Trust in Mom

This is a picture of our new little pet "Mr. Green Jeans". I know, he's not green, he's brown, but this was the name of one I had growing up that we kept for quite awhile in a cage in our home. We fed him flies and took him outside for some fresh air once in awhile. Come to think of it I don't think the original Mr. Green Jeans was green either.

Anyway, I need to be careful, I can't be certain but I think I'm walking on a thin line of trust with my 4 year old right now. Yesterday we were getting ready to play in the water and found a praying mantis in our empty pool. Alex asked if she could hold it and I told her to go ahead (I caught them all the time growing up) and before too long she screams that he pinched her as she's now holding him by his back so he can't reach her with his claws. She is reluctant to let him go because she wants to make him a home but drops him in the grass anyway when I ask her too. Praying mantises don't do a lot of sprinting around so I wasn't worried about losing him. We gave him a home in our bushes where he still was this morning when Johnny woke him up with an invigorating shake of his branch and just to make sure he was awake, a knock (pet) on the head. Then this morning there was a little black spider in the bathroom that looked like it might be dead. One of it's legs was bent and everything. So I asked Alex to pick it up with a wad of toilet paper and toss it in the toilet. She didn't think twice about it and picked it up announcing "it's not dead!" But instead of freaking out (like I would) she just looks at it for awhile before tossing it into the toilet with my persistence. Ok, well she obviously has lost the fear of all creepy crawly things like she had last year. It started with the worms this spring and now she's picking up spiders at my request. She didn't seem to realize it but I felt bad that I told her that praying mantis were harmless and then she got pinched and then told her that the spider was dead and it was very much alive. I need to watch myself before she clues in that "Mom doesn't really know everything" and she stops trusting in me.

I put this picture in because I thought it was cute. Maddy wandered over from next door since Brad had the gate open while mowing. She stayed to play in the water with the kids and then made herself comfortable watching a movie and eventually eating dinner with us. We love our neighbors and love that Maddy is so comfortable spending time at our house. She of course is always welcome anytime!