...this is no English essay so I don't lose points for mis-spelling or mis-pluralizing a work, thank you very much)...Anyway, that little booger, after eating like five leaves in two days, took all its stored up milkweed and turned itself into a chrysalis. Neat, neat , neat. Now, we got that far...would it really turn into a butterfly? I was not convinced. Meanwhile, Daniel found another caterpillar and we made another jar into a home and we started round two...before we were even sure round one would work.
Miracles do happen, every day it seems. Darn if that thing did not, after about 10 days, emerge as a beautiful butterfly. There are pictures of D letting it loose in our garden. As I type, the second one is in the office in the butterfly habitat feasting on sugar water. We'll let him go in the next day or two. This most recent one is absolutely gorgeous, with huge yellow and black wings. The first one was orange. Also pretty, but this yellow is something else.
In any case, this is all a lot of hoopla about what you probably think is a pretty every day occurrence. Which, I guess it is. But to have your first grader guide you through the whole thing all on his own with the utmost confidence that this was going to work out right...that is something else. A miracle in itself.
I think nature is cool. And I think kids are cool too. Put them together and what you have is darn near a perfect thing.
Afterword: That egg that D brought home from school that started this whole thing? Molded and got gross and was unceremoniously tossed. Ick.
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