Of course I’ve known from day 1 with my son that boys are different than girls, but today he made me squeal like, dare I say, a girl, for the first time (and from his grin, I’m sure it won’t be the last).
We’ve been walking next door to let my in-law’s dog outside each day while my mother-in-law recuperates from bypass surgery. It was nice outside, and I know it is going to rain the next few days, so today the kids and I walked our dog and Mamaw and Papaw’s dog down to the pond so the dogs could swim and the kids could play in the gravel for a bit. That’s when my daughter pointed out the very large beetle crawling on the rocks. My son (23 months) is just getting into bugs lately. Anything little is a “bug” according to him, and when he finds a real one, well he’s a happy little guy.
So when he heard there was a bug around, he couldn’t wait to see it. And seeing it wasn’t enough, he grabbed it up in his little fist like it was a piece of gold, way too valuable for us girls to look at. That’s when my daughter, who likes to look at bugs, too, but wasn’t really willing to pick it up, panicked. I calmed her down, pushing back my own heebie-jeebies, and told her it wasn’t going to bite him.
Fascinated, Monkey stared at the bug’s wriggling legs and then wrapped it in a little hug and snuggled it against his cheek. (You won’t see me doing that any time soon.) I continued to watch him, worried he would try to eat it (after all, he has a record of putting rocks and sticks in his mouth). That’s when he squeezed it between his fingers. The “crack” of its shell made me cringe a little and when I saw its innards oozing out its back end while it continued to try to escape certain death, I couldn’t stop the squeal I’d been holding in.
That was hilarious to him; his sister, though, copied my squeal, suddenly worried about this bug. When his sister started crying that he was going to kill it, he looked at his precious treasure, seeing how it looked now for the first time, and started to cry.
Thankfully they both thought that throwing it into the pond as a treat for the fish was a good idea.
K.T. says
New Follower from Blog Frog! 🙂
I’m usually surrounded by all boys in this house! Trust me, I have had many a day where I squealed like a little girl because of odd critters being thrust into my face. You DO eventually get use to it!
Cindy says
I love to see mom’s appreciate the differences between boys and girls instead of trying to fit them into the same mold.
Anna @ Lawrence Girls says
Stopping over from Mom Loop, and I love this story! As a Mom to 3 girls, bugs are a rare interest in our house. 🙂
We took our first overnight hiking and camping trip, and to my shock my kiddos befriended a dragonfly. I think he was caught on our tent and got a wing damaged… he never tried to fly out of their hands. They ended up giving him a send off down the creek on a leaf.
admin says
How neat that they got to look at a dragonfly up close! The send off down the creek is a nice idea, too. I hope they enjoyed their camping trip; I look forward to one of our own in the future.
Meg says
My 3 year old daughter is a lover of bugs.
She accompanies me in the garden and collects the grass grub larvae I find and won’t let me feed them to the chickens. At least not until she has given them a big cuddle and cooed over them for a good while.
I have worked really hard to overcome my squeamishness with bugs – can’t be shown up by a 3 year old after all, and I really don’t want her to learn to be scared of them when she is so brave and inquisitive 🙂
admin says
Yes, I’ve been working hard on the squeamishness issues, lately. Especially when my daughter wants me to hold one for her…. I don’t want to pass on my squeamishness, but I really don’t like holding something with all those flailing legs, either!
JDaniel4's Mom says
It sounds odd to type thanks he got to be food for the fish, but I am.