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There's a Moonball in the House!

When the rains came and kindergarten classes began again, we all said goodbye to our turtles Stripey & Master Oogwei, who had spent the summer vacation with us. My daughter understands that they're much happier with the two other turtles at her grandparents' forested country home. Still, she was mournful each time she went to the balcony & saw that they were gone. Well, a puppy was out the question. So, a month ahead of her 5th birthday we took my daughter to get what she calls a 'binny pig'.  Moonball is 2-month-old female guinea pig. As usual I did a lot of research before deciding to get her, and chose a short-haired, gentle pet that's easy for a child to hold. Moonball is a 'traditional' or 'ordinary' American/English cavy. I remember they were simply called 'guinea pigs' when I was kid. But breeders & enthusiasts now use the term 'cavy', from the scientific name Cavia porcellus. Cousin It and Other Underarm Bling Taking a casual stroll by the pet store, I was astounded by the variety of exotic cavy breeds here. I suppose if you were, say, Paris Hilton looking for some new 'underarm bling' and were bored with the obligatory chihuahua, you could get a cavy that looks like a tiny shih tzu. There's even a breed that's a walking wig, with long silky hair flowing over its eyes and past its paws. 'Cousin Itt', my husband remarked, and he's right, it does look like a member of the Addams Family! Moonball is so small she easily fits inside a coffee mug. The vet told me she weighs 125 grams right now. But she'll grow very quickly, and may reach 2kg, full-grown. And no wonder--this little piggy eats all day, easily consuming more than her weight in vegetables, pellets & grass/hay. Just like a human baby, she eats for an hour, sleeps the next hour, wakes up and eats, then goes back to sleep again. Here's Moonball dozing in her little cardboard box: Boring pet, you say? Hardly. When you walk into the room, she greets you with a pleasant 'wheeking'. (And it's not simply because she thinks you have food, since there's plenty of that in her house all day.) She chirps back gently when you talk to her. And when you do give her fresh treats, she cavorts, with her little round bottom behaving like it had a mind of its own. Apparently, when a cavy is delighted, a chemical called serotonin floods the pleasure center of its brain, which Moonball expresses by bouncing about. Experienced owners call it 'popcorning' and say it's a sign of a happy piggy. One evening, my daughter started brushing her gently while Moonball was eating, and she fell asleep face-down in the bowl. Really, you couldn't resist adoring her, even if you tried. Want to see more Moonball? Click here. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUGGESTED RESOURCESFor those interested in having a pet cavy for their kids (or themselves), there are many online resources available. I've listed here the ones I found most useful, plus some  important LOCAL resources, because tropical conditions will present different challenges. To read before you get your Guinea Pig: Seagull's Guinea Pig Compendium Cavy Cages: Your Guinea Pigs' Home Guinea Lynx: A Medical & Care Guide for GPs Exotic Pets Veterinarian Animal Care Specialists Stalls 16-17, Pet Village Tiendesitas Complex, C-5 Highway Pasig City This is where I brought Moonball for a 1st well pet checkup. Among their vets is Dr Sheng Ordinario, who was on hand during our visit. She was very helpful & informative, and has a cheerful disposition that will appeal to kids & new cavy owners. Philippine Pet Finder - Small Animals Forum A huge (& somewhat chaotic) forum full of anecdotal information about cavies across the country. Useful for fresh tips on local sources of cavy-related goods & services (what's good, and what to avoid). Pilipinas Cavy Fanciers Inc. (PCFI) Small but growing local group that aims to establish cavy standards. Staged their first cavy show in 2010.

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Moonball the Guinea Pig (Updated Aug. 26, 2010)

Latest member of the family. See the blog entry too.

