On the Wing

 "That was a butterfly," Jolena said.

"I thought that creature was called a moth," Charlotte replied.

"It looked just like the butterflies on my shirt," Jolena pointed out, "only yellow and black, not pink and silver."

"Let's ask Mandy!" both girls exclaimed together.

They found Mandy knitting. Mariah was reading to her as she worked. 

"Mandy," Charlotte began, "we have a question."
Mariah stopped reading, and Mandy took off her glasses and put her knitting down.

"We saw a creature flying around in the garden," Jolena said. "I thought it was called a butterfly, just like the ones on my shirt."
"I thought it was called a moth," Charlotte said. 

Mariah was interested, too. "I know there are some flying insects that have big wings," she said.

"I've heard them called butterflies," Mariah continued, "but I've also heard them called moths. I thought there were just two names for the same thing. I thought a butterfly was just a pretty moth," she added.

"They are very close to the same thing," Mandy said. "That's because they are related. They are insects that belong to the order Lepidoptera (leh-pih-DOP-ter-ah), which means 'scaly wings,' but they are different from each other in some ways. You're right, Mariah. We think of butterflies as pretty, because most butterflies are more colorful than most moths, but not always."

"If I don't know anything about what you saw," Mandy continued, "I would have to guess that it was a moth, because there are many more kinds of moths in the world than butterflies." Mandy paused and thought. "On the other hand, if you saw it just now, and it was flying around, it was probably a butterfly," she said.

"You see, butterflies usually are awake in the daytime, like us," Mandy explained. "Moths usually come out at night, but there are some that like to be out in the daytime."
"It was definitely awake," Jolena said.
"We saw it flying around," Charlotte said, "so it must have been awake."
"Or flying in its sleep," Jolena pointed out. Then she giggled.
"Did it stop flying while you were watching it?" Mandy asked.
Charlotte and Jolena looked at each other and thought.

"Yes," they both cried at once. 
"It landed on a flower in the garden," Jolena said.

"Yes," Charlotte agreed. "It crawled around on the flower and then stopped for a little bit."
"Then," Jolena added, "it went to another flower and did the same thing."
"It was probably drinking," Mandy explained. "Most butterflies and moths drink nectar (NEHK-ter), which is a sweet liquid found in flowers. They drink it the way hummingbirds do. Now tell me, when the creature stopped, what did it do with its wings?"

The two girls looked at each other and thought. They tried to remember what they saw. They would have closed their eyes to remember better if they could have, but their eyes don't close, so they had to pretend. They remembered something like this.

"When the wings stopped moving," Charlotte began, "the creature sort of held them like this." Charlotte put her hands up over her head and back as far as she could reach.

Jolena nodded.
"That sounds like a butterfly," Mandy said. "Most moths rest with their wings covering their sides."

"Some, though," she explained, hold their wings flat against whatever they are resting on."

"What did its antennae (an-TEH-nee) look like?" Mandy asked.
"What's that?" Mariah asked. (As a writer, Mariah is always interested in new words.)

"Antennae are something like ears," Mandy explained, "but they do more than just hear. They can smell and feel. There are two of them."
Mandy asked Mariah if she could use her pencil and notebook. Mariah agreed and handed them to her.

Mandy drew two pictures on it. She drew a line with a little ball on top. It looked like a line with a little ball on top. Then she drew another line and some little lines coming off of it. That one looked sort of like a skinny feather.

She showed the pictures to Jolena and Charlotte, while Mariah looked on. 

"Did your creature's antennae look like this," she asked, pointing to first of the pictures, "or was it more like this?" She pointed then to the second picture.
Charlotte and Jolena both pointed to the first picture. They pointed to the one that looked like a line with a little ball on the end.

"Then it was a butterfly," Mandy said. "There are moths that are awake in the daytime and butterflies that are awake at night. There are moths that hold their wings more like butterflies when they rest and butterflies that hold their wings more like moths. There are moths with antennae that are more like those of butterflies and butterflies with antennae more like moths, but if your creature had all of these features, it had to be a butterfly."

"That's interesting," Charlotte said. 
"There's one more way butterflies and moths are different," Mandy went on. "You see, both of them start life as caterpillars (KAT-uh-pill-ers)."

"But caterpillars" objected Jolena, "don't look anything like moths or butterflies! They look like worms with little legs!"

"That's true," Mandy agreed, "but caterpillars are baby moths or butterflies. They change shape when they grow up. They shed their skins several times as they grow. Then they go to sleep to change and grow wings."
"How do they do that?" Mariah asked.

"The caterpillar makes itself a little changing room," Mandy explained. "Here's another way moths are butterflies are different. The kind of changing room it makes depends on whether the caterpillar is a moth or a butterfly."
The dolls all looked at each other, trying to imagine a caterpillar in a changing room.

