Sunday Morning Spiders

Ben and Mitchell wanted to look at pictures of tarantulas this morning, so Matt obliged. Perfectly normal Sunday morning activity, right? Who doesn't want to look at close-up pictures of hairy spiders to get the day going? The pictures got grosser and grosser and scarier and scarier I guess because what started out as, "Oh, check that one out!" and "That one is huge!" turned into "Ewww!" and "That one is too scary!" and "Ahh! Change the picture, dad!" together with plenty of shrieks and eye-covering.

Not one to miss out on a good, loud time, Jack quickly joined in. He loved the pictures and every time a new one would come up, he'd point and say, "Flies! Eww..." followed by plenty of laughing and jumping up and down. "Flies" are what he calls all bugs and spiders. Obviously, we have a problem keeping our doors closed, if Jack is that familiar with flies...

Spiders: Friend or Foe?

My older boys are best friends but are so different from each other!  They don't look alike, they don't have similar personalities, they don't respond the same way to correction or to encouragement.  One loves rewards and hates punishment, the other doesn't seem terribly concerned by either.  One is a snuggler, one needs a lot more space.  One savors his special treats, one gobbles it down in one bite if possible.  Maybe part of the reason they get along so well is because of these differences.  Their interests are similar, so that keeps them together and the differences keep them from getting bored, maybe?

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.