Um, what do you say to that?

For the last two days in our neck of the woods, it's rained. And I mean RAINED. It didn't stop for a full 36 hours, just went from light sprinkles to Noah-like proportions and back again. My kids were going crazy been cooped up, and I was right there with them.

And then this morning, we woke up to glorious sunshine. Seriously, not a even single wispy cloud in the sky. The birds were singing, the temperature a perfect 64 degrees, the trees are kissed in vibrant colors, and you could sort of kind of see it all through my dirty windows. (ahem)

I spend the morning cleaning my kitchen, and then we all headed out front to soak up some wonderful vitamin D. I spent a few minutes weeding some flower beds, Girly-Lou rounded up every leaf she could find, and Buddy tried very hard to climb our tree.

Then he got adventurous. He walked over to me with a tiny snail on his finger, asking what it was. "oh, a sthnail! It's so cute. I wuv sthnails." This was quickly dashed when it fell off his finger into the grass. But soon he came over with something else.

"Wook Mom! What's this?" It was a tiny bug of some sort. "Oh, Mom, it's my favorite. I wuv the tiny bugs. Deay are my favoirte animal ever." Of course, the bug also fell into the grass. Massive disappointment followed. "But Mom, I don't have any animals. I wuv to hod all da animals. Dey are my favorite, and I need to hold another animal."

Lunch helped. After lunch, they kids headed out back to play some more. I stayed inside to check my hubby in for his flight.

"Mom! Guess what I founded outside!"

I'm afraid to ask.

"Wook Mom!" he shows me his hand proudly. Clutched firmly inside his little paw are dozens of dried up worms. All crunchy in their curliness.
"Wook how cool. I founded dem all by myself. What is it?"

"dried up worms" I reply, trying very hard to be calm and not grossed out, and not stressed out that he'd drop them all over the freshly vacuumed carpet.

"Oh, yah. Dried up worms. I wuv dem Mom. Dey are my favorite animal. 'Cause I can hold dem and dey don't go away. Dey are so cute!"

Um, yah. Right. But part of me was so happy he was finding joy in nature. Especially insect life. That's just such a boy thing. And something he loved until Aug 2008. That's when he was attacked by fire ants, and ended up in an urgent care center getting treatment for his more than TWO HUNDRED bites over his hands, forearms and lower legs. He's been rather terrified of bugs since then. So while I'm really NOT ok with dried up worms all over my house, I will try to not show him how gross this is. Because I'd rather he grew up to be a "normal" boy than that traumatized one I've seen for more than a year.

*picture snapped after ushering him upstairs to the freshly swept and mopped floor. That way I could at least quickly clean it up if he dropped it! Fourtunatly, I was able to pursuade him that they belonged BACK outside!