Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Missing: Tiny Red Spider Buddy

“Mom!-Mom!-Mom! Come see my buddy! Mom!” Thatcher attached his sticky hand to my fingers and dragged me out of the kitchen into the dining room. Sure enough there was one of his many buddies dangling from the light fixture with the end of it’s web about toddler chin height. This year we put the Christmas tree in the dining room and it came with about a thousand tiny red spiders. Thatch has a deep affection for the spiders. Any and all spider removal must happen under cover of darkness or nap time.

“That’s great, Thatch.”  Spiders don’t bother me so long as they’re not on me though I do prefer not to share any of my living space with them. After I removed all the holiday ornaments from the tree and Tim stripped it of it’s twinkling mockery I shoved the tree out on the porch still in it’s stand. It looks nice. Also I’m hoping those spiders still crawling out of it will eat those other weird bugs that live on the porch.

While in deep conversation with the tiny creature Thatcher suddenly discovered that he could blow his spider buddy through the air. He would take a deep breath and use it to gently lift his dangling arachnid friend in a slow smooth arc in the air. While the spider was at it’s farthest point from Thatch, Thatch would throw his head back and howl with laughter. “Look! Look how much fun I’m giving him!” Then he would quickly prepare for the spiders return and blow it again.

Until he blew harder sending the spider farther than ever before and then laughed harder and longer than ever before… head full tilt, mouth wide open in pleasure…..

And then the spider was gone.

I nearly choked. I wanted to laugh but... look what happened to him!

“Mom! Where my buddy? Where he go? Did you vacuum him!??”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him. I just offered him some juice before he could question what (who?) was in his mouth. 


January 06, 2010 

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