Thursday, August 28, 2008

"Momma, it's a very fat Caterpillar"

When I was a child I can remember every year at the end of summer my brother and I would go out behind my grandmother's house and hunt for Monarch Caterpillars. Once we found the small yellow and black creatures, we'd stuff them in a glass jar, with some milkweeds and watch them for days. After a couple of weeks of eating and pooping, the caterpillar would climb to the very top of the jar, hang upside down and eventually make a cocoon around itself. Then a couple of weeks after being in the cocoon, the cocoon would break open and of coarse we all know the outcome. My favorite part of the whole process was letting my beautiful butterfly free. After feeding and taking care of my caterpillar for the past month, it had turned into an adult, so to speak, and I had to let it go; it was my first feeling of feeling like a mother. Now as a mother, I get to watch my son experience the same thing.

2 weeks ago uncle Bill took Jordan out behind grammy's house and the found a very tiny and very hungry caterpillar. On day one he ate through 1 green leaf, but he was still hungry. By the second day he ate through 2 green leaves, but he was still hungry. On the third day he ate through 3 green leaves, but he was still hungry. Yeah, you get the point. Anyways, we've been watching out little caterpillar, who Jordan has named 'Mikey', very patiently. I love seeing Jordan get excited and interested in what Mikey the caterpillar will do next. Tonight when I got home, he really had a big surprise for me. Mikey the caterpillar had finally made his cocoon.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

What a great tradition to pass on to Jordan.

Anonymous said...

awesome! Ry and Jack would LOVE to do that!!
And happy late birthday to Jordan. How the time flies...

Anonymous said...

I so want to find a monarch caterpillar. All we seem to find are those GIANT, nasty tomato worms. Eewwww! We need to find the milkweed.

Jen
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