"It's over there," says Luke, pointing to the corner where he had been "fixing his spaceship" (i.e. using a "screwdriver" and "hammer," made of Tinker Toys, on the home gym). DH approaches carefully, but doesn't see anything. I take a look, and I don't see anything either, nor can I hear anything (I can usually hear the palmetto bugs moving around; icky icky sound!). "It's right there!!" Luke is practically in hysterics. So we look a little closer. And I had to go get the camera. This is what we saw:
Can you see it? Allow me to provide a close up, with a US penny for scale (diameter is .75 inches or 19 millimeters, for anyone unfamiliar with US currency):
*That* is what all the commotion is about? I can barely see it! Even I would have picked that up myself, and I'm one of the most bug-phobic people ever. We picked it up and moved on.
A few days later, I am in the kitchen getting Luke's breakfast ready before school. DH is at work, so it's just the two of us. I hear Luke call me, saying "Mommy, it's a bug," in that sing-song cadence children often use. He isn't scared or concerned. It was said more like he was tattling on it for being there. I figure it is another of these tiny whats-its. I round the corner to see him sitting there, not 18 inches away from a mostly dead palmetto bug that was a good 2 inches long.
So let me get this straight. A bug so tiny that I can't find it warrants running from the room and screaming, but a huge palmetto bug only gets a curious look and a calm warning? I think we need to learn what is worth getting hysterical over and what is not!
Currently feeling:
creepy-crawly
The difference may be one was moving, one was dead.
ReplyDeleteThat and big bugs are cooler to boys or something.
Oh, that is so funny. I can totally imagine it happening here too.
ReplyDeleteWe have cockroaches under the house that appear sporadically and I think I taught Marcus to freak out over those because I tend to freak out when I see one.
Dave's sick this morning (poor guy) so I'm up with Marcus and he calls me to the toilet to resuce him because there's a cockroach on the wall. So I had to be the big, brave Mummy and kill the darn thing myself since I couldn't call on Daddy. The things necessity makes you do!
Um, the palmetto bug was DEAD!
ReplyDeleteAlso, it looks like the small bug perhaps has some sort of pinchers?
Katie gets freaked by all bugs too - big or small, live or dead. She would have been hysterical at both bugs you talked about! I was putting her in the carseat after daycare the other day and she screamed and screamed and I swear it took a full minute for me to find the tiny brown ant on the ground a few FEET from the car that she was all in a frenzy over. SHEESH!
ReplyDeleteI do NOT miss the Southern insect life.
ReplyDelete