ANTS!

ANTS~

I'm afraid of ants. Really. Not of, say, 10 ants, but of a swarm of ants. 

Here's why (note: this is horrifying to me! If you don't want to be horrified, don't read this.):

**I watched some show on Animal Planet about 3 years ago that was Top Ten Most Dangerous Animals (I am