Emergence

After Duckie met a very unfortunate demise (He started to emerge from his chrysalis, got half way out and then just...died. Very odd. I felt horrible!), we were even more anxious to meet our metamorphosized friend, Chuckie. One Saturday morning, we awoke to find his chrysalis looking like this:

(This black chrysalis is actually Duckie before he passed on, but you can get an idea of what they look like when they are ready to emerge.) We were amazed at how clearly we could see the monarch inside. Beautiful!

Ten minutes later, I passed the "home of the chrysalis," and was shocked to see Chuckie, brand new, beautiful butterfly Chuckie! Incredible!

Owie REALLY wanted to hold the butterfly to mimic the experience of his dear friend, Oliver, who bonded with his monarchs by bravely allowing them to crawl up his arm into his hair. However, once I gently placed Chuck on O's leg, his confidence quickly waned. He wasn't quite as enamoured at this very close vantage point. Still, he was determined to let Chuckie sit on his head, so pictured is the portion of Chuck's life we like to call "60 Seconds in O's Hair."

Absolutely gorgeous, isn't he? This was the most amazing at-home project!! I am in awe!

Owen is much more comfortable with Chuckie clinging to my finger.

O did want to love Chuckie, just from a safe distance.

After we played with Chuck for a little bit, we were excited to release him towards his new life of flying and nectar drinking. We carefully placed him on the grass and waited eagerly for him to gracefully fly away. We waited and waited and waited, but Chuck sat there...for hours. Finally, we passed by the window and Chuck had quietly flown away. A little anticlimactic, but sweet all the same. We can't wait to repeat this project next year, hopefully with a better than 50% success rate!