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A Boyfriend for Stripey

A Nice Surprise Soon after Stripey came home with us, I remembered my friend Lara mentioning that she often took in unwanted pet turtles. I contacted her & was surprised to learn that she had an 8-year-old male Malayan Box Turtle that I could adopt. An Escapee from the Pet Trade The people who had given him to Lara said he had been found on the street. I'm pretty sure he was captured from the wild for the pet trade, because he has a perfectly round hole in the rear of his shell that's said to have been made by pincers used to haul them in. Stripey's new boyfriend Oogwei, with a carapace 5.5 inches long, is an inch bigger than her, and has a tail thicker than my little finger. He is quite dignified, like his cartoon namesake Master Oogwei in the movie "Kung Fu Panda." I often find him basking on the rock platform I placed in their new & bigger home. She Likes to Tease Both turtles are quite active, and seem to get along rather well. I often catch Stripey 'investigating' her new friend, poking her nose at him and nuzzling his face & neck. But she quickly retreats when Oogwei shows any interest. Playing hard to get, maybe? The Turtle Cafeteria I've been offering them different kinds of food, whatever is available fresh. Both turtles like banana, papaya, squash, kangkong (swamp cabbage), chicken, dried shrimp (known locally as 'hibe'). They don't seem to like the vitamin-rich turtle sticks I got from the pet store, but now I just mash it in with their fruit. While Stripey is a very dainty eater, Oogwei has an especially large appetite & eats very quickly, likely from having lived for a long time with Lara's two huge 15-year-old red-eared sliders, who are several times his size. I'm hoping they'll soon feel comfy enough to mate. See my other blog entries on our turtles: The Secret Native: Stripey the Turtle

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Haribon's Million-Hectare Walk (2009)

My family joined the Haribon Foundation's Million-Hectare Walk, an environmental conservation movement to restore one million hectares of our Philippine rainforests using native tree species by year 2020. The MHW is held annually in November. For the last three years (2007-2009) it has taken place at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Nature Center in Quezon City. It was drizzling that morning, but it was fun to be part of the crowd of enthusiasts on the jogging trail. I have fond memories of this park from my childhood days. It's even prettier than I remember. Lilo loved the cockatoos, and the stray cats, too! http://www.haribon.org.ph/Road/The-Million-Hectare-Walk-:-FAQ All photographs by Joy Abara. Hi-resolution copies are available by request.

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The Secret Native: Stripey the Turtle

Stripey the Turtle was found in the backyard pond of my parents' country home. We don't know how she got there, but apparently she's the culprit behind the mysterious disappearance of several tilapia being raised by our caretaker. Secret Natives Last week, I was surprised to know that our neighbor had recently asked that we adopt 2 other turtles which they had also found wandering around in their area a couple of years ago. Our family has owned that four-hectare woodland property for close to 30 years now, but in all that time, I had never heard of its native wild population of turtles. Before now, I had merely believed Stripey to be someone's escaped pet, previously purchased from the exotic animal trade. Vulnerable Species Intrigued, I looked it up and (though I'll need expert verification) it seems Stripey is a Malayan / Southeast  Asian Box Turtle or Cuora amboinensis, which is on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. I'm very excited about all this, and will be looking into possibly turning some part of our Agape Springs property into a sanctuary for Philippine semi-aquatic turtles. It shouldn't be too difficult, since some of them have actually been thriving here unnoticed. Small Turtle, Big City Turtles aren't ideal pets for young kids, because of potential salmonella poisoning. But I decided that the advantages of bringing Stripey home with us as a temporary summer pet far outweighed the risks both to my daughter & the turtle. Lilo gets to feed & play with Stripey, and I get to observe them both. We wash our hands thoroughly after each contact. Stripey's city home is our warm, sunny balcony where she has two large plastic tubs --one for rest & recreation and the other for meals. We've placed large rocks in them to serve as a basking area and a dining area. But Stripey stays in the water most of the time. ...And a Side Order of Chicken Wings To see what she likes to eat, we've laid out bread, lettuce, raw chicken wingtips, pineapple, and vitamin-enriched turtle food sticks from the pet store. She snubbed everything but the chicken. Which leads me to believe she's an older juvenile or young adult, because her kind tend to prefer more protein while they're young, and go vegetarian as they get older. Not much different from us, as I see it. Countryside Gourmand This Holy Week, when we bring her back to where we found her, Lilo & I will be netting some waterbugs, duckweed & guppies from the pond, just to see if Stripey will like them. Thank God she was found by us, and not by someone who would've turned her into soup! Happy Easter to everyone! My other blog entries on our pet turtles: A Boyfriend for Stripey

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Stripey the Turtle (2010)

Stripey is a Southeast Asian Box Turtle (Cuora amboinensis) found in our backyard in March 2010.

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Sapphire Girls' Club (2010 Jan-March)

My daughter Lilo joined Sapphire Girl's Club for the first time this year. It's an every-Saturday-morning cooking & crafting session for girls 5-9 y/o (primary & intermediate), right here at The Alexandra. At age 4 years & 3 months, Lilo was the 'baby' of the group, but she was pleased to be in the company of the 'big school' girls! I sat with her just to make sure she could keep up, but she had no trouble at all because the Titas Vicky, Minnie & Pepem, who guided the sessions, were so 'kewl', even I had fun.

