Today we continued the hunt for toad food. I told Ava that if she stumbled across any small bugs, to let me know and we would try to capture them for the toad. This of course segued into a full-on bug search—under rocks, under logs, under the compost bin, under just about any large heavy object we could find. We managed to find a little millipede-y looking thing, 2 beetle-y/wormy shiny looking things and one errant ant. Since ants are so abundant in our sandy soil, we were eschewing them for more interesting and hopefully more tasty toad treats. We were pretty disappointed, and then I had a brainstorm. I told Ava that after we fed Maggie, Nana’s dog that we were babysitting, we could go to the hardware store and get some “live bait.” Now, I laugh at the live bait stores around here. They are so ubiquitous and so, I don’t know, typical—make that stereotypical, and it just makes me giggle. Not to mention that our town clerk’s office—the office where we had to go to get our marriage license—is a desk in the back of a tackle and bait shop. That’s right—to get our marriage license, we first had to walk past the refrigerator of nightcrawlers. But, finally, they were going to prove to be useful to me. Not that I was going to give our teeny tiny toad an earthworm that could eat him in one gulp, but I figured they had to have some small worms there too. The hardware store only had the mega-worms, so they directed us to the local outdoors shop and we snagged ourselves a tube of grubs (ahhhhhhhhh!), and a tub of nightcrawlers because Ava could not contain herself and literally held it to her chest and said “Mom, I REALLY want to keep these for a pet.” Oh, fine. So we got back to the car, did a little looking at one of the earthworms, to which Carter said “eeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh” which means big, and then we went to the strawberry patch.
Strawberry patch=bliss for the kids. It was so cute—they don’t use any chemicals, so you have to sort of peer through the tall grass to find the berries, and Carter would sit down in a patch and all you could see was his little head peeking up through the grass. It took him about 2 seconds to catch on, and he would often come over to me and show me his eeeeeyyuuuuuuuuuhhhhh berry and then ask me to take the leaves off so he could eat it. Ava spent most of the time chasing butterflies, and I picked 3 pounds of berries. Not a mother lode, but enough for us.
When we got back in the car, Ava asked to see her worms again. She then asked if she could play with one on the way home. I hedged, and then thought, what’s the harm? It is not like they (the kids) are squeaky clean, and we have 12 worms, and it certainly is not going to bite her, so ok.
Doooo deee doooo….driving down the road, half way home…la la la….
“Oh no! MOMMY!”
“What happened Ava?”
“It broke in half!”
Mom, unable to stop laughing, “OK, well, you are going to have to throw it out the window.” Ava started to laugh, fortunately. I rolled down the window and she flung it out. I then explained to her that earthworms are NOT like gummi worms, and she had to be gentle and kind. She sat in silence for a few minutes.
“Ava? Now how many worms do you have?”
“Ummmm…” (whispering to herself) “ummm one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve…” (now loudly) “ELEVEN!”
“Yes! That’s great Ava!”
Earthworms are not just for science anymore.
Yesterday, Carter was in the bathroom flushing the toilet. He takes pride in this step, and usually does it 4 or 5 times, waving goodbye to his now long gone creation each time. Sometimes he slams the seat down each time, then lifts it up again to see what happened. For some reason, Ava was interested in this, and she was in there chatting with him, while I was just outside the door sweeping or something. Flush…BANG! Flush…BANG! Flush…THUMP…AAHHHHHHhhhhhh!!!!!!!! Mommmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Before Ava emerged from the bathroom, I was already convulsing with the giggles, because I knew exactly what had happened, and when she did come out holding her head she was so worked up that all she could do was squeak out something that was totally incomprehensible to anyone but a dolphin, and I was trying not to laugh as she was really upset and probably in a lot of pain, but I could not help shaking as I hugged her to me. After she calmed down, I tried once again to ask her what had happened, but I could not get it out without snorting and giggling again, and when she looked at me in shock, I apologized, and tried to gather up a straight face. But I couldn’t and I started laughing again. And that is when she looked at me and burst into laughter through her tears. I was finally able to say, “Ava, I know that hurt, but that was a very funny way to get hurt. Not everyone can say that their brother hit them in the head with a toilet.”
And the giggles keep coming. After Carter woke up from his nap, I was sitting outside with him in the Adirondack chair rocker that has a drink holder in it, and Ava was standing in front of us, drinking her (decaf) tea from a travel mug that fit perfectly into the drink holder. Carter was grumpy as usual, and was nursing through his post-nap disappointment, and I said something to Ava along the lines of “Hey, wasn’t it funny when you did something something something…?” pretty much at the same time as she took a huge swig of tea. I have no idea what it was that was so funny, but it must have been, because when I triggered the memory in Ava’s mind, she screwed her face up as the laugh came through her, desperately trying not to spit out her tea, but then she exploded and tea spewed everywhere, all over me (and Carter). She looked at me in total horror, and then I started roaring, and she let loose. It was her first initiation into that particular phenomenon, and it was great.