"A moth caterpillar will attach itself to a branch, twig or leaf in a safe spot," Mandy said. "It will spin a cocoon (cuh-COON) for itself."

"A cocoon is like a sleeping bag out of yarn from the moth's own body," Mandy continued. "In fact, the silk we sometimes use for clothes is made from the cocoon of a very special caterpillar."

"On the other hand," Mandy went on, "after a butterfly caterpillar attaches itself to a branch or twig in a safe spot, it sheds its skin for the last time, and its outside hardens to make something called a chrysalis (KRIS-ah-liss)."

Either way, the caterpillar goes to sleep for a long time. When it wakes up, it has wings and a skinny body. During this in-between stage, while it's sleeping and changing, it's called a pupa (PEW-pah), no matter whether it is a moth or a butterfly," Mandy said.

"I wonder what it's like," Charlotte said, "to wake up and find you have wings and a skinny body."
The dolls thought about that.
"In poetry and stories,"Mariah said, "a butterfly is often used to mean the beginning of a new life. Now I think I know why. I guess that's because it starts out as one thing and changes to another."
"Yes," Mandy agreed. "It's like how a ball of yarn can become a sweater."

"It's like how waffle batter can become waffles," Jolena suggested.

"Or," Charlotte added, "how a bunch of notes on a piece of paper can become music!"

"Or how words we write can become a story," Mariah suggested, "like this one."

"Will we change into anything?" Jolena wanted to know.
"No, Jolena," Mandy said. "We will always be dolls. Our purpose is to help children change and grow up to be adults who can look after themselves and their families. We teach them to be kind to others, and to know how special they are."

"That's good," Jolena said. "I don't want to change into something else. I like what we are and what we get to do."

"That means we're special, too."

Cast--

Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend


More information about butterflies and moths can be found here.

Photos from UnSplash.com are: First butterfly photo by Sean Stratton. Second butterfly (closeup) photo by Richard Lee. Moth with closed wings photo by Tim Goedhart. Caterpillar photo by Sara Codair. Chrysalis photo by Suzanne D. Williams.

Silk cocoon photo by Emily Peters through UIHere.

Mandy's T-shirt design adapted from an image found on UIHere.

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Author's page on Amazon. 

Royalties (net proceeds) go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to charity (specific information available upon request). Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2019, 2024 by Peggy Stuart

The Patch

“What’s that thing on your arm?” Pippa asked Pam. The dolls had been sitting on the big bench at the side of the trail and chatting, when Pippa noticed something new.

Pam and Pauly both looked where Pippa was pointing.

“This is my patch,” Pam replied proudly. “Maryanne made it for me, so I would have one like hers.”

The three smaller dolls had offered to walk Pierre and Freckles, because Charlotte and Billy had orchestra practice after school. Now the dogs were getting bored with the smells in that one spot and were impatient to move to a new location, so the dolls climbed down from the bench and continued their walk.

Pam noticed that both of her friends seemed puzzled by what she had said, so she continued her explanation of the patch. “You remember how I told you Maryanne was going to start wearing a patch for her diabetes?” she asked.

Pauly and Pippa nodded. They thought back to when Pam first came into their lives a few months ago. Pam had been worried because the child she came to live with, Maryanne, was unhappy. Nico had brought Pam, his neighbor, to visit the dolls who lived with The Writer and her husband. He thought she should talk with Veronika.

Maryanne had just learned that she had diabetes (DY-uh-BEE-tees). She was afraid she had done something wrong and was being punished for it, or that she had made herself become diabetic by what she ate and did. Mandy had helped Pam find out that children who have diabetes aren’t being punished for something they did, and that human children can’t make themselves diabetic by what they do. It’s something they are born with. Mandy knows which websites have good information about health, so she knew where to look. She chose a trustworthy website, for a place called the Mayo Clinic. (She knows that not everything you read online is true; sometimes human people are helpful and sometimes they make things up.)

Veronika had helped Pam understand a doll’s job and how to help Maryanne.

When Maryanne had learned to hear Pam talking to her, Pam told Maryanne it wasn’t her fault that she had diabetes, and that she hadn’t made herself be this way.

“I think she felt a lot better after that,” Pam said.

“So why did she give you the patch, that thing on your arm?” Pippa asked, as they stopped on the trail so the dogs could sniff around, doing what dogs do.

“Remember when we got together to play that game?” Pam asked. “What was it called…” she tried to remember. “Slides and Stairways or something like that?”

“Chutes and Ladders,” Pauly reminded her. “It’s a fun game.”

“Yes!” Pippa exclaimed. “I remember now! When you came to play Chutes and Ladders, you told us Maryanne got some kind of thing to go on her arm to give her the medicine she needs.”

“Insulin, (IN-suh-len)” Pam said. “That’s the medicine. It’s a patch that gives her insulin when she needs it. It’s called an insulin pump. She wears it all the time. She can even wear it in the shower and in the swimming pool.”

