joys of parenting: boy things

i was quickly reminded today of the rhyme: boys are made of snails and puppy dog tails.

in a morning full of 2 year old melt downs, peace was found outside. there really is very little that taking a few minutes outside can not fix. the problem is that the weather is hot, sticky, and humid beyond any sort of comfortable level. so as the boy ran in circles in the backyard i hid in the minimal amount of shade provided by the side of the house. and then pure mindless joy was discovered by the boy. he sat there and picked every snail that was in reach off the side of the house. one by one they were plucked from their safe spot on the wall, inspected, talked to, and then placed into a pail.

up until this point i was totally cool with the snail gut covered fingers and pail full of bugs. i feel like i need to add a disclaimer here....i have nothing against bugs, worms, slugs, snails ect....as long as the are outside my house!

then the pail came inside. i instantly let out and inner yelp. the hubs told him to bring them inside. so i was faced with a moral dilemma. while i was completely freaked out, i didn't want to contradict what the hubs already said was ok. so we reached a compromise. the snails could stay, but they had to stay on the counter. this way i could make sure none of them escaped or were set free. i kept having these horror movie visions of waking up in the morning to millions of snails crawling up the walls inside the house. it took a lot of will power to not throw them out back immediately.

so they stayed on the counter for a while. and as soon as the boys interest shifted over to his trains i set my slimy friends free.

the boy and i each learned important lessons today. the boy learned that inner peace can be found in snail collecting and i learned that the snails are not going to take over my house and attack.....at least no within 20 minutes.