The Bug Whisperer

Eve has been OBSESSED with bugs lately. I cannot even tell you how many times this week I've heard, "Oh, Mom! Look! There's a cute baby spider right there. See, it's a yellow one. We better get a jar and catch it!"

Last week, I asked Eve what she was doing in the backyard and she said she was just helping the slugs find their way up the hill. And watching Eve collect ants - huge, biting, carpenter ants - for her ant farm, is just so funny. In a sweet voice: "C'mere, Anty. Anty, c'mon, just get in. You can do it, Anty. C'mon, Anty." She patiently followed these ants around with the little opening of the ant farm and somehow she caught five by herself.

The photo is of Eve with today's catch, an inch worm... or something like that. She named him "Inny" and spent the good portion of an hour looking at him and talking to him in her sweet "I love bugs" voice. Unfortunately, Eldon got a hold of the jar and pulled everything out - Inny out, so to speak. We have no idea where he went. I think Eldon may have eaten him, but Eve consoled herself by saying that he must have crawled out of the "worm hole" by the door and that she could see him "out there on the grass" (please note that this worm is like the size of her fingernail. But she could still see him).

Eldon could very easily be known as the Bug Destroyer. He seems to get immense pleasure from stomping on any tiny moving creature he sees. Tonight, he came to me at the dinner table and said, "Buh", which means "bug", and dropped something in my hand. I dropped it on my plate, then noticed when it wiggled its leg that it was a squooshed carpenter ant . Ewwwww.