The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Other Much-Loved Bugs

So Ava DETESTS bugs. With. A. Passion. She loves the outdoors, so those two things are at odds...

She comes by this honestly. My Mom tells me that she heard me thrashing about in the tub when I was younger, thinking I was possibly wrestling an alligator. When she got to the bathroom, she found out I was afraid of an ant that decided to take a swim with me....

Recently when I saw a caterpillar outside on the street , near the curb, I thought it was a good learning opportunity for her. She saw ants, too, and was deathly afraid of them. We must’ve spent 30 minutes sitting on the curb, watching a caterpillar! When I told Ava that the ants are actually more scared of us than we are of them, she seemed to be a little less fearful. I would say “oh, look at the baby ant! How cute!” She now says “Hi, ant!” when she sees them. (Much better than her previous reaction).

She’s still a bit afraid of the caterpillar if it starts crawling directly toward her. The one that we were watching decided to wake up and charged toward where Ava was sitting (if that’s possible – I’ve never seen a caterpillar move so fast!). I mentioned that “Wow, this caterpillar will probably make a really pretty butterfly when he wakes up!” So, she now talks about Caleb (sometimes she forgets that he is “caterpillar” and calls him “Caleb”?) telling us he is outside, sleeping… Hopefully she gets over her serious fear of bugs soon!!!! (Not that I want her juggling fire ants or anything...)

When Doug took Ava to bed and said prayers with her that night, she wanted to be sure to also mention the “caterpillar”, so of course Doug had to pray for the caterpillar to grow into a pretty butterfly. Kind of like the day we planted the flower she picked-out...We prayed and thanked God for the sunshine and rain so the flowers could grow big and tall. She chimed in, wanting us to also thank God for "dirt". We obliged. :-)

Peace, love and creepy-crawlies,
Shelly, Doug and Ava