Fiona and nature

Sometimes we get some extra nature with our CSA food. The very first time we unloaded the food we found a tiny little caterpillar and Fiona was fascinated with it. Ever since then she has always asked (and looked for) the caterpillar. This week there was another tiny caterpillar! She was so excited. We put him in a box with some lettuce and watched over him throughout the day. We even skyped people to show him off.

After Fiona went to bed I found another caterpillar! A giant one! (Ok, he's really not that big, but compared to the other one he's enormous). I put him in the box with the other one and also put some corn leaves in there with him since the tiny one wasn't eating the lettuce.

The next morning they were both still there and had munched their way though a lot of corn leaf. Fiona was so happy to have caterpillars to love! She's pretty good at being gentle with them, and actually doesn't really like to hold them (the big one feels particularly weird walking on your skin) so at the moment they're just hanging out in a little container, eating corn leaf and pooping it back out at an incredible rate. Fiona of course finds the poop part completely fascinating.

I asked her what the big caterpillar's name was. She calls the smaller one "tiny teeny caterpillar" but was having trouble naming the big one. We talked about names, about how her name was Fiona and Mummy's name was Mummy, etc., and she decided to name the big one "eeeeooooeeeooootawaaaatawoootawaaata...". Every time I asked what his name was she gave me the same answer, so I guess that must really be his name!

So, nature fans, will either of them become a butterfly? We'll probably set them free soon, but they seem happy for now with their supply of corn leaves.