“So is that thing on your arm is pretending to be an insulin pump?” Pauly asked.

“Yes,” Pam replied. “Maryanne made it for me, so we could pretend I have diabetes, too. Maryanne’s mother helped her cut up one of those plastic things that holds the bread shut.” Pam said.

“Maryanne decorated it with a pen and then used some of that tape that’s sticky on both sides and put it on my arm,” Pam added. “But she doesn’t keep it in one place all the time. She has to move it to a different place on her body every few days, so she moves mine at the same time.”

Pam went on talking as the dolls continued their walk. “Maryanne tells me all the things she has to do: watch her diet and exercise, and test her blood and stuff.”

“I think it helps her remember everything when she tells me,” Pam explained. “She’s teaching me and looking after me, so it makes it easier for her to remember what she has to do for herself.”

“Mariah told me,” Pippa said, “that when you teach what you know to someone, you learn it even better, and you don’t forget it as soon.”

“Veronika told me the same thing,” Pam told them. “Maryanne knows a lot now.We went out to eat the other day. We were eating lunch at the coffee shop down the street.”

“I think I know the one you mean,” Pauly said. “Jeffy took me there once when his family ate out.”

“Well,” Pam went on, “you’ll never guess what happened,” she told them, as they all sat on some rocks to pretend to rest.

Pippa and Pauly wondered how they could guess, since they weren’t there. They looked at Pam. Maybe it was one of those things dolls say just to introduce what they are going to say next or to make sure you’re paying attention.

“We were sitting at the table in the coffee shop,” Pam said, “just the three of us. Maryanne and her mother were looking at the menu and talking about things Maryanne might like to eat that would work with her diet. They’re still getting used to it, you know.”

“Suddenly,” Pam continued, “this tall lady came over and started shaking her finger at Maryanne’s mother. She said she had heard us talking. (Well, she heard Maryanne and her mother talking. I don’t think she’s the type of human person who can hear us dolls when we talk. I don’t think she listens that well.)”

“This lady was scolding Maryanne’s mother,” Pam explained. “Scolding, yes, that’s what it was. She said it was all the fault of Maryanne’s mother that her daughter has diabetes. She should never have allowed Maryanne to have candy, and that was why she was diabetic.”

“Well, you’ll never guess what happened next,” Pam went on. “Maryanne stood up and looked up at this tall lady. She told her that it wasn’t true that eating candy caused her to have diabetes, and besides, she hardly ever had candy, because she had to brush her teeth afterwards, and it wasn’t always convenient. I just watched her. I couldn't believe she was teaching a grownup person something that lady didn’t know.”

“Then,” Pam said, “Maryanne said that she couldn’t help having diabetes any more than she could help having blue eyes. It just was, so the lady should just please mind her own business. Then she sat down and looked at her menu. She asked her mother if a hamburger would be OK, and her mother said it would, if she had it with salad instead of fries. The nosy lady just stood there for a bit and then turned around and walked off.”

The dolls got down from the rocks and continued on their walk. “We had a nice lunch,” Pam said. “Maryanne let me pretend to eat part of her hamburger. It was fun. I think the hamburger was tasty, at least I pretended it was.”

“You’ve come a long way,” Pippa pointed out, “since you first came to our house and didn’t know what to do.”

The three dolls and two dogs walked on in silence.

“I’m lucky to have such good friends,” Pam replied as they reached The Writer’s house. “All of you have been a great help.” 

Pippa invited her friends in when they reached the door, but Pam explained that Maryanne and her parents were going to the movie tonight. “I have to go home to have Maryanne change my clothes,” she explained. “She’s taking me along!”

After Pippa and Pauly had brought the dogs inside and Pippa had closed the door behind them, the two dolls turned and watched Pam make her way back down the stairs and walk to the sidewalk that led to her home.

Pauly turned and looked at Pippa. “Maryanne brushes her teeth after she eats candy,” he said. “That reminded me that Nico says Frankie’s sister wears jewelry on her teeth now. It looks like a little bracelet on each tooth.”

“I wonder what it’s like to have teeth,” Pippa said.

“I wonder what it’s like to have blood and have to test it all the time,” Pauly added. “What’s blood, anyway?”

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015

Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Chosen Mariah

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

Pauly: Götz Little Kidz Paul

Nico: Götz Hannah-Zoé at the Ballet

Pam: Götz Little Kidz Springtime, from My Doll Best Friend

This is based on a true story.

The Mayo Clinic is a good source of health information you can trust.

Girl wearing an insulin pump photo from Doctor Visit.

Mother looking at menu photo from WebMD.

Teeth with braces: Holistic Smile Care.

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Author's page on Amazon. 

Royalties (net proceeds) go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to charity (specific information available upon request). Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2024 by Peggy Stuart