Panic? Me? Nah..

Will sat quietly on the kitchen floor for an unusual amount of time this morning. I was busy preparing food for the younger one and wasn't too distraught.. a few minutes of calm is a nice change. But then I moved into his immediate area and he was up.. and in his hand.. nay extending out BEYOND the edges of his hand.. was a giant wolf spider! In hindsight he may have been wanting to show it to me.. look mom.. lookie lookie what I found! all full of excitement.. But I, instead of showing a calm genuine interest in his new found toy, totally lost it. I'm generally not terrified of spiders.. my 6 year old daughter is.. she insists on spider patrol before she'll agree to go to bed.. and we are routinely removing smaller less dangerous ones that I wouldn't have a problem with hanging out and hatching a brood right in the corners of my bedroom. But this one.. it was HUGE! And, in my own defense, even the experts state..

"the bite of the Wolf Spider is poisonous but not lethal. Although non-aggressive, they bite freely if provoked and should be considered dangerous to humans. The bite may be very painful. First aid and medical attention should be sought as soon as possible, particularly as to children or the elderly."

So who am I to argue with the experts? My reaction may have been a tad overblown but getting that spider out of his little hand and into a secure zone was primary on my task list. He gently placed it upon a shirt hanging over the chair at the kitchen table.. but my screaming at the top of my lungs (AAAAHHH NOOOOO NOOOO PUT IT DOWWWWN!!!) apparently startled my little boy and he thought his new friend would be safer BACK IN HIS HAND!! and so he lovingly picked up the giant demon spider off the shirt. This of course was followed by even more screaming by me.. NO!! PUT IT DOWN!! AHHHHH!!! I was then successful in knocking it to the floor.. where it ran and hid under my purse. Ih...

Mere seconds after it had all begun Daddy had arrived on the battlefield and was ready to assist. Move the purse.. squish. Will was genuinely distraught. One lethal spider.. his new found friend.. terminated. Guess it beats squishing a bunny.. but I can't help but wonder what sort of lasting impression this event, played out entirely by instinct, might leave on this little boy..

Eew Yuk!

OK.. here goes. Twice last week my son's preschool sent home a note that stated quite matter-of-factly that one of the other children in the class had head lice. Included with this very polite note was a very professional set of instructions of what I'm supposed to do to ensure that any potential new infestation is kept under control. And of course he has very long hair because there's no way he's sitting still for me to cut his hair and so what cutting gets done must be done when he's asleep. But that's another post. His teacher assured me they hadn't found any on him but were informing me of the potential, regardless. Anyway.. for now I'm all freaked out about the whole lice thing and just kind of living in denial hoping that this would be something that would bypass us (and my 2 other kids) and we could go on with our lives as if nothing had happened at all. Then the most amazing thing happened this morning. My son brought me a tissue and MADE ME TAKE IT from him. It wasn't good enough that I might just take it from him in a normal manner.. this transfer of object HAD PURPOSE! Now about then I happened to look at him directly and noticed that he had a spot on his head where the hair had been mussed into oblivion.. you know.. the sort of thing that could only have been caused by the repeated rubbing of a tissue into that spot. Now.. I find it all too easy to dismiss the strange behaviors of this odd little 4 year old boy.. but something compelled me to look more closely at this tissue that I'd been quite forcefully given possession of. And there it was. Despite my pleas to the lice gods I and my family had been sucked into this vortex of hell. Now.. this is new to me but my googling (is that a word?) showed me that it's not really anything to be too upset about and we'll just have to stay on top of it.. but the fascinating part of it all is that this kid, with whom I am unable to have a verbal conversation of any kind (other than reading books out loud) had not only figured out what was going on but how to remove it on his own, thereby resolving the immediate problem without any help from me. He never ceases to amaze me!
You'll have to excuse me.. I'm off to wash my hair! =)