fly-fly

In her science camp Ali received a cute little caterpillar in a small tub, you know the kind they give you ketchup in at restaurants. The caterpillar had a hunk of food in his plastic home. The only instructions we were given is keep it in a cool place and when he becomes a butterfly wait a few hours to let him free so his wings can dry. Uhh... that's a lot of responsibility for a 2 year old or her mom. Our little caterpillar started to eat his hunk of food and within a few days he was a big fat monstrous caterpillar. He climbed onto the lid of his cage and one segment at a time started to let go of the lid until he was hanging upside down like a vampire by just the tip of his tail. Fast forward 24 hours and he was completely cocooned or in butterfly terms he had formed a chrysalis. So there was fly fly hanging in his chrysalis and every few hours I would check on him but as the days past and life gets busy I forgot to check every few hours and my checking had dwindled down to once a day. The next thing you know there is a butterfly in this little tub! How long had he been there? Is he still alive? No one is home but me and Kaden, should I let him go? Should I wait for Ali and Rob? I decided to wait because Ali had seen this thing through from the beginning and I didn't want her to miss fly flys release. When they got home we let him go and sure enough he was just fine. It took him a while to stretch his wings and learn to fly but he did and it was the neatest thing. If you have never had a caterpillar and waited for it to become a butterfly you have to do it! Amazing and what a learning experience.