Well, the difference in my boys was obvious to me today in regards to a spider. I heard Mitchell down by our front door, talking in the kind of baby talk he usually reserves for Jack, but Jack was with me, so I was curious who he was talking to. I called down to him and asked who he was talking to and he said, "I found a friend spider down here and we are just talking! He's nice! I'm going to pick him up now." He played on the stairs with his new "friend" for 10 more minutes or so. I forgot to ask what became of his new friend - whether he was left to go free or ended up squished on the wall. To tell the truth, I'm not too concerned with it.
Ben was not home for this, but I knew exactly what he would have done, had he found the spider instead of Mitchell. Picking it up would be the last thing he would do, I'll tell you that! We had a conversation about spiders a few days ago, actually, and Ben admitted that he was afraid of spiders and if he saw one, he would be too afraid even to step on it with his snow boots on. "It would be way to scary!"
While they disagree on whether real, live spiders are a friend or foe, they are agreed on scary pictures of spiders on the internet. They regularly ask me to look up pictures of tarantulas and "the biggest spider I can find" and we have even added a new "kiss" to our dozen or so fancy bedtime kisses: the tarantula kiss. Yes, I regularly give my boys a tarantula kiss before I turn the lights out and leave them to their silly nighttime rituals.
So, we are also divided on spiders. I'm becoming a phobe more all the time. The 2 inch hairy number on my dishtowel 2 nights ago did NOT help. However, I have 3 "pet" spiders. We have a sort of... bug problem. Ants invading but kept at bay with cinnamon. (Totally works, btw, and non-toxic) As well as a fruit fly issue. I have discovered 3 very small spiders with little webs in 3 different corners of the house. I feed stray ants to them and trust they are doing their part with the flies. When the problem is solved tho... eviction time.
ReplyDeleteMy son, Luca, LOVES spiders and any kind of buggie. He also talks to them in sweet voices and calls them friends. He and Mitchell will be fast friends.
we also have an ant problem but the orkin man is on top of things! he comes every couple weeks! i love being a renter sometimes...
ReplyDeletefunny how two boys raised the same way can feel so differently about the same thing.
bring Mitchel to my house!! He can catch all my crckets for me!!! :)
ReplyDeleteMy boys are totally the same way! Maybe it's an older/younger sibling thing? Perfect example - last night Maine was screaming at the top of his lungs and we found him sitting on the top of the fence outside. He wasn't scared of where he was and fact he couldn't get down, but that there was a spider "with really long legs" coming over to him. And Gibs picked up a worm this morning. Crazy!
ReplyDeletehaha! your gibson really is a tough little guy though. i would expect nothing less of him. what would we do without him to be the "bad guy" at our play dates?
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