Addendum

The very next morning Ike witnessed the same spider crawling on the wall. It was not a smart spider and didn't know it was supposed to go back outside with its family. Anyway, Ike really got a paper and squished it and threw it away. Just like a brave person would do! I even checked his garbage for the carcass to make sure it wasn't just pretending to be dead like some of them do. (I didn't get out the magnifying glass, but this crumpled spider didn't look like a wolf spider--so much for Ike's classification skills.)
So there was a happy ending to this tale of dread. No more spiders and I don't have to avoid going in the room. Plus I am so proud of Isaac now. Who would believe that my brave Spider Killer was the same boy who took 11 months to go to Sunbeams without physical force? They grow up so quickly.....

Arachnophobia

doesn't this picture make your skin crawl just looking at it?

Isaac had spied a spider on his bedroom window earlier today. In his cavalier daytime voice he told me he had left the room to get a piece of toilet paper to squish it, but upon returning to his room it was gone. (First of all, I can't imagine him squishing the spider---hasn't he learned from me that we capture spiders in empty baby food jars and wait for dad to come home to properly dispose of them?)

That was the last I heard of the spider until tonight when Ike was in bed. Then, the big 7-year-old started to sound a little less brave and said, "What if the spider comes in my bed and bites me?" I too, had forgotten about the spider and didn't want to start thinking about it NOW since it was already 12 minutes past bedtime and this was my time, dangit! But I am really a good mom so I started using all those motherly reassurances that probably aren't scientifically true like, "Spiders are more scared of you than you are of them" and "Spiders don't like beds because it's hard to walk on soft surfaces with eight legs." Then I told him the spider he'd seen was probably quite harmless.

But my boys check out too many science books at the library and Ike told me that the spider he'd seen looked just like a wolf spider! Well, I knew that no matter how much I love my child I ain't hanging out in the dark when a scary wolf spider might start crawling on me. So I kissed him good night, told him the spider had gone to bed himself and got myself out of that spider den. That doesn't make me a bad mom, does it? It's not like it was really a wolf spider, right? And Isaac is safe in bed since we all know spiders don't like crawling on soft things. Or had I made that one up? I'm getting all itchy thinking about it. Good night!

Tic-Tac-Toe

Maybe it's because I am one of those hip 'green' moms who teach their children about recycling and conserving resources. Or maybe it's because Isaac is slightly strange. But lately he has been on a tic-tac-toe binge and will try to play the game on any unconventional surface he can find.

Often, as I am just getting into a great op-ed piece in the paper, he will have defaced the very page I'm reading.

Then, there was the box of Kleenex, which was a challenging surface and therefore made the game more exciting.

And for all those boring dinnertime conversations he can always talk Mitch into a round or two.

But hands down, the most creative place I've seen him play was on Noelle. Poor girl didn't know what hit her..........