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Annie, the Free Spirit Mini Doll (Crochet)

OK, so I've never been one for girl dolls. My daughter, likewise, has preferred animal toys from an early age (despite having received a wide variety of plush dolls and Barbies and Bratz dolls). Until recently, that is. Since turning four, she has asked me to make dolls based on characters from her favorite movies--Sally Stitches (from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas), and Victoria and Emily (from Burton's Corpse Bride). So, over the last 3 months I've been looking around for an easy crochet doll pattern, since I've only ever made amigurumi. There are lots of really cute girl doll patterns online, but the doll I needed had to be small enough to fit the dollhouse my daughter received last Christmas. Then I came across the Free Spirit Mini Doll by Beth Ann, which even comes with patterns for tiny dresses & other accessories. My creation doesn't look quite like the really pretty original. I had to use shiny black buttons for  eyes. The recommended ones aren't sold where I live, and those little googly ones that rattle about didn't have the right feel. 'The eyes look scary,' my mom said the first time she saw it. I was contemplating replacing the eyes with black felt circles, but my daughter liked the doll and immediately christened her Annie (from Little Einsteins, I think). I guess that means the old eyes stay put. My Mini Annie differs from the original pattern in other ways too. Like her hair, which I made to be detachable (using strips of velcro). Weird, I know; but hey--if you can change her clothes, why not her hair? The wig caps are really fun to make, just like Beth said. After making Annie's white lace nightgown (also a little simpler than in the original pattern) I went on to make the the little sundress. I'm only halfway through making the skirt when my daughter sees it and insists on keeping the skirt short. She's right--it turns out like a little French tutu. So then I had to make her some little knickers, too, just so she's fit for company.                                            Front view .... ... and back view, with a tiny pearl button. Now my daughter's asking me to make pink shoes with flowers.....help, anyone know a pattern for tiny shoes?

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Shock and Awe: Day 23 of our Pet Caterpillar Project

This blog follows the progress of 2 bolina caterpillars that my daughter, age 4, brought home from the Marikina World of Butterflies. To catch this caterpillar-to-butterfly reality show from the start, click here. (Photo on the left shows the pupa before (left) and today (right).) DAY 23: Something Dark "One of the pupae has turned black," my husband, an early riser, reports on Saturday morning. It's the 8th day since the first pupa was formed. The whole family has been on tenterhooks, waiting for the pupae to turn transparent. We were told that this would be the tell-tale sign that the butterfly would soon emerge. Today, the older (and noticeably smaller) of the two pupae wasn't looking very good at all. Suddenly I am facing my worst fears from last week, that perhaps one of my caterpillars had been parasitized. I have read somewhere, too, that sometimes the pupa simply dries up. I take pictures to record this disappointing event anyway. As my readers have said, this is all part of life. But on closer scrutiny my photos reveal a wing-like pattern on both sides of the black pupa. My heart beats a little faster. "Wait," I say. "Maybe it isn't dead at all; maybe it's just changing." Over the next 2 hours my husband and I check on the blackened pupa every 5 minutes. But the quick-change artist eludes us again. Suddenly, there it is, our first butterfly. The blood-like droplet on the floor is meconium (photo above), a fluid that comes out naturally when the butterfly emerges. At first its wings are closed tightly together, and look quite small.              As they dry the wings seem to enlarge, and hints of electric blue appear.                         Then I notice there are actually four wings, not just two. By now my daughter is jumping up and down, calling every single person in the house to see her beautiful butterfly. Of course she plays paparazzi again to the newest celebrity. In plain daylight, our Hypolimnas bolina butterfly (a.k.a. Jacintha eggfly) appears from top view to be mostly black, with white spots tinged with purple. The underside of her wings, when folded up, are different shades of brown with white streaks (photo left).                          But flash photography reveals her iridescent glory (below). Not dead after all, and certainly not a monster either. Just simply amazing. Tomorrow: The Second Coming? Stay tuned.

