Spooky Spider – Just One of Those Days at the Lane House – Helena MT Photographer
I’m one of those people who is not at all creeped out by spiders – so when I saw a giant one crawling across the floor today (“giant” as in looks-EXACTLY-the-same-size-as-the-plastic-spiders-people-put-in-the-cotton-batting-at-Halloween-time) I though “oh, what a perfect opportunity to show Claire that bugs are nothing to be afraid of!”
Because our child was somehow born with the I-AM-PETRIFIED-OF-ALL-BUGS gene…to the extreme bewilderment of her mommy & daddy.
Seriously.
Not a single person in her life (Mommy*, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Grammie, Papa, aunties, uncles) shrieks at the sight of bugs. Or even reacts really. Not a single person. But when our child was ~8 months old she noticed her first dead fly – and Scott and I thought she had torn off a limb. For reals. When we realized the source of the hysterics was a dead fly we were both…confused.
And though we have done our darndest to curb this fear – it persists. Our child who would happily spend every waking moment outside. Our child will touch dead deer eyeballs and dead elk tongues without a shudder (true story). This same child is just downright terrified of bugs. **confused face**
So back to the GIANT spider at our house today. [yeah, this whole convoluted story started there:)] So I see this ginormous spider crawling across the dining room floor and I quickly scoop it up in a glass and then call Claire over so we can check out this “super cool!” spider together. Which we do. And then [for some reason] I think to myself “hmmmm,” and I check out the belly of this giant spider.
And I see the red hourglass shape as clear as day.
Oh.
Hello giant black widow spider.
And then I think “weeeeeeeell, maybe the whole black-widow-spiders-are-SO-poisonous thing is one of those exaggerated urban myths,” so I Google it. And I find the following: “The black widow spider has a potent neurotoxic venom and is considered the most venomous spider in North America. However, the female injects such a small dose of venom that it rarely causes death. Reports indicate human mortality at well less than 1% from black widow spider bites.” http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061A.html
Oh.
It “rarely causes DEATH.” I feel so much better. [NOT]
Now realizing my little “we don’t have to be afraid of bugs” activity has backfired somewhat I say to Claire “So honey, if you see a big spider like this you really shouldn’t touch it, ok?”
And she turns her big brown eyes to me and says with complete serious confidence, “See. I told you Mommy. We DO need to be afraid of bugs.”
Oh.
Well, damn. She kinda has me there.
So much for that perfect life lesson.
That’ll teach you Mommy.
Just kill the dang spider next time and keep the life-lesson to yourself:)
(*Full disclosure – my I’m-so-not-afraid-of-bugs attitude does not extend to grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are an ENTIRELY different story as they are THE creepiest things on this planet. **shudder** But I never let my child see that. I just silently shriek in my head and pray they don’t jump with their icky sticky crunchy legs on me – ohhhhhh ick ick ick ick ick ick!!!!!)
How bout you guys?? Any bug phobias out there? Any I-am-the-perfect-Halloween-decoration-except-I’m-real-and-poisonous items show up at your house lately? And anyone else with me on the grasshoppers thing??????? :-)
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Red Lodge Get-Away
Scott & I had a little get-away to Red Lodge two weekends ago—it was so fun! I had never been to Red Lodge before so it was fun traveling to that part of the state and with Claire staying with Grammie & Papa it was a treat to have some “couple” time:) After doing a bunch of research online we decided on the Pollard Hotel—a historic hotel right in the middle of downtown Red Lodge. The room rates were extremely reasonable (less than $110/night including a full breakfast the next morning and tax!). We ate dinner at the Pub in the hotel (SUPER yummy!) and the breakfast the next morning was awesome. No pics cause we were on “vacation” but you can check out their website here (www.thepollard.com) if you’re curious. Has anyone else ever been there before? Or stayed at any other great places in Red Lodge…?:)
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Easter Pictures
The cobbler’s kid goes without shoes…and often the photographer’s kid goes without pictures (I know, that’s just so very wrong!). But not this time…! I got Claire all dressed up for Easter and she was so deliciously cute in her polka-dots-from-head-to-toe-and-no-dress-shoes-so-we’ll-wear-tennies that we just had to squeeze in a mini shoot before heading off to Great Grandma’s house. And, ohmygoodness-sheissocuteitalmosthurts (you can say that about your own kid, right??).
She was loving her “pwidy” dress & kept smoothing it & playing with it (I love the look of concentration on her face in this one).
I can’t remember what story she was telling–but it was obviously a good one!:)
And then this series of expressions just cracks me up!
Mischievous much??
Oh! How I love this little person!
Happy Easter everyone!
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Is it just me…
…or is packing for a long weekend trip with a toddler complicated??? Last night I started the packing process at 5:00 pm then for the rest of the night threw random things in bags until I went to bed at 10:00 pm. By the time that was done I had packed four bags—and Scott was packing his own stuff so that was just the stuff for Claire and me!
Eek!
Now, in my defense, we are going to Fairmont for a big family reunion with Scott’s family so I’m packing for indoor swimming, outdoor swimming [maybe], hanging out, dinners out, family pictures, the blizzard I woke up to this morning, the 50 degree weather we had earlier this week, pillows, all my camera gear, a crib, and then I threw in the kitchen sink and some salami and apples for good measure (just kidding…about the sink). Our cover for taking the truck is that the roads might be bad—but the reality is that we might need it just to get our stuff there! And the irony of the whole thing is that I’ll probably get there and think “crap! why didn’t I think to bring ______________” [fill in the blank with the most obvious “of-course-you-will-need-this-don’t-even-think-about-forgetting-it” thing you can think of].
Sheesh:)
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Heard Around Our House Lately…
“Dis lil piggy wen ta market, dis lil piggy wen ta Zoola, and DIS lil piggy wen wee wee wee all the way to CosCo for a HOT DOG!”
[Zoola = Missoula, where Auntie E lives, and CosCo…well that should be fairly self-evident—apparently we need to expand our daughter’s culinary experiences!:)]
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You never realize how much you say something until someone points it out every time you say it…. Such is the case with the expression “oh, man!” I really had no idea how much I say that until Claire started responding “No Mommy! Only Swiper says ‘oh, man!’ You say ‘oh, nuths!”
Uh…wha…? Oh, nuts? Where in the world did that come from??? And I don’t know why but her little two-year-old voice saying emphatically “oh, nuths” with her little lisp absolutely cracks me up!
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Grandma and Grandpa were at our house the other weekend and all of a sudden Claire comes running from the other end of the house “Daddy! Daddy! Granma gets an M&M!! Granma gets an M&M!!” [yep, we’re potty training at our house—and, um, apparently we’ve driven the reward system home rather effectively:)]
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