bug season

i love spring. i love it. even though i despise the spooky storms, i adore this time of year. we've been over this before. matt, though he likes the reawakening of spring, cannot stand the pollen. it's never bothered me... i always assumed that it was because i grew up in the south. when i was little, i thought those commercials hocking allergy drugs were for old people with hay fever. and i thought hay fever was just a virus for old folks. for some reason, though i have always been sure i could catch anything... ranging from deadly poisonous illnesses from poinsettia plants to broken bones to mad cow disease... just from seeing advertisements for medicine on billboards, i never was worried about hay fever. go figure. my mom gets terrible allergies, too, and she and matt just suffer through this time of year. unlike me, they h.e.a.r.t. the storms because they wash away the awful pollen. c'est la vie.

the kids love this time of year just as much as i do. they aren't bothered by the yellow mist that coats the world in the spring. they're just so excited to be outdoors, enjoying the sun and playing as hard as they can. and, thank goodness they play so hard. it makes it much easier to put them to bed at day's end. and what mother doesn't want that?

one of my kids' favorite things to do this time of year is to search for critters. slimy, crawly, hopping critters. critters with lots of legs. critters that slither. critters that fly. when i was little, i didn't mind them at all. my brothers and i used to love digging them up and playing with them and, much to her dismay, scaring the bejesus out of my mother with them. i'm pretty sure that kent and john wesley would set snakes loose in the house just to torment my poor mother. sorry, mom. you didn't deserve that.

well, now those shenanigans have found their way back to me. my ella and summit so love to catch a bug or worm or something and "share" their treasures with me. they think they have my number on this, but, from watching my mom's reaction to having bugs placed in the back of her shirt, i know how to handle my kids. i know how not to react to their trickery.

so i just take pictures. i am amazed that my little girl will so willingly seek out and grab hold of any insect that crosses her path. she loves it, though, and it reminds me of when i was a little girl and i'd go fishing with my dad. we'd search for earth worms, and he'd show me how to bait the hooks. i always thought it was cool to squish all of the guts out before piercing their bodies with the hooks. and after we'd clean a fish, i always made sure to keep the eyes to play with later on. that's gross, i know.

and now my kids do much of the same thing. ella and summit catch the bugs, examine them, maybe kill them (please don't tell peta), maybe store them in a bug box, but they always play with them. that's cool with me. i think it's great that they love to learn about the earth, and the smallest creatures are awesome starting points. bug season is like a great, big science fair.