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THE MAGIC BEGINS: Pet Caterpillars, Days 12 - 17

This blog follows the progress of two bolina caterpillars that my daughter, age 4, brought home from the Marikina World of Butterflies. To catch this caterpillar reality show from the beginning, click here. DAYS 12 and 13: Parlor Pythons "It's longer than my pinky, Mommy!" my daughter squeals as soon as she has said her 'good mornings' to the caterpillars. In this miniature jungle they look like giant thorny pythons waiting in a thicket. Both caterpillars have moulted into their 5th instar, growing ever larger as their frenzied pace of eating continues. The leaf supply that used to last them two or three days is now decimated overnight. Their frass balls are now the size of large peppercorns. DAY 14: Change is in the Air Early this morning, I'm surprised to find one of the caterpillars investigating the floor of the jar. After carefully brushing off the little bits of poop from its legs, I return it to the foliage. But it's not interested in eating & keeps extending its head outward from the leaf edge, which bends down perilously. I realize suddenly: it's looking for twigs! My usual morning exercise routine turns into a mad hunt for dry twigs & a new habitat. One of my craft boxes is swiftly commandeered and lined with twigs, with greenery in the middle. One caterpillar voraciously starts on the fresh leaves I put in, but the other one merely sniffs disdainfully and leaves behind these greener pastures for twigs. DAY 15: Zen Moments I'm always amazed at how impossibly large they look now. My monster-caterpillar-on-a-stick has reached full size, which sources say is about 6 - 7cm. For the rest of the day it no longer eats, but every two hours I find it on a different twig, sitting very still. Perhaps it's meditating on the best place to pupate. Meanwhile, its monster sibling is still happily munching away. DAY 16: Crunch Time The next morning the older caterpillar is hanging upside down like a bat, in an abdominal crunch that would put any bodybuilder to shame. My daughter is breathless with excitement. 'Chrysalis' is her current mantra. "Mommy, I can see it moving," she says, and she's right--though it seems frozen in this pose, I can see it twitching. It seems to have shrunk to about two-thirds its former size. By noon, there's new exuviac on the floor of the box. Our caterpillar has become a spiky dark brown pupa! Not to be outdone, by early afternoon the remaining star of our reality show begins to diet & have its own Zen moments (so very L.A.!) DAY 17   Crafty, Crafty.... By 7AM, the other caterpillar has struck the pose, and I'm camped out with my camera, determined to capture this in living color. I check every 5 minutes, for 2 hours. Nada. Then my daughter comes to kiss me goodbye (she spends Sundays with my in-laws)....and when I look again, the crafty little quick-change artist has pupated! Like it was just waiting for me to turn my back! Oh well. The other older pupa has turned a lighter brown, with darker brown bands and whorls. Perfect camouflage--looks like wood, my husband remarks, reminding me that the animal world has inspired not just Hollywood, but also the military. To give the newer pupa enough time to harden, I won't clear out the uneaten greens and unused twigs until tomorrow. In about 7 days the emergent butterflies will need a lot of space for hanging out while drying their new wings. The magic has begun. Next stage: Butterflies!

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INSPIRATION FOR MONSTERS: Pet Caterpillars, Day 11

This is a blog on two caterpillars my daughter, age 4, brought home from the Marikina World of Butterflies. To read about our 'caterpillar reality show' from its debut, click here. DAY 11: Zombie in the House? Our two caterpillars behave very differently from each other. One always hides, and the other almost always perches nonchalantly on the top leaves. Of course, since I can't really tell them apart, I have no way of proving this. But over the past 10 days this has been a pretty consistent pattern. While its gregariousness has made it easy for me to observe & photograph its progress, I'm starting to worry--is my little extrovert actually a zombie? Body Snatchers In the wild, caterpillars fall prey to parasitic flies & wasps that lay eggs in its body without killing it right away. When the fly eggs hatch, the caterpillar essentially becomes a movable feast for the parasitic larvae, which slowly devour the caterpillar from the inside. When the caterpillar finally pupates, the larvae also reach maturity, completely consuming its host. Instead of the butterfly, full-grown flies then emerge from the chrysalis. Gruesome, 'no? This chilling event has inspired many sci-fi horror literary works & films. One famous example of this is F. Ridley Scott's cult classic Aliens series, where aliens incubate in and eat their way out of living humans. So why do I think one of my caterpillars might already be a walking buffet? Sources say that while a parasitized caterpillar appears physically normal, many are observed to be 'distracted', with a tendency to stay in the open. (Learn more about caterpillar enemies here.) Butterfly...or Monster? Both of our caterpillars came from a butterfly farm covered by netting, so there's a very good chance they're healthy. Of course, I have no idea what those parasitic insects look like, so it's quite possible too, that the netting I placed around my pet habitat was penetrated by a really tiny fly. I'm trying to imagine how I'm going to explain it to my daughter if the worst happens. I hope I'm wrong, and it's just feeling a little lethargic. Hopefully though, at least one of our caterpillars will become a butterfly. Anyway, here's a 'Christmasy' photo of them (right), dozing on a kitchen rag while their room at the 'Holeyday Inn' is being cleaned. Both are now 3 cm long and 0.75 cm wide. They moulted again yesterday (the 3rd that I've observed) which would make this the 4th instar. According to what I've read, there should be a 4th (and final) moulting, after which...the pupa stage! Butterfly... or monster? Stay tuned.

