Uncle Matt's New Pets

In this time of oil prices and expensive gas, most people are trying to conserve. Not me. Nope. I drove all the way to Orem to see about 30 ants!

Uncle Matt got an ant farm. In all honesty, we wondered if Uncle Matt had finally cracked. But the boys were very excited to see it and would have me text him everyday to see if his ants had arrived, and then the color of them, and all other deep profound ant related questions.

So we had to drive over just to see them...it couldn't wait. =) Seeing the ant farm up close, I was surprisingly interested in it and found myself staring at it a lot longer then I thought I would.

The blue gel is both food and water for them. Which means that they never have to open the lid. The boys LOVE staring at it...and frankly so do all the adults...only the young and cool ones will admit it though.


So then it starts: "Mom, can I get an ant farm? Mom?" So I asked the default question, "Does it make it's own pooh?" The answer to that is yes, but you can't see the pooh and never have to clean it up. So that question, that is designed to be the deal-breaker, doesn't really apply this time. Crap. (literally)

So I made the deal of the century. "If you clean your room and keep it clean for a month, then yes, you may have an ant farm."

So they should get one when they are about Uncle Matt's age.

Ok, but then the trip over to Grandma's house to see the ants suddenly turned into bug day at the Smith's. The neighbors have a tarantula. Shoot me. The boys have been SO looking forward to seeing it though.

So we went over and unluckily the neighbors were home. (no offense to them, they are about the nicest people ever...but they do own a very large, very creepy spider that my boys were excited to see!) So Uncle Matt and I put our phobias aside and went with them. Thank heavens Grandpa went to so that he could control the situation. If that spider would have fallen and started running, Matt and I would have screamed and headed for the hills!! So sweet neighbor Jacque, apparently oblivious to the fact that both Matt and I are ready to scream like little girls and run for it, asks the boys if they want to hold it.

Of course, they said yes. Thank heavens for Grandpa's presence to help them hold their hands still, so that if they panic the poor innocent spider (shutter....) won't get harmed. So Bear goes first. He was perfectly calm and didn't mind it at all...WHO'S KID IS THIS ANYWAY!?!


So Spider Man goes next...again...totally calm and acting like it is no big deal that he has a spider the size of his hand on him!!!!!! It was all I could do to stand there and not freak out for them and startle everyone! I held still enough to take a picture luckily. (again, who's kids are these two?!)

So then Jacque asked Smiley if he wanted too. The most he wanted to do was quickly poke the spider's hairy bum. (ok, abdomen...sorry boys!) Smiley was pretty scared and didn't want to do anything more then that. (that's my boy!!)

We finished holding the spider and it was returned to it's aquarium (huge sigh from Matt and mom) and then we thanked her and left. The kids were SO excited about this and have been telling people about it ever since.

A week later we had to go to PETsMART and the boys wanted to check out the snakes. So then along comes this cute employee, "You want to see it?" DANG IT!!! "Ok, sure." Thankfully she wouldn't let them hold it, but they got to touch it.


So the boys have had their fill of insects and reptiles lately. If I could just get Spider Man to quit asking for a scorpion we would be in good shape. And as for the deal of cleaning their room for a month to get an ant farm...that was over a month ago and they still haven't even cleaned it to start the month. So no worries there. =)

For the record: I am not scared of snakes and actually once tried to talk Ferris into a Columbian Red-Tailed Boa (this was before kids...and A LOT easier to manage) but he said no. I still tease him that he is the one that is scared of snakes.

Of course he denies this.