Today there were a couple of interesting "firsts" at the Dunlea house. I know my life will be full of these with the boys.
I was in the laundry room trying to get a handle on the mountain of dirty clothes that seems to find its way there. My dirty clothes bin is a rolling contraption that has three bags hanging from the frame,a bag for towels, one for whites, and one for darks. The bags velcro to these cute little metal hangers and then hang from the frame.
I started a load of laundry and left for a second to answer the phone. When I came back one of the metal hangers was gone. I looked in the bag, under the bag, moved the entire cart, just about everywhere and could not find the hanger. I was concentrating so hard on finding that dumb thing that I didn't hear Grady walk up behind me. He said "Mom look what I found." Just hearing him made me jump a little, but then when I saw the live, wiggling snake in his hand that made me jump just a bit more. I quickly gained my composure, because there is one thing I do know, as a teacher and a mom of 4 boys, I cannot let them know that anything bothers me or grosses me out. Because that will give them ammunition I do not want them to have. I calmly said "Grady, we do not bring snakes into the house." His response, "Ok, can I go show dad before I take him out?" "Yes," I said calmly, "just don't drop it." Grady showed daddy and bragged about how he made me jump, and then took the poor snake back outside and let him go in the weeds. I am happy that Grady loves animals and wants to investigate and collect them. I do draw the line at keeping snakes for any length of time.
You wonder why I had to go into great detail about the laundry cart and hanger. Well, after the snake had left the building, I asked Kellen "Do you know where my hanger is to my laundry bag?" (Notice I went straight to him, I had a feeling he might know a thing or two about this). "Yes," he says, "buried in the dirt." Just like, duh, mom where else would it be. Well, why didn't I think to look outside in the flowerbed for a part to my laundry bag. I asked him to go get it for me and told him that if he ever took my laundry bag apart again, he was going to be in big trouble. "OK" he said, as he was running away from me. No big deal.
Just another day in the Dunlea house......what will a little girl do with us?
She'll be really tough.... and not scared of snakes and bugs. Fun story! I've recently come to your same conclusion and have actually been grabbing spiders and other insects with my BARE HANDS! It's a big step for me anyway ;)
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