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NATURE CHILD: Pet Caterpillars, Day 10

This is a blog on two caterpillars my daughter, age 4, brought home from the Marikina World of Butterflies. To read about our 'caterpillar reality show' from its debut, click here. Sunday is when my daughter visits her grandparents, so before we leave for Lolo & Lola's house, we stroll down to a nearby kamote patch to harvest fresh leaves for our caterpillars. Lilo does the cutting with her yaya's help (left). Seconds later, my daughter jumps 2 feet in the air and clings like a tarsier to my hip. A big red ant has bitten her ankle, poor girl. The ground is swarming with them now. Back home, we wash each leaf carefully in case there are ant stowaways. It's time to measure the caterpillars & photograph them. All pain forgotten, Lilo mimics me with her toy camera. So I asked her to make today's photo record using a real camera instead. This way she'll get an intro to macro photography. (Kids today are amazing; I was surprised to observe her, six months ago at age 3.5, consistently using the telephoto and wide-angle features of the Nikon S60 after only a single session.) The caterpillars are now 2.5 cm after just 2 days. That's about half a centimeter of growth per day! Lilo (left) took the photo record below, using the Nikon Coolpix S60:

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Exuviae, Frass & Instar : PET CATERPILLARS, Day 9

This is a blog on two caterpillars my daughter, age 4, brought home from the Marikina World of Butterflies. To read about our 'caterpillar reality show' from its debut, click here. We're up late this Saturday morning, by which time the caterpillars are already stirring. One peeks out shyly as we check the jar. Totally unfazed by our presence, it munches away greedily as I do my paparazzi bit. Suddenly it freezes, as if listening for something, and I hold my breath, worried that I'm disturbing it. But no--it just squeezes out a couple of round black pellets and resumes feeding. Eat, poop, eat, poop; that's all it does while I'm taking pictures of it. Seems there's not much difference between this caterpillar and my daughter when she was a baby. I remember we even used to affectionately refer to her as ' the little grub'. "I see something there!" my daughter pipes up excitedly. She has spied two 'helmets' and black fuzz among the droppings at the bottom of the jar, and wants me to fish it out with my ''reezers" (tweezers). "They're called exuviae," pipes in my mother (a retired zoology professor), referring to the skins or outer shell casings cast off during insect moulting. Instar, on the other hand, is the name for the stages between moultings. Even caterpillar poop, as it turns out, is better known as frass among ecologists. Exuviae. Instar. Frass. Sounds so much prettier than it looks. Our pets are (probably) in their 3rd instar, because I've seen two moultings so far. Each instar looks different, so we stage a little fashion show. Click on the photo below, and you'll see that our little 'leggy runway model' is no longer just all-black, but honey-gold around the spines, with orange feet. Tres chic. The Thirsty Caterpillar It's a very warm afternoon. Caterpillars get thirsty too; I remember reading that somewhere. I've no sooner misted the leaves with water than a crawler comes out, eats the glistening, moistened top of the leaf, then retreats back out of sight.  Read our previous posts on our pet bolina caterpillars: Days 1-7 Day 8

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BOTTLE STAR GALACTICA

I love it when old traditions are made new. The parol (star lantern) is a much-loved icon of Christmas in the Philippines. When I was a child, seeing it on the streets was a sign that the best was to come--no more school, and the smell of butter melting on smokey bibingka & puto bumbong. In those days, not everyone may have had a Christmas tree, but every Filipino household surely had a parol. These handcrafted stars used to be made of various native materials. If you had the money, you'd invest in a capiz shell star. Or you could make one out of commonly available bamboo and rice paper. Walking past the market the other day, I noted that the ordinary parol sold on the street corner, while still uniquely handmade and riotously colorful, is likely to be made of plastic. This year, the traditional parol gets what I think is a better makeover. My daughter's preschool Creative Space asked each family to create a christmas lantern out of recycled or biodegradeable materials. If it's anything like the astonishingly creative Green Halloween we had, this Green Christmas pageant will be a real spectacle. We made our family parol (above left) out of five bottles of Mountain Dew, wire, glitter wrap and a Christmas ball. It didn't look like much at the start.... ....but it ended up much better than I expected. I really like the translucence of the bottles. Creating a Green Christmas is so much better than dreaming of a white one, don't you think? Especially in a land without snow.

