Lazarus Larva

So, we ran out of milkweed... And we went on another hunt and found nothing... By the end of the day the jar looked like that first picture... leaf stems stripped bare... This larva was starving to death... it was all ok if I didn't watch, but I was compelled in some sick way to watch him... He would crawl up and down the bare stem gnawing on it as he went.... up and down, back and forth... Every once in a while he would even hold on with his back feet and stretch way out into mid air searching, sniffing, clammoring for any remnant of food... I felt SO bad!!! How could I sit here and watch this.... well, larva.... die!? So, 9:45 at night, at the beginning of a thunderstorm, through the lightning and thunder, I set out in my car for Germantown Hills (5 miles away) to scrounge up some milkweed from my friend Jenny. Scott made me promise to stop at the grocery store or SOMETHING so that the trip would be more than just collecting food for larva. So, Jenny and I yanked some nasty, old milkweed out of her larva's jar (and after a quick stop at the store for some random things) and I sped home to save Larva Lee... I was so excited to see the little guys face when he saw the milkweed and I envisioned him speed-crawling over to munch away... So, when I got home he was crawling up the side of the jar... As I twisted the cap off I bumped the jar and.... he fell.... Plunk..... And then stillness..... I gasped and gently shook the jar to get him to move..... Nothing... More gentle shaking.... Nothing... I poked him gently with a leaf.... Nothing.... I had just killed it!!!! To make a long story not much shorter, I spent the next 15 minutes trying everything (short of touching the nasty thing) to revive it. Still nothing. Defeated, I carefully removed the chrysalises and dumped the rest of the jar - dead larva included - on a paper towel. I decided to take one last picture before I pitched him.... And as I looked through my camera to snap the picture, he moved!!! It's true! He was very much dead.... I'm SURE of it!!! And then - he was alive!!! After a few minuted he was munching away again and by the next evening, that little larva was hanging in his J.... SO..... After sharing the story with the kids the next morning, we all agreed that Lazarus was a very fitting name for the little guy. And the kids wanted to name the other three chrysalises too.... They each have their own now... Isaiah's is "John," Caleb's is "Peter," and Abigail's is "Mommy."... Bet there aren't too many of you out there that can say you've had a larva named after you, huh?!..... Lucky me.