Some More About the Butterflies

...and soon enough, a butterfly emerged from the cocoon.

It sat there, pumping up its wings to their full glorious size.

It tested out its new body, and soon enough, the joy of flight was discovered.

Although the real joy of flight was yet ahead.

We brought them to our back yard to let them fly free. The little buggies were fast. They took off with such enthusiasm that I couldn't even get a photo of their departure!
All we got was this:

And this:
Gedalya found a flower that fell off a tree in our back yard and was telling me how the butterflies will drink juice from these flowers.

And that was the end of our butterfly story. As far as we were concerned. Which apparently isn't very far.

Because...

A couple of weeks later we were playing in a park when we chanced upon a butterfly. And another. And another. They were flying all around us, and then...

Wow! The boys were ecstatic, and were convinced that these were our butterflies and that they remembered us, which is why they landed on each of us!

They landed on Adel, too, but I was wearing her in the Ergo so I couldn't get a photo.

These butterflies are a different species than ours, but they really look similar! I had to compare the photos side by side to realize the differences.

Maybe one day soon we will get caterpillars again. We'd have to do it before summer finishes. We'll see!

Captellers and Bapipibees

Sorry, but I can't help but use the boys' silly toddler words.
That would be "caterpillars and butterflies" for those of you foreign to this language.

One day the boys received a little jar in the mail with five cute caterpillars inside.

At first they were small and black. But then they ate and ate and ate.
And the hungry little caterpillars grew.They sprouted fuzzy, white tufts.

We also got a mesh pop-up habitat for the butterflies to live in once they emerge from the cocoons.
Until then, we had to keep the caterpillars in the jar.

"What? I'z caterpillar."

Zusha and Gedalya adored their new "pets." They took them outside for walks. They brought them to library programs. They played with them.

Soon enough, the five little buggies were ready for the next big step in their life.

They climbed up to the top of their jar and began to hang upside down.

They made cocoons in two groups. First two caterpillars went, and the next day, the other three. After missing the transformation of the first batch, I was determined not to miss the second. I stayed up till 2 AM (not much later than my regular bedtime) but when the J shaped creatures remained J shaped creatures, I just went to bed. The next morning...

...there was not a caterpillar to be found at our house.

Only fabulous, iridescent cocoons.

Luckily, I found a great video showing the whole process. I posted it here.

And then, we waited....

Lovey Dovey Fuzzy Wuzzy Nature Happenings

I went on a mini nature walk last night. Probably "micro" would be a better adjective.
My goal: to obtain leaves that the butterflies would lay their eggs on. Our cute, furry little caterpillars formed their chrysalides and have emerged this past Thursday and Friday. It is an awesome and mind boggling experience. The whole transformation goes so against my mortal understanding of how physics should work.

I only went down the block because I knew the plants we needed were to be found here. And since I'm all immersed in this nature stuff right now, I might as well share the nature photos that have accumulated in my photo files over the months. :)

We have been planning to release the butterflies within a few days of their hatching. Since the last butterfly emerged on Friday night, today was the most reasonable day to release them all. They stay in the place of release for a few hours, so we needed to find a remote area where they wouldn't be bothered.

One time, several years ago, we were at a playground when a class of preschool girls arrived with their teachers. They had several butterflies with them and released them on the grassy playing field. The poor creatures were disoriented and had nowhere to hide. Right in the pamphlet that is sent out with the caterpillars it says that they will stay in the spot you let them go for several hours before trying to find a hideout. So the responsible thing would be to let them go in a place where nobody walks. Here's a photo from that day, three years ago, of Zusha pointing out the butterfly:

(The poor things, with no shelter or shade...)

We planned to bring the beauties to Prospect Park where there is plenty of greenery and all the remote spots we could ever want. I even penned it into the summer planner I got. But we weren't able to do it in the end. Several factors prevented us from going but the decision was finalized by a phone call from a friend that a close friend of ours is here from Eretz Yisroel and today is her only chance to get together with us. So of course, we grabbed the chance.