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PET CATERPILLARS, Day 8

Hooray, our two caterpillars survived their first week at our house! DAY 8 (Friday, Dec. 4) The caterpillars looked sleepy when we checked on them early this morning. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK) "Are they itchy worms?" my daughter asks, peering into the jar. She keeps wanting to touch them, until she sees their long spines and remembers what she & her classmates learned about them in preschool. We did our caterpillar 'room service' routine, then placed the jar beside our sunny balcony (kamote cuttings seem to stay fresh longer in water when we do this). In minutes, both of our little guests are wide awake and crawling quickly to their breakfast salad buffet. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK) To see how much they've grown, we made a tiny ruler out of a strip of cardboard and placed it alongside one caterpillar; he's now 1.5 cm long, and about 2.5 mm wide. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK) They're eating so much, we're going to have to get more cuttings soon! Stay tuned. Day 9 of our caterpillar reality show Click here to see our post on the caterpillars' first week in our house. Click here to learn more about the Hypolimnas bolina butterfly.

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PET CATERPILLARS!

When my daughter's kindergarten class visited the Marikina World of Butterflies last Friday, the plan was to bring home a butterfly pupa in a jar so that each child could observe the butterfly emerge, days later. (Field trip photos, click here Album 1    Album 2   Album 3) But they had run out of pupae on the day of our visit, so we ended up bringing home caterpillars instead. (One butterfly wouldn't leave my daughter's arm, so we got to take it home, too.) The caterpillars were barely visible, looking like tiny snippets of brown thread. The first photos I took were barely recognizable. The nice people at the butterfly farm told us each of these was going to be a bolina butterfly, and gave us some tips on how to care for them. I also did some online research to learn more about the Hypolimnas bolina. This is a daily blog on our project. We're keeping our fingers crossed that there'll be beautiful butterflies at the end of it. DAY 1 (FRIDAY) As instructed, we put a small bunch of fresh kamote tops (young leaves of the sweet potato plant) in a shotglass of water and placed it in a large jar. Then we carefully laid the caterpillars, still on the original leaf from the butterfly farm, on top of the new leaves. We covered the top of the jar with a piece of netting (recycled tulle from a potpourri bag). Under the jar we placed a plastic tray with some water to protect against ants and other crawling insects. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK) DAY 2 (SATURDAY) One of the caterpillars has gone AWOL; the other one is so still, I think it's dead. I placed the jar beside the window so the whole habitat would get some sunlight. With a spray bottle, I misted the air 10 inches above the mouth of the jar. A few minutes later the caterpillar crawled to the bottom of the leaf, so I guess it's still alive! (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK) DAY 3 (SUNDAY) Still only one caterpillar, but it has now grown to 5 or 6mm, twice its original size. The other one, I'm hoping, hasn't died but is simply a genius at concealment. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK) DAY 4 (MONDAY) It's much easier to locate the caterpillar now, just look under the leaves full of holes and tiny droppings. I'm very careful when I inspect, though, and use a clean pair of tweezers to handle the leaf so I don't accidentally crush or dirty the caterpillar. My daughter is able to see it clearly now. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK) DAY 6 (WEDNESDAY) The kamote leaves have turned yellow, so it's time clean the habitat and put in some fresh leaves. As I carefully removed & inspected each old leaf, there was the other caterpillar! It had grown really fat, with a very orange head. Both caterpillars are now one centimeter long and about 2mm wide, their spines clearly visible. We're all very pleased & excited. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A CLOSER LOOK) DAY 7 (THURSDAY) Both caterpillars are side by side under a large leaf, happily munching away. They seem to grow at a rate of about 30-40% daily. Today I found some strange brown fuzz at the bottom of the jar; turned out to be outer caterpillar skin, which means they've molted! It seems one of the caterpillars is a little older than the other, because I found the same brown stuff yesterday but thought they were larger droppings. I placed the molt cast-offs on a piece of paper and took a photo. Both my husband & my daughter think it looks like an alien with a helmet. More soon!  Click here for the continuing story: PET CATERPILLARS, Day 8

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Lilo's Kindergarten class at Marikina World of Butterflies (PART 2)

November 27, 2009 - Creative Space Kindergarten Juniors visit the Marikina World of Butterflies. (See also Albums 1 & 3) Note to Parents: The photos are downloadable, but please be patient--they are high-resolution (for better print quality) so it may take a bit of time. Enjoy!