Elmo the Butterfly

Success! I can't tell you how proud I am of this beautiful butterfly. I was so afraid something would happen to him before he made his appearance [i.e. we'd kill him.] But, no! We have achieved what millions of others before have achieved; we have raised a butterfly from it's larvae state.

Is he not the most beautiful butterfly you've ever seen? [Maybe I'm just a bit partial.]

We had a bit of a set back when we let him go. He had been in his bugbox all day and hadn't tested out his wings. We placed him on a plant that butterflies love, and checked on him periodically, but he was not budging. With thunderstorms in our forecast that night, we put Operation Butterfly Transfer in effect. We moved Elmo to our front porch, placed him on a potted plant, and hoped. The next morning, fearing the worst, Jonathan went to check on our baby. To our surprise, he was still alive, but seemed weak. The kids and I researched what we could feed Mr. Elmo, and fruit juice was on the menu. We tried to coax him onto our delectable cuisine, but he seemed irritated and tried to flutter off without success. We had to leave him for a while, and when we came back, we found him drinking away. After our second trip to town, he was gone...out on his own in the big wide world. I was so relieved and proud and sad and happy. [Is this what it's like sending your kids to college?]

Now that we're old hands at raising caterpillars, we've taken on another. Since finding Mr. Grover last Thursday, he has tripled in size, and is eating through as many leaves as we can provide.

We just hope Mr. Grover can thrive as well as his older brother.

As for the cocoon that is my growing belly, I just had a sonogram showing that this little Mr. is already weighing in at three and a half pounds.  He is above average, hence the extra large belly. I was hoping this would push my due date up a bit, but those doctors won't give a pregnant lady a break, or at least false hope! I got some new pics of my baby, though, and I can't help but smile each time I look at them [which  has been about a hundred times today.] I can't wait to meet this big boy, even if it means waiting a bit longer.

xo

nessa dee