Mommy to the rescue...or not ;(

Aah, what a feeling. I had just gotten out of a nice warm shower...a shower where I actually got to shave my legs. Most days Johnathan cries long before I get to that, so I end up walking around the house feeling like a prickly pear. Not pleasant, but it sure beats having to let Baby J. bawl his eyes out while I'm in the shower. I had just gotten dressed, and was feeling on top of the world. A lovely sunny day in C.C., baby was happy, I was clean, yep I felt good. I noticed that Johnathan was getting sleepy, so I wheeled him in his little baby walker into his room, and that's when the chaos started.

We entered his room, and I turned on the light & fan. Right away I heard a sort of scratching noise. At first I just thought it was one of the tags from his bouncy chair being blown by the fan. I kept hearing it though, and then, in the corner of Baby J's room, I thought I saw something jumping around. "Oh, great" I thought, a grass hopper is in the corner (it was jumping quite high, but was behind the bouncy chair, so I couldn't quite see it yet). Rather nonchalantly I pulled the bouncy chair back to get the "grass hopper" and that's when I saw it...the biggest spider that isn't a tarantula, and it was in my house!!! Now, I don't like bugs. I really don't like spiders, and I REALLY REALLY don't like when they're in my little boy's room.

Being the brave mommy that I am, I ran like mad to get the Raid because squishing him with the end of a broom or something was way too hands on for me. "Don't worry, Johnathan, Mommy will save you." I was only too glad that my boy was too little to see what a wuss I really was. Running back into the room and hoping that the spider was still in the corner, I stood my ground and got ready to face the spider. Our encounter went something like this:

Spray, spray, spray. Spider running toward me amazingly fast. "AAAAAHHHHH." Me screeching at the top of my lungs. Spray, spray, spray. Spider still running at me. "AAAIIIIEEEEEEE." Me still screeching at the top of my lungs. "WWWWWAAAAAAAAAA." Johnathan crying in stark terror at his mommy acting like a lunatic. Spray, spray, spray. Spider still running, this time under the changing table. "UUHHHG." Me trying to curb my desire to scream bloody murder. "WWWAAAAA", "Woof, woof, woof." Johnathan still crying and Bo trying to do his best to protect us from the unseen attacker.

After realizing how much I was scaring Johnathan by screaming so loud, I tried to calm down a bit before looking for the spider behind the changing table. I put Johnathan on top of the guest bed, and like a good mommy, I joined him. I slowly started to pull out the changing table, ready for the appearance of the big bad spidey. Out it came, and once again I doused it with about half a gallon of Raid. Finally, it curled up and began to die. About time. I was officially filled with the jitters, but I had a crying baby and barking dog to think about. I took Johnathan out of the baby walker, and snuggled him to sleep. Bo calmed down when he saw that we weren't dying. Once again, my day was returning to normal.

After laying Baby J. down to sleep, I went in (gloves on) to pick up the spider and to clean the puddles of Raid off of the floor in his room. I gingerly scooped up the spider with the end of the dust pan, and disposed of it in a trash bag. After checking several times that it was still dead, I tied up the bag, and after making sure that I could see it (still dead) inside of the bag, I threw it away.

What a day. Another reminder that I have a long ways to go before I will be excited to see what "treasures" Johnathan will bring me some day out of his little pockets. The good thing is that he's still a baby, and as the years go by hopefully we'll be able to enjoy "nature" together. Just not today, and please, not in my house!