Reflecting. . .

My little Amelia turned 4 this week, where has the time gone? I look at her and think "I am going to blink and you will be off to college" and then I get really sad! It's so bittersweet that God gives us precious gifts called children to raise as we wish or how we see fit and then send them off hoping & praying that we have given them every piece of wisdom imaginable to be productive, loving, empathetic, cautious, caring adults. I know that day will come, but as for right now. . I don't want to think about it!

Each year on the girls birthdays I tell them the "story" of the day they were born, it's amazing what they remember from the year before. . as I was telling Amelia the story this year she looked at me and said "mommy, you forgot the part about the slime" Silly me. . how could I forget about the "slime"-- apparently last year the story was more "graphic" :)

Happy Birthday, my little Amelia!!!

Teresa the "catapapiller"

A few weeks back my little Amelia, thank God for her unending curiosity, found this marvelous "catapapiller" under a milk weed leaf. We decided to keep this puffy little friend in a jar and see what happened. Who would have known that this new friend of ours was ravenous! And when I say ravenous I mean devouring whole milk weed leaves in minutes, the jar fogged up and we could literally hear "her" munching on these delicate leaves.

Within a few days she crawled to the top of the jar and hung upside down for a while, I was secretly afraid our new friend had eaten her self into a state of delusion (which would explain hanging upside down!)-- but thank God for Google!!! this little bugger was none other than a monarch "catapapiller" and she was right on schedule. Soon she arched her puffy self into a "j" shape --

And then to my, Abigayle and Amelia's surprise began to spin an amazing green cocoon before our very eyes-- talk about perfect timing! How lucky were we to see this awesome feat?? The girls went nuts with excitement UNTIL. . . . our new friend spun the cocoon up to the very top of what we think was her head and then KERPLUNK!! her head fell off!!! yet the cocoon continued to wiggle??

It is like Christmas waiting to see what will emerge from this cocoon, I hope we are lucky enough to be home when the beautiful creature emerges :)