a butterfly debatably named porch

so mom and i were just chillin' on our front porch, mindlessly observing nothing, when i spied with my little eye a strange little hanging green pod. we both were one hundred percent clueless what the heck it was because third grade was a very long time ago, and i did not remember what a butterfly chrysalis looked like. apparently they look like this

a monarch butterfly chrysalis a couple days before it's emerging

and we did a lot of googling and found out they take a couple of weeks to bake before the butterfly makes his appearance. we thought we were going to have to wait forever, but we were wrong. the next day, our chrysalis began to darken

a monarch butterfly chrysalis about 24 hours before emerging

then over the course of the day he became very dark and slightly transparent, so that you could see his wings

you can already tell it's a girl

overnight, i was worried he'd break out and fly away without saying goodbye but i was not disappointed! in the morning we got a butterfly! mom ran upstairs and got everyone to come down and see her, it was kind of a huge deal because we didn't expect her so early :)

a monarch butterfly drying out her wings

she was there pretty much the entire morning. it was rainy and humid, so i guess that made drying out her wings take longer. which, pft, was awesome, cos she was just there all day, fine by us heh

later, while we were out chillin' on the porch, she started climbing up to higher ground and flew off. i was taking pictures and she like picked up her little foot and angrily shook her fist at me lol

our butterfly climbing up with her wings spread out

now all we have left to remember her by is her empty chrysalis :(

it's still there lol

our butterfly used to be a caterpillar and that is amazing. caterpillars turn into butterflies. in two weeks they turn into butterflies. just because. crazy