Butterfly Update

Two nights ago, M ran upstairs to let me know that the butterflies had all emerged from their chrysalides. I grabbed the container to check and sure enough they had, but it was a sad looking sight. A mess of butterflies lying in a crumpled heap with splatters of what looked like blood everywhere. (We have since learned that it was actually meconium.) We didn't know how long it had been since they "hatched" and it looked like they were all dead. My heart sank. I felt so bad. I couldn't let the kids see what had happened. But then I saw a little butterfly leg twitch and then the attenae. Soon they all started to move and even pump their wings a little. Whew! What a relief! We moved them to an even larger container and fed them some sugar water. The kids all found it fascinating to watch them drink up that sweet stuff. Then they moved and pumped their wings some more so we could see their pretty colors. Since it was a cold and rainy night, it didn't feel right to let them go so we let them stay in the box overnight. They didn't seem too eager to leave anyway. This morning we fed them again and misted their wings so they wouldn't dry out and tried to let them go. One took off flying, but the others still don't want to leave their cozy box. So we have left it open in the backyard so that Twitchy, Eileen, and Ripper (of course they had to name them!) can fly away whenever their ready.