The Butterflies Have Come and Gone

It is a quiet morning. Looks like Wyatt is sleeping in (Thank Heavens!). Da Vinci is curled up on my window seat feeling the breeze through the window. Duke has found a sunny spot up against a wall. And though I should be working out on my Wii Fit, I opted to play with some pictures and start today slowly. Today is the first day in about 2 weeks that I haven't had to wake up and rush into the never ending list of "Things to Do Today!"


I've been wanting to update you on our butterflies. I love this project! I loved keeping caterpillars and butterflies when I taught kindergarten. I was amazed by the cycle every year! There is something special, however,about sharing this with my own child. Wyatt loved talking about the butterflies. He's show them to anyone who came over to the house. It was even a neat thing to share this experience with Byron. All the years I did the butterflies in my classroom, he never saw them. So it was fun to see his interest in them too!


We went out Friday on an outing with Byron's family. And when we came back home that afternoon, almost all of the butterflies had emerged from their chrysalises. It happened so fast! For the next few days we watched them. We fed them cottons balls of sugar water. We brought some out to take pictures and examine them. Those lucky ones tasted freedom earlier than the others. We also let the ladybugs go. We didn't get a very good crop of ladybugs, only about three. But just enough to let them crawl on Wyatt and watch them sit on a plant.


After a few days, I started pondering when would be a good time to let the butterflies go. Monday was windy and I decided to wait for the wind to die down, that it, until I realized what was happening. I noticed a large group of the butterflies were all huddled in a section of the container. They just happened to be next to the zipper. I started thinking, "You little smarties! You figured out where the opening is and you're trying to get out!" Then I looked closer..."what are they...why are they moving their thoraxes to the other butterflies...?" And then the realization came to me..."Gross! They're MATING! NOT IN MY HOUSE!" That was just way to much science for me! And then the thought of little caterpillar eggs in my home made my skin crawl! That was that, wind or no wind, it was time to say goodbye to our little visitors. Wyatt and I took the container out to a nearby bush and carefully sent the butterflies to their freedom, where they could mate all they wished, OUTSIDE OF MY HOUSE! Ahhh, the joys of nature!