Chang Before Our Eyes

Several weeks ago as we were leaving to go to school, there was a little black caterpillar crawling along the sidewalk right outside our front door. Natalie instantly wanted to pick it up, but we were already needing to hurry. She begged me to pick it up for her so it wouldn't die from the cold. I told her that I would think about it (which usually means "no") because I didn't know what we would do with it. As I walked home, I realized that its little things like having a caterpillar for a pet for a few days that make being a kid worth being a kid! It wasn't going to hurt anything to let her have it in her room for a while. If it died, she may be upset, but at least she would know it had a few extra days to live in her room instead of freezing outside. (I later researched the type of Caterpillar and found out that it would turn into a tiger moth and can live in below freezing temperatures.) I grabbed the only clean/empty container I had handy, put what green grass/leaves I could find, some sticks, and picked Mr. Caterpillar up before the birds spotted him. He didn't crawl around much, so I threw in some lettuce and a little bit of apple. Natalie was beyond thrilled when she saw him! And to my surprise, he kept on living!

Natalie kept him in her room for the most part, bringing him out every now and then to show me that he was still alive. She also asked me to help her put new grass and food in ever other day or so. After about a week, when I was picking some things up at Target, I saw a little insect catcher/jar thing. I figured it would give the little guy a little more room to crawl around, if it did turn into a moth would give it more room to open its wings, and she would be able to play with it this summer. About two weeks ago, after school she brought it out to me saying, "Mom, I can't find the caterpillar!" Turns out, it made a cocoon/chrysalis out of the grass/leaf clippings! I told her to just let it be and we'd see if it would change! Nearly two weeks went by, and I told her that if it didn't come out soon that we'd just put it outside 'cause there was no reason to keep it in the house forever if we didn't even know if it was still alive. I completely forgot about it for two days, then Monday morning when I woke her up I found this:

Natalie was beyond thrilled to say the least! She thought it was the coolest thing ever that she found a caterpillar and it changed into a moth in her room!

I didn't know what it would eat, and Monday was a fairly decent day, so we let it go right away. (Well, we put the container outside so it could go when it was ready.)