Spider-eating Whippersnapper

A few weeks ago my 14-month-old daughter walked up to me with something in her mouth. It didn't appear to be food or a booger, so I yelled "Get that out of your mouth." She opened up her mouth and spit out a brown widow spider. No harm done, except to the spider. I think it drowned.

Balloons

Balloons

They gave balloons to all the kids,

in hopes (my guess) of keeping

them occupied as parents shopped.

Helium-filled, squeaky red spheres

of shimmering joy, tied on each slender

wrist, and the scheme did work,

for a while at least, until we

tried to take it off to strap him

in his seat and he screamed

holy hell; and we fingered

the string to feed him supper,

and he fought us off; and it was

time for bath and there was No Way

he was going to wear it in the tub,

but he gave our ears such a

buffeting that we gave in, washing

around the knotted white twine.

Then time for bed, and now

for sure he would obey or else,

and the hollering resumed; finally

I had enough, took the balloon

in my furious hands and wrenched—

Pop! My sudden act of benevolence.

And later, sleepless, I wondered if God

felt guilty for ending our fun

over one shiny red obsession.

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--Submitted to dVerse OpenLinkNight. Come join in!

Clowns are Freaking Scary

Paper regularly collects on my bookshelf. Articles I print out for later reading, birthday/holiday cards that I put aside for future disposal (just in case the giver happens to come by I can pretend to have saved their important well-wishes), time-sensitive mail that I fully intend to handle soon, school papers from the kids, and, best of all, artwork from the kids.

Yesterday I cleaned out my accumulation and found this drawing from one of my sons, probably dating from Dec. 2011-Jan. 2012. I don't know if I've seen anything scarier in my life.

More Backyard Fun

This is my third day off in a row--a rare event here recently, but it's been nice to reconnect with the family. Today is breezy and cloudy, and last night's light rain left behind a welcome coolness. I took the littlest munchkinette outside to talk to the flowers. We had a splendid time.

Backyard Fun

I was able to spend some time with the boys today, after they came home from school. We found this big skink, about 8"-9". This isn't the first one we've found, or the first one that I've blogged about--I guess the backyard is a welcoming skink habitat. Here's a pretty good shot.

I came in a little closer, trying not to scare it away.

A little closer still.

This guy's had a tough go of it--notice the scars on his head and back, and it looks like a fairly new tail. Moving in for the big-time closeup, and . . .

Yeah, he split pretty fast, made me jump. Up the tree he went. You can just make him out, center of the picture, left side of the trunk.

I saw a lot of other wildlife. Here's two of the boys, digging in the ground for bugs. They get that honestly, I suppose.