The Caterpillars

Aunt Barb, Uncle Lee, and Kyleigh sent Abby a caterpillar-to-butterfly gift for her birthday.  We ordered the four live caterpillars online when we were ready and waited impatiently for their arrival.  Abby lettered a sign for her door to pass the time:  "I want the caterpillars to come."  I thought she was having me spell out "I want a pet" until she asked how to spell "the."  They came!  [Thank you for such a hit of a gift!]

We followed all of the instructions. We moved them to a netted hatching house and waited for the grand transformation.  Three of the butterflies hatched, and one tried but didn't make it out of its cocoon.  Something was wrong with its wings from the first.  At one point I said, "Poor little guy," and then Adam took up the chorus of "poor little guy" for the next day or so.  Abby conducted a funeral last night for the "poor little guy" in the front flowerbed attended by her brother and our dear babysitter Jenna while we were at our home inspection for our new-to-us home.