Author: Audrey

Where, Oh Where, has My Little Tooth Gone?

Yesterday, I went downstairs to get some clothes.  I banged my chin on the washing machine and I ran upstairs.  I said “Mommy, Mommy, I lost my tooth!” Daddy said “Wait a minute,” because he was going to tell us something.

Then me and Daddy tried to find my tooth, but we could not find it. When we could not find it, Momma said, “even if you put the thing (the tooth case) under the pillow, you will still get something from the tooth fairy.”

In the night I felt a hand, I think, come out and grab the thing (the tooth case) and I heard it kerplunk. Then in the morning, I checked and I saw that the tooth fairy had come.

New Little Girl

There is a new little girl in our family! Now I am holding her and she is trying to climb off of me.

Her name is Megan. She is a cute sleeper. She likes to hang on to my fingers and I was holding her and she started to cry, I put her down, and she was like “aaahhh”.  She really looks like a little girl.

I have a doll that is as large as a new born.  Megan is smaller then she is and Megan is going to wear an outfit that fits Big Baby perfectly.She also sleeps in Big Babies cradle.

Andrea and I changed Megan’s diaper, and Andrea said it looks like she squirted mustard in her diaper! Mark we changed a stinky diaper before you! When you get back, you are changing the next one!

Goodbye Butterflies

Momma said she is glad that we don’t have any more, but I want more caterpillars! I had lots of fun raising caterpillars this year. My deformed butterfly is still doing well. I released our last butterfly on Sunday. I hope that we can raise more butterflies next year. Even if Momma lets Mark raise a different kind, I hope to raise Monarchs again next year.

Last night we collected some milkweed and planted it in our garden. When you find the fuzzy stuff in a pod, we would like some please. We are going to try to have a butterfly garden!

Caterpillars collected this year: 70

Total Emerged Butterflies: 58

Survival Rate: 83%

New Butterflies

I have released three butterflies, two of them on Wednesday. Here are pictures of me playing with them.

I have a pet butterfly that is on hospice. She is the one that fell when emerging. Her wings are starting to tear apart and she lost part of her leg. We have her in a small cage that is sideways so she can climb the netting sides.  She likes to try to fly, but loves to eat! Mom said she will be the fattest butterfly we know, but she will die happy.  Mark says she will die very happily!

A butterfly just emerged! We were gone for about an hour and it emerged and its wings are straight already. We will release it in a few hours.

I have one chrysalises still. It is still green, but looking a little wrong.

Here is our running total:

Caterpillars collected this year: 70

Total Emerged Butterflies: 57

Lost!

On Saturday, I lost my first front top tooth. Today, I lost the second. Mark says that I sound funny. Now I can sing,

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
By: Donald Yetter Gardner in 1944

Every body Pauses and stares at me
These two teeth are gone as you can see
I don’t know just who to blame for this catastrophe!
But my one wish on Christmas Eve is as plain as it can be!

All I want for Christmas
is my two front teeth,
my two front teeth,
see my two front teeth!

Gee, if I could only
have my two front teeth,
then I could wish you
“Merry Christmas.”
It seems so long since I could say,
“Sister Susie sitting on a thistle!”
Gosh oh gee, how happy I’d be,
if I could only whistle (thhhh, thhhh)

All I want for Christmas
is my two front teeth,
my two front teeth,
see my two front teeth.

Gee, if I could only
have my two front teeth,
then I could wish you
“Merry Christmas!”

Learning more about Butterflies

We had something new happen to our butterflies. One fell while emerging. When Momma came up to check on them, she saw her and put her back on her chrysalis. Her wings were still wet. She looked way different from the other ones. She finished plumping out her wings, but she is still deformed. See the picture of her on the right. We are going to keep her until she dies ’cause she can’t fly outside. She can fly inside like a flutter.

We also had two butterflies die in one night and we don’t have any idea why.  Mark wonders if they would have survived in the wild. I don’t think they would have made it to Mexico.

Caterpillars collected this year: 70

Total Emerged Butterflies: 53

Running total:

Lost: 11, two after forming chrysalis, four butterfly just before emerging, five caterpillars and two moldy eggs.

Butterflies Released: 50

Butterflies Pinned: 2, not sure why, but two died in the big cage.  So Daddy taught us how to pin them.

Deformed Butterflies: 1

Soon to be Released: 0

Chrysalises: 6

Caterpillars: 0

Eggs: 0




New Butterdate Update

Today, Daddy and I went to do the trash and then got some milkweed.

Momma helped me feed the caterpillars.  We moved a lot to the aquarium.

I had to bury two dead ones today. One medium caterpillar who was sick a few days (Momma had put in quarantine) and one newly formed chrysalis.

Running Total:

Lost: 9, one after forming chrysalis, three butterfly just before emerging, four caterpillars and two moldy eggs.

Butterflies Released: 39

Soon to be Released: 0

Chrysalises: 6

Roaming Caterpillars: 3

Caterpillars in large cage almost ready to roam: 6

Eggs: 4

Exciting News

How many Monarchs can you see?

I have some exciting news! Three of our butterflies hatched! There are two boys and one girl.

We have one chrysalis that we don’t know if the butterfly is okay. If he does not emerge tomorrow, we will still clean the cage really well. We lost one small caterpillar while molting.

We have three new chrysalises  today. We had a sneaky caterpillar. Momma did not know to move one of the caterpillars and I was looking at the caterpillars and thought the one was dead. It was in its “J” under a leaf in a small container.

So, our totals are

Lost: 7, three butterfly just before emerging, three caterpillars and two moldy eggs.

Butterflies Released: 35

Soon to be Released: 1 girl and 2 boys

Caterpillar Stages: Momma refuses to count them all!

Chrysalis Problems

We are not sure what is happening, but our butterflies are dying in their chrysalises.  We have lost three butterflies so far. Momma did some research and we are spritzing them with water. Daddy thinks that they may be drying out even though it is so humid.

We cleaned the aquarium out and will not put any new caterpillars in it until all the butterflies hatch (or die 🙁 ) and we clean it good with bleach. So the largest caterpillars are in the butterfly cage for now.

Today one egg hatched and we found a medium size caterpillar while getting food for all the caterpillars.