The Days Just Flutter By . . .

These 2 stories are completely separate, but share a common theme, so here goes . . . In late Spring, Ella was excited to announce that she'd found a chrysalis (her words) in one of our trees. Todd is a big bug lover, so when he got home we showed it to him. He picked it up - it was really big and made out of what appeared to be rolled up leaves. We heard a bunch of scratching and there was a lot of movement coming from inside. So this part creeped me out because at this point it could have been any sort of creature pod, and whatever was in it was making audible noise, I was a bit disturbed. So, we tenderly placed it back in the plum tree and waited . . . In the meantime, the other coordinating story began. Dawson and Ella were playing in the front living room while I made lunch, and Ella kept saying a couple of different words that I didn't recognize and so I started listening more closely. "Schmuck" was one and "poopated" the other. Each was being said over and over and began to sound a bit dirty by this point. So I asked what "schmuck" meant, she explained "you know, like oh schmuck." I said "you mean shucks?" Yah. Okay, one mystery solved. So I get back to preparing lunch and continue to hear "poopate, poopate" and so now I'm convinced this is some sort of potty talk. So I called out to her "Ella, no potty talk, we don't talk about our poop" (well, this isn't exactly true, we all share in each other's pride at a really good poop). She immediately comes to me with this total teenager "duh Mom, you're so lame" look and says "no, pupate, like what a caterpillar does in it's chrysalis, it pupates." Yes, I got schooled by a 4 year old. So back to our little, actually large, cocoon of sorts. We frequently check this and one day we discover a very small hole at the top and on further investigation we see a huge, (literally, the biggest I've ever seen) gorgeous hummingbird moth sitting just above it's former home. It's wings were still wet, he was beautiful. It was so neat to be a part of something that happens in nature every day, something we take for granted. But seeing this whole process was really amazing, and we loved watching Ella light up with each new discovery we made. What was most likely a grotesque looking grub pupated and turned into the most vibrant winged creature I'd ever seen. And it gets better, that beautiful guy crawled up onto Todd's hand and just as I got the camera turned on, he took off for his first flight. It was a National Geographic moment indeed. If only I could've gotten a picture of our little friend before he flew away. The picture above actually resembles the very thing I thought Ella was talking about in the first place, but I assure you, it's just the chrysalis.