Life Sciences

Bryan loves butterflies. Everyone who know him knows that.

He’s got lots of books on butterflies – fiction + nonfiction, English, Malay, Chinese. He can name the different parts and lifecycles of butterflies. He can even tell you the difference between a moth and a butterfly, and spot one from the other.

So whenever there are any caterpillars at my mom or my aunt’s house, they will keep the caterpillar for him. Wait for it to turn into a chrysalis (pupa) and transform to a butterfly.

The first few times we kept the caterpillars, he refused to let the butterflies fly away. We will either keep the butterflies in empty aquarium, net laundry basket or a big box with  a netting over it. We will also put some fresh flowers for the butterfy. But butterflies have short life span and don’t survive well in captivity. So they normally die after a few days.

I keep telling Bryan that he must let the butterflies go. That the butterflies are miserable because they misses their friends. But he answered, “If I let them go, then I cannot see them anymore already lo. I want the butterfly die. Then cannot fly away already lo”

*Faints* I was thinking “OH NO! I gotta do something about this.”

So I continued to brainwash him about how precious life is, that everything has a right to live, to be free and to be happy.

On the third time, it was at my mom’s house. Bryan was very excited when he saw that the butterfly had transformed when he came back from school.

So I started my “brainwashing” again.

Bryan: Mommy look. This is a Malayan Mormon butterfly. Same like the one at Butterfly farm one hor?
Me: Yes. Bryan. You can look at the butterflies for a while. Then after that you have to let the butterfly go.
Bryan: But, but I want to see the butterfly for long long time. If I let it go, then I cannot see oredi..you know.
Me: Yes, but the butterfly wants to go home. Back to Butterfly Farm. If I keep you in a room and don’t let you go home. Will you be happy?
Bryan: No. *Think*
Bryan: Why the butterfly don want to fly one?
(Of course la..not much place to fly mah. Only a box)
Me: Because the butterfly is sad. Not happy. It misses its friends.
Bryan: It misses the bee, the grasshopper, the beetle, the stick bug hor?
Me: Yes.
Bryan: *Think* Think* I think I will let the butterfly go.
Me: *Grinning happily*
Bryan: But but I want to see a while first. Wait until I finish dinner ok.

After dinner. He gladly proclaimed that he is ready to let the butterfly go. Dylan, him and my parents took the box outside the house and let the butterfly go. The butterfly was quite lifeless in the box but as soon as it was out, flutters quickly away and fly really high.

Bryan: Mommy, the butterfly is soooo happy to fly out. It can fly SOOOOOO high you know. Now I cannot see the butterfly already. I think the butterfly fly back to butterfly farm already.

2 weeks ago, my aunt found 2 caterpillars on her plant again.

So I took both the caterpillars with some stalks of her plant so that the caterpillar can continue feeding on it. Mana tau, by the next morning, the plant habis kena sapu. I had to go to the market and shop for sommo “food” for the caterpillar. Caterpillars only feed on specific plants depending on the species. Coincidentally, this species feeds on curry leaves.

But after a day, the caterpillars turned into chrysalis.

After about a week, I thought it will be nice for Bryan to take the chrysalis to school for show & tell. And the school can keep it there until it turns to a butterfly, and it should not be long now. I called his principle and told her the idea. She was very excited about the idea. I told her that I will let Bryan bring the chrysalis on Monday just in case the butterfly decided to come out during the weekend.

Unfortunately, the butterflies really decided to come out on the weekend. One on Saturday morning and the other on Sunday morning.

This time, I no longer had any trouble asking Bryan to let the butterflies go.

Jump posing for the camera

Getting a last look at the butterfly

Fly away to freedom

On one of the days, we were so happy when the butterfly flutters to my neighbor’s plants and start feeding on the nectar there for a long time. It gave Bryan and Dylan a chance for them to look at it longer.

Posing with the freed butterfly

I think being able to let go and move on is such an important skill/ value to have in life. And I am very happy to see that my little boy has learnt to be kind to other living things and to let go of the things he loved so dearly. I am so proud of you Bryan.

P/s: To reinforce this value in him, I told his teachers at school to praise him for his kindness too.

Drawing

Bryan scribbles. He scribbles a LOT. Until recently, we cannot tell what he is drawing.

Few weeks ago, he started to drew faces. On everything. Circles, squares, rectangles, triangles….shapes or items with no shapes. Everything also have faces.

Then last weekend, his first milestone. He drew a butterfly.

Both hubb and I are so proud to see this drawing! Finally his drawings are going somewhere.

Oh yes, you see his name sticker at the top of the doodle board. We have already started to buy things in twos for the kids, and started to label those toys so that they learn to take care of their own things. If their own toy is spoilt…too bad

Butterflies,…Yay…Ahhhrr…..

Sunday – 29 June
10:15am – Bryan & Mommy wake up.

Bryan: Mommy, I want to go Butterfly farm!

Yup, that’s what Bryan said to me the first thing on Sunday morning. Both of us slept in that day. Dylan woke up at about 8am, I bf him, passed him to hubb, then continued to Zzzzz with Bryan. (lucky me! )

When we woke up, hubb had already made breakfast for us as Dylan had went back to sleep. Toasted tuna sandwiches! (I can be quite lucky sometimes). So hubb took Bryan downstairs for breakfast while I took my own sweet time to wash and change.

When I got downstairs, Bryan asked again for Butterfly farm.

Hubb: Aiya, he talk only one la. He doesn’t know what is butterfly farm one.
Me: He knows one.
Me: Bryan, do you want to go butterfly farm.
Bryan: I want to go Butterfly farm. Wo yau chu hu tiek kong yuen (repeat in Mandarin version sommo leh)
Me: See, i told u he knows what it is! He remembers he had been there before.

So we decided to take him as he had been quite well behaved lately. It was already close to 11am, and hubb said that it will be close to lunch time. So timing is quite bad.

No worries…. I checked my fridge and told hubb that I will just pack some sandwiches and we can have lunch on the go. So I made some salmon + cheese sandwich, put some apple juice into a tumbler for Bryan. Meanwhile, hubb quickly gave the boys their bath.

We left about 12 noon, taking the scenic Balik Pulau route. It took us almost 1 hour to reach the farm…and I could see Bryan getting sleepy by the long ride.

Bryan was very excited when we entered the farm. “Wahh.. so many butterflies.” He exclaimed happily. But soon, happiness turns into fear. He got scared of the butterflies. He refused to let go of hubb the entire time.

Wanna see more of his scared expression?

Photos not enuf, wanna see his scared video? Wuahahahahaha

Darn funny to see Bryan so scared. But really geram also coz we drove all the way there and he is scared of this and that. Even scared of the huge fishes in the pond. I asked him why scared, and his reply was, “Wo tiek tau li mien.” (I fall down inside) – he’s scared of falling into the pond.

How about Dylan? Dylan still blur blur la. He was happy to be in my sling and did not care where we were. He did attract a lot of attention being in my sling.

We took the Balik Pulau route on the way back again, because we wanna have some durians!! Yes! We did stop by at one of the roadside stalls and have some durians. Bryan loved it! No photos coz our hands are all sticky from durian. Dylan had already fell asleep then, so I had to have my durians with him asleep in my arms.

Durian not enough…got laksa sommo. Hey, we’re at Balik Pulau mah, how can we not have their famous laksa as well.