The Miracle of Birth

Today...is my birthday! Yep, I'm now 33 years old. And by God's great timing, our butterflies were born today too!!! We realized that the first one had hatched right as we were walking out the door for school this morning. Of course, we had to pause a moment to look and take pictures, so we were running a few minutes late. When I finally got everyone loaded up in the truck, I then realized...I forgot to pack lunches! Aaaack!! Fastest PB & Js I ever made in my life! I drove the kids as close to the school door as possible, hurried them out into the rain, and said, "Run!!" I hope they made it on time. :-)

At lunch today, my husband and I and our two youngest daughters got to see the butterfly open its wings. Amazing! For some dumb reason I kind of expected the butterflies to look just like our caterpillars only with wings sticking out of their sides. Nothing could be further from the truth - the butterfly looks completely different than it did as a caterpillar. Its body is a different shape and color, it has a little face, and this really cool curly tongue that it unfurls every once in awhile, and the detail in its wings is breathtaking. All of that took place in one short week inside a cocoon not even the size of a nickel! After my husband left again for work, and I was cleaning in the kitchen, the girls stayed in the dining room watching the Emma the Butterfly. After a few minutes, my daughter said, "Mom, come quick, Callisa is hatching!" I ran in, and sure enough, there was the second butterfly crawling out of her cocoon! I was truly concerned at first. The butterfly looked like a piece of paper that someone had wadded into a ball - its wings were all scrunched up and wrinkled, and I thought for sure that something had gone wrong in the process. (We didn't see the first one until after it's wings had straightened out.) It stumbled all around its cocoon trying to "find its legs" and even fell from the top of our butterfly net *plop* onto the paper plate in the bottom. YIKES!! "Death of a baby butterfly" wasn't exactly what I wanted my girls to experience! But it found its way to the netting again and got a good perch where it could rest awhile and let its wings dry.

Shortly after the butterflies emerge from their cocoon, they excrete a reddish fluid that's left over from wing formation. We didn't see it happen with the first one - just saw the red fluid on the paper plate when we got home. But with the second butterfly, I actually saw it happen. Interestingly, it's the exact same shade as the primary color on their wings - I wonder if it's like left-over dye? Funny to think about God painting their little wings inside that cocoon and then "dumping out the extra paint" afterwards! :-)

As promised, I took some pictures. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.) Here is the first butterfly, hatched, with the second butterfly still in its cocoon in the background...

See its little curly-cue tongue?!...

Here are both the butterflies together, shortly after the second one hatched...

The front side of their wings is a brilliant orangish-red...

The back side of their wings is actually really pretty as well. I love the blue spots!...

There goes the left-over wing paint!...

Here are the empty cocoons...

This has been a really fun project - I would highly recommend taking this class through community ed. with your kids!