Butterflies in Winter

In august last year Walker found a caterpillar in our yard. We had found a few during the summer. Fuzzy little buggers that are kinda cute but also bite little holes into the leaves of my beloved trees, so we like them but sorta hate them.

Anyway Walker showed me that he had found this caterpillar and had put it in one of our vases. Vases rarely get used in our house (so sad). He had put some blades of grass and some leaves in there for it. Now had I been a more naturalistic person, I would have told my son to put it back outside and let it live with its family. Instead I told him something like "Cool buddy, Good job". Truth be told I barely remember it, but a few months later or it could have been a few weeks who knows, I do remember him showing me the cocoon now in the vase. It looked kinda small and dead, and I truly didn't think there was anything in it. He kept it in his room for a while, and we forgot about it.

In December I moved the vase from the top of his dresser, where he puts about everything that he feels is worth keeping. Which is about everything. I moved the vase to the top of the fridge so that I could clean it out and put it back into the cupboard above the fridge where the things go that rarely get used. There it got forgotten again.

On Sunday while Sterling was getting some ice from the freezer he happened to look up and there was a butterfly frantically flapping its wings trying to get out of the vase. We were astonished and amazed. Walker was of course not surprised even though he too had forgotten about the vase with the cacoon. "I told you it was alive" he said.

So now we have a butterfly and it's so beautiful, but it should be outside and its the middle of winter and I feel so bad. We tried to see if it could make it outside, but it only flapped its wings for a second before it fell into the snow. So now its hanging out on our poinsettia.

We researched to see what they eat and also to see how long they live. Some live a couple days and other types live a couple of weeks. I don't think this one will make it more than a few days. The kids of course think its really neat. I do too, but I feel terrible that it didn't have a chance to fly in the summer breeze.

It was a very unique surprise to have a butterfly in our house. I will definitely be paying more attention to the things my kids decide to bring inside from nature. If I wasn't looking forward to spring before, I am now.