My Wormies...

"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked
pensively. "You must want to fly so much that
you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."
-Trina Paulus

Today Kelsey said to me, "I miss the caterpillars, Mom!" She called them little wormies most of the time. She loved watching them eat the milkweed and grow fat in our little clear box with the screen top lid. She checked on them several times a day and marveled at their little existence and was usually the first one to notice one had gone to the top to hang and form a J before turning to a chrysilis. After questioning her (about missing the wormies) she said that she did indeed like the butterflies, but liked having the "wormies" right here in the house. So sweet. As I'm typing this...I'm thinking..."yah...I like my little wormies, too, and know that day will come when I really don't want to let them fly away either."
I think that's what you call a metephor.