Planting Caterpillars

Today our family got 5 news pets...5 little "cow-a-pidders" (caterpillars).  Maddie was so excited to "plant" them in their little cups so they could "grow into butterflies".  After we put them in their little cups we decided to name them.  The first one Maddie wanted to name Toodee.  The second is Foofa.  The third is Muno (do you see a theme here??).  The fourth is Plex and the fifth is Brobee.  Yes, we have the whole cast of Yo Gabba Gabba growing in our house!  The caterpillars will live in their little cups for 1-2 weeks, eating almost constantly and spinning little bits of silk here and there, then they will form their chrysalises attached to the lid of the cup.  At that point we'll take the lid, tape it into their little butterfly habitat and wait for the beautiful butterflies to emerge!  That stage will take about another week.  What a fun process!  And what a long process for a (almost) three year old.  I hope she stays excited about it.

Tonight Maddie was so into her little caterpillars.  She brought her musical instruments to play music for them.  She laid on the floor talking to them, then singing to them.  She was giving them little pep talks and saying things like "I hope you grow into a beautiful butterfly" and "I hope you like your food, little cowapidder".  She was looking inside their cups to see if there was any poop that needed to be cleaned out.  She even went outside and found a few little sticks to put in their habitat for when they grow into butterflies so the butterflies can rest on sticks.  She's so into it!

I'm hoping to keep a butterfly long enough so it will lay some eggs so we will get to start this process all over again :)  And...I might need Eric to get around to planting a butterfly garden when he's home in May.  It would be cool if some of the butterflies decided to stick around in our yard instead of flying off somewhere else.  Eric should be home just in time to see a butterfly emerge.  Hopefully at least one of them will hold off long enough for him to see!  He's coming home in 3 weeks!!

Here's a picture of one of the little guys. 

Brobee sure is a handsome little guy, isn't he? 

I was sure to label all of the cups with their names so as not to confuse them :)  I also wrote their first inital on the lids so when we transfer them to the habitat we can keep track of which one we see coming out!  It's the science nerd in me...