The Last Of His Kind

We let the last of the Monarch butterflies go today. We had a 100% success rate. All of the caterpillars made it through chrysalis and into healthy, vibrant butterflies.

Yesterday I was sure that one of our butterflies wasn't going to make it. He didn't want to fly anywhere and I thought maybe his wings were broken. We put him back in our little habitat, fed him sugar water, and decided to wait a day and try again.

This morning we took him back outside, and once again, he crawled all over Paprika like he was her best friend. And then a moment later, he flew away up into the sky and was he gone. Bye bye butterfly!



Paprika had a hard time saying goodbye to one of the butterflies. Yesterday (after Ginger's nap), I had planned to release one more butterfly and then take the girls to the park to feed the ducks. Well, Paprika had bonded to that one specific butterfly...and when she flew away, Paprika was upset. Really upset.

It took her about an hour to stop crying- she wanted the butterfly to stay with her forever and ever and ever. Eventually, she calmed down and was alright. We had been letting butterflies go all day - but she didn't want that one to go and didn't realize the butterfly would fly away and not come back.

It was hard because, you know, I got it. I wanted to get that butterfly for her, but there was nothing on earth I could do. She didn't care that we had more butterflies inside - she wanted that one, the one that was her special butterfly friend. She's doing okay now...but she still misses her butterfly.



Today Paprika and Mr. Mustard went to our friends' pool for the afternoon, while I stayed home with Ginger for her nap (I am doing my darndest to keep her on this nap schedule). The pool they went to is at this gorgeous house right on the beach...and I really wanted to go! But, the idea of taking a toddler who can RUN to a pool during her naptime seemed like a recipe for disaster. So, I stayed home. Mr. Mustard did not bring a camera, so I have NO photos even to live vicariously through them! Haha!

Then, Ginger didn't end up napping at all. So, I missed the day at the pool with the gorgeous view for no good reason. But, that's okay...Ginger and I had a lot of good one-on-one time.

Ginger had been changing so much lately. She wants to do everything Paprika does, including wearing Princess dresses. This one was a gift from Mimi and PopPop for Paprika's birthday. It's a little big for Ginger, but she just had to wear it today!



We ended the day out with dinner as a family at our favorite place. For some reason, tonight it was filled with police officers...which Paprika thought was the best thing ever. We struck up a conversation with one of the officers and found out they were from the LA Bomb Squad...and he offered to let Paprika meet the police dogs. Which she declined. Haha!