We ended up releasing the butterflies locally. I will post about that soon. :)
But now, back to my nature walk. I read up about the butterflies' mating and egg-laying habits, and discovered that they lay eggs only on plants that the caterpillars like to eat. Smart insects. After googling "hollyhock," "thistle" and a few others, I was pleased to find that the two former grow on my block. Hey, if we get butterfly eggs, we'll save $18 on a new caterpillar kit.

I went out after midnight to collect the leaves. The breeze was heavenly. The sweet floral scent that it carried was even more so. I don't remember the last time the city air smelled so wonderful.

(nest)

On that walk last night I discovered the residence of the chipper insomniac bird. Probably a wayward toddler, he alone sings his incessant song all. night. long. I thought we had it bad, until I passed the house in whose front-yard tree this bird resides. You'd need ear plugs to sleep. And I was only across the street. Imagine having your window parallel to a creature that produces a sound not at all unlike a car alarm- you know, the ones that change every few seconds... eeeooo eeeooo eeeooo, bzzzz bzzzz bzzzz, ooo aaa ooo aaa... well, you get the idea. :)
Not only does it resemble a car alarm in its song of choice, but also in volume. I really should go out one night with a camera and get a video.

(Really, really big anthill)

So I collected the leaves and headed home. Through the maze of water bugs. They rule the roost at nights. I seriously could not walk in a straight line. I was amused by the contrast of the divine floral scent and the... water bugs.

Anyway, the butterflies (or bapipibees as Zusha and Gedalya like to call them in remembrance of their toddler word) attacked the leaves right away, but unfortunately they didn't lay any eggs. I guess I'll have to buy more before summer is finished!

We happened to have missed all five of the cocoons being built, and then, despite our best efforts, we also missed all five butterflies emerging. But this time lapse video I found kind of makes up for that.

Mishkabable

I have had a CRAZY few weeks, in which whatever could have gone wrong, has. Nothing major, B"H, just... oh, life is nuts.
After you finish reading this post, you will see what I mean. And I just might want to add random photos to the confusion.

Just like that.

Last week our washing machine broke. It's a good thing I happened to be caught up on 90% of all laundry, or else I might have broken down along with the machine. The water was standing from Friday until Monday. I wasn't able to fish out the wet (and still dirty) clothes till Sunday. Boy, was it ever messy! And the water began to stink really well.
Well, the important part is that, $110 later, it's working again. And I'm making up for lost time.

Our glass whistling kettle met its end. Hillel turned it on and forgot about it. I came into the kitchen to discover fumes all over the place and the plastic lid of the kettle melting and dripping onto the bottom. Right now we are using a small pot to boil water while I wait patiently for Hillel to replace the kettle. I might have to do it myself.

We ordered a butterfly growing kit! We received the habitat and then sent out for the caterpillars. They arrived at the beginning of the week, and the boys are taken with them. They are eating like the hero of the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." They grow visibly each day. So cool. Zusha takes them out on walks, to the library, all over. LOL.

I'm finally changing speech therapists, but it's really stressing me out. She is NOT the right one for me and Adel. I might put up a post about that. I'll see. Scheduling is one of the major issues here. There are bigger issues, but in order to keep it from being personal and hurtful, we are focusing on the scheduling troubles. But she keeps insisting that she can work with the issues, be more flexible... She hasn't been until now, so what will change? She doesn't just accept what I and the service coordinator are saying. I don't understand why, because she seems to be as annoyed by me as I am by her. Two more weeks of torture, and then hopefully I'll be home free.

Our landlady decided to put some gutters on the roof. Which is nice. Except for the fact that I have workers hanging out on scaffolds right outside my windows. I never know which window they'll pop into next, and I refuse to have all the curtains closed during the day. The result is that I am not able to just nurse at the computer without conducting an investigation. I can't send one of the boys in middle of getting dressed to get something from the closet. Normally we are able to do that because there are lush trees right outside our windows, blocking our windows from the other second floor windows across the street. To add to the charm, cement is dripping on our windows, window sills and screens. Sweet. Three days, and going strong, judging by the hanging scaffold outside our windows. I just choose to spend our days outside for the most part.

Our phone has been in conspiracy with the washing machine and kettle. It conked out on Thursday. I called Verizon and spoke to the robot. She assured me that they sent a trouble report and will have it fixed within 48 hours. On Sunday morning, still no dial tone, I called them up again. This time I convinced the robot to allow me to talk to a human. She told me that someone would be there on Monday morning and asked me for a phone number I can get text messages on. I didn't want to give it, but she said it's more efficient than calling, and they will just send out a message when the worker starts and when he finishes. That sounded okay, so I gave her the number.
The next morning the text messages started pouring in:

06/14 9:00 AM
O hai! We told you yesterday that a tech will come before 2 PM, but no. He will arrive by 5 PM because default procedures always override personal arrangements.

06/14 9:00 AM
We decided to send you another text just for the sake of messing with you. And to deduct more minutes from your cell phone that you prepaid for. Well, we have nothing much to say, except that you can call us if you decide you don't want us to fix your phone line anymore.

06/14 10:26 AM
We know we told you you'd only receive two texts from us and we are overfilling that quota as we speak, but we'd like to let you know that the guy who rides around all day fixing phone lines in dozens of homes daily has just left for work. Of course, this has nothing to do with you or your phone problem, as we can't tell you when he'll be at your house or at any other house on his route, but we thought you'd like to know that he's left our office. Yeah!

After that I received two more messages from them that I didn't care to open. My land line works now, even without them.

On Monday we found a baby pigeon, not more than ten days old, sitting on the sidewalk. People were kicking him around so I picked him up. What else would I do? Yeah, we have a cat at home. But... well, I took him home. Bought formula on the way. I gave it to him at home and he lapped it up greedily. I contacted the people who helped me with my previous pigeon and they found someone who can take this one. But she wasn't able to pick him up. I had to get the birdie to her somehow. At first I decided to use a car service, but in the end we decided to take the 1/2 hour train trip ourselves. It was some adventure! I'll post in more detail when I put up the photos of the sweetie birdie.

So as you see, my life has been nutty. I need to find a good GI for two of my kids. I need to schedule a genetics appointment for Adi. I'm not scheduling it yet because I think I need to see what the GI finds before I go to the geneticist again. I'm confuzzled. I'm spent. I'm being pulled in fourteen million directions. I need a goooood nap.

Here's Adi, enjoying a bike ride.

She seems to have enjoyed it more this time than last June!

I placed an order at OshKosh- I had 20% off and found a bunch of cute stuff on sale. This shirt was one of my choices:

They had the same one in little kid sizes, but with a bulldozer instead of an excavator on it. I asked Gedalya which one he'd rather have, since he is a size 4 and can wear things from the little kids and big kids sections. He chose an excavator. So I got two excavator polo shirts.
When the box arrived, I dug in to see the cute stuff. Pulled out the excavator shirts. Ripped open the bags they were in. Straightened them out. And there were bulldozers on them. There wasn't even such on option in the store! There were no big kid shirts with bulldozers- only excavators.
Normally, the boys would love the bulldozer shirts just as much, but since I asked them before what they want and they chose excavators, they rejected these. Now I have another errand on my shoulders- sending back these lovelies.

Oh, how could I forget another update? Adel's PT wants to do kinesio-taping on Adel's feet and ankles. She stands on the insides of her feet, and the PT thinks she might be able to align the muscles and joints while she is still young so that we might avoid braces later on. I'm happy to give it a try. I'm just a little apprehensive because it needs to be left on for days at a time and can't get wet. Good-bye to sprinkler fun for the next few weeks. It will be a little painful and uncomfortable for Adi to get her feet aligned, and I'm afraid it will ruin her relationship with this therapist. They have had their ups and downs, including many sessions where Adel just screamed and did nothing. Right now Adel is doing well with physical therapy and I hope the taping won't ruin it.

And for the finale, here's a cute hedgehog and the artist who drew him!