The Butterfly Life Cycle

A few weeks ago, my mom and Ian found a caterpillar outside.  They brought it in the house and made a home for it, complete with air holes, grass and leaves.  I figured that the caterpillar would only survive a few days and actually tried to convince Eli to let the caterpillar free outside, but before I could convince him, the caterpillar decided to take a nap! Eli lifted the lid off one day and was heartbroken that he couldn't find his caterpillar.  I pointed out the thing hanging from the lid and he almost started to cry.  We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar again and Eli cried "But I don't want a butterfly, I want a caterpillar!". I told Eli there was nothing we could do to stop it from becoming a butterfly. Yesterday a beautiful butterfly emerged. Eli was finally excited about having a butterfly!  This week at preschool they are learning about the letter B and Eli took the butterfly to preschool with the pictures we took throught the last few weeks and shared this with his class. At the end of class today, Eli and his friends at preschool let the butterfly go. This morning, before Eli took the butterfly to school, Eli and I were talking about letting the butterfly go and he was worried about the butterfly being okay. When I told him that most of the time butterflies make their cocoons and turn in to butterflies outside and that they are all alone at first when the come out of their cocoons he asked if the butterfly would be able to find it's family. When I told him that it would definately find friends and maybe some family he said "Well, that's good. Finding his family will make him happy."  So sweet!