Last Thursday Summer spotted a beautiful caterpillar, which lead us to talking about the book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". Summer was a bit resistant to holding it, even not touching it. After Auntie Hope, my friend Leigh (both visiting that evening for dinner), David, and myself showing Summer how precious caterpillars are by each one of us taking turns to hold it, we hoped Summer would warm up. We spent about a good 30 minutes talking about how it feels when the caterpillar crawls, a bit tickle-ish and how they don't bite - one of Summer's greatest fears. Finally Summer mustered up the courage to touch it. I was so proud of her! After a few minutes of petting the caterpillar, she finally decided to hold it! Then Summer accidentally dropped the caterpillar, it crawled fine, but then Forrest walked by (with his helmet on from biking around on the driveway while this whole caterpillar event was happening) stepped on the caterpillar. Yes. Oh my. My heart just went out. And seeing Summer full in tears just made my heart feel very heavy. She was really attached to this little caterpillar. After some hugging and some calming down, I explained that the caterpillar is in a happy place. She had a hard time comprehending that statement. That night, Forrest felt so bad when he started to understand what was happening. He got out of his bed after we did our bedtime routine, came downstairs. I found him on the bottom steps, frowning, signing "Caterpillar"? As if he understood what he did. After some simple explaining that it was an accident and not his fault, he was able to settle down and sleep. The next day Summer saw another caterpillar and immediately said, "It's all better! its in a happy place!" She quickly warmed up to the little caterpillar and picked it up right away, and said she wanted to "place it in a safe place far away from Forrest." Now Forrest is more aware and is very careful when he sees a bug or a caterpillar. That night we read the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and every time the kids see a butterfly they say, "it came from the caterpillar!"
