Monarch Butterfly!

So in the midst of all the other things going on, a couple weeks ago, Brad hollers from the deck area that we need a jar for a caterpillar. So I found one, and we put the little guy, which happened to be a monarch caterpillar, in the jar with some leaves. Well, he didn't like the leaves and didn't eat anything for about 12 hours. He had climbed to the top of the jar, and was hardly moving. I was terrified that he was dying from starvation or something. I took him out of the jar, and tried different leaves. No dice. Finally I just put him back in the jar and hoped Leiden wouldn't be too upset when he died. I checked on him before I did the dishes that night, and he was still laying on the bottom of the jar, not moving. Literally 20 minutes later, Brad comes in to the kitchen and this was the conversation:
Brad: "Look at this!"
Me: "I know. I think he's dead. What are we going to tell Leiden?"
Brad: "There is no caterpillar here."
Me: "Of course there is. He's just under a leaf at the bottom of the jar."
After about 5 seconds, Brad: "No, there is no caterpillar here. There's a chrysalis."
Me: "What!? I checked on him 20 minutes ago! Thank heavens he's alive!"

Fast forward to last night, when we hung her (we determined it was a girl) up on a piece of cardstock as the chrysalis was turning dark. I was still not sure if she was even going to make it. This morning, you could see through the chrysalis the black and white and orange wings. We made a run to Target and we were gone for about an hour, and when we came back, this is what we found:



I took him outside and made a makeshift little perch for her. She's still hardly moving, and I'm still worried that she's not well. She hung there, pretty still for about 3 hours.



Then she started moving.



And opening her wings.



And roaming around, looking for nectar.



Revisiting the site of her rebirth.




I looked out the window while I was at the kitchen sink, and I saw Leiden doing this, showing Mac what the butterfly's antennae looked like. I couldn't grab the camera fast enough to catch the candid shot, so I asked her to do it again.



POTD 9/2/10: Leiden and her butterfly.