...When the Ants Go Marching

First butterflies, then ants.  Onto the next page!  I quickly skip over the lice section.  Ew.  That tick looks gross.  I skip that page, too.  Now beetles, then dragonflies.

Taking full advantage of the California "drizzle"

Lately, my kids have been obsessed with an insect encyclopedia.  I've learned quite a bit about bugs.  Did you know that the "real" name for daddy long legs is "harvestmen?"  I didn't.  Did you know that I'm not allowed to like the morpho butterfly because the picture is a male?  Neither did I.  Miri taught me that fact.  Apparently, we only like females.  My kids seem to be the most obsessed with the ant page.  Over and over again we read about fire ants.  It's always amazing how the minds of little children are like sponges.

"Fire ants eat flowers.  And fruit," informs Miriam.
"When fire ants bite you, it stings!  So I smash them with my SUPER CAPE!" Noah emphasizes.  He also chases flies around the house donned with a broom and his super cape.

This month, our family has been bugged.  Every day, I wake up, armed with a can of Raid (or its friendlier counterpart, Orange Guard), to hunt down a few armies.  On any given day, we will find ants in about three rooms of our house.  Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom -- you name it.  We can't escape it.  I guess it comes with the hot and dry territory.  I'm just a little exasperated.  It's either time I learn to coexist with these bugs, or cough up the cash to hire an exterminator.

Augustine's Baptism, 8.17.2014

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, we were blessed to baptize Augustine Gregory and welcome him into the Catholic Church!  The sacrament was especially memorable, because Gus was baptized alongside his little cousin, Gianna.  Our wonderful celebration came to a tearful end as Miriam was attacked by hornets!  I think we ended up counting five stings.  After the initial pain and fright of it all, she was a real trooper.  "But what is the difference between hornets and bees?  Why did they attack me?  Did you used to get stung when you were little?"  Luckily, Tot shared an interesting story about working as an exterior painter and getting stung more times than he could keep track of.  I, on the other hand, used the situation as a vocabulary lesson and taught her the word "aggressive."  We then looked up her perpetrator in the Insect Encyclopedia.  Its limited options led us to label it as a yellow jacket wasp.

Brothers

 

In addition to the constant battling of ants, there are so many things that have been bugging me lately: the constant fighting and yelling, the relinquishing of the sacred nap time; the onslaught of doctor appointments.  Bed time never comes soon enough.

As is the way of irony, one evening after the kids had been all tucked in bed, I notice a big bug on the ceiling of the living room.  Luckily, I have a husband who is my Spider Hunter, and literally hunts down black widows and brown widows on a weekly basis (another reason why we need an exterminator).  He quickly encourages me not to fear! -- it is a butterfly you see!  A butterfly?  On our ceiling?  At ten o'clock at night?  Thank you, kind husband! -- now please get it outside!

The dynamic duo

He excitedly runs into the bedroom to rouse our children.  "Wake up!  Wake up!"  Reaching into the closet: "We're going to catch a butterfly with the nets from Elefun!"  So, together, we watch Tot catch a butterfly from our ceiling with a play net.  Then, we get out the flash lights to watch the butterfly escape into the dark night (and probably get eaten by a bat).  Nick grins at me, "This is what Tots are for!"

I can shoo away those bothersome things at the day's end.  It's those better memories that crawl into your heart.  Like when Miriam asks Noah to "marry" her so that they can "dress up fancy."  Or when Noah was thrilled to get his first set of army men, exclaiming, "This guy has a gun!  This guy has a gun, too!...WOAH -- all these guys have skateboards!"  And when the morning after Gus's baptism, I find his bassinet laden with all his gifts that his siblings so kindly opened for him.

It's the butterfly nights we remember.

He's always smiling

*In case you want a bug book for your toddlers, this one is actually pretty great!