09/22/2026
So why the Monarch?
Story time:
At age 4, my daughter’s bonus dad Tyler bought Layla a monarch caterpillar from the state fair. He wanted her to experience this crazy phenomenon called ‘metamorphosis.’ In fact we were all excited to witness the transformation of one of Gods most beautiful creations!
It was unbelievable how much this tiny insect ate and pooped! 🤣
Of course Layla had to name her new pet: she decided on Charlie.
A few weeks go by and then one morning little miss Charlie had made her cocoon or ‘crysalis’ and the waiting game began.
2 weeks later I got home from work I was greeted by an overjoyed, smiling little Layla! Charlie had finally emerged as a butterfly! Bright orange wings with a jet black covering , little Charlie was beautiful!!
I noticed Tyler wasn’t as enthusiastic as Layla. With an odd look on his face he slowly walked up to me and whispered in my ear, “we screwed up.” At first I chuckled thinking how silly his comment was.
But then I took a closer look at Charlie, watching it crawl up and down my daughter’s arm. Why isn’t it flying away??
Tyler pulled me aside and continued to say, “we didn’t realize that you have to wait for the wings to DRY before handling it. And I grabbed it gently by the wings to set it in Layla’s hand and the wing crinkled! Now it can’t fly.”
We now have a flightless butterfly that my daughter is literally obsessed with.
We googled EVERYTHING: what it eats, how to feed it, when to feed it, how to make sure we keep it alive, literally everything we had to do to make sure Layla was happy and that her pet was thriving!
Fast forward 5 days: I get home from work. Tyler tells me Charlie had passed away and Layla doesn’t know yet. When she wanted to go check on Charlie we had to break the news. We tell her that Charlie is up in heaven now, she starts to cry and asks to see her. We said a prayer and with tears in her eyes Layla ever so quietly says “bye bye butterfly.”😭 I look up at Tyler, who is now crying, then I start crying- just emotional over this little butterfly.
Charlie brought so much joy to Layla’s life, and Layla showed us how truly special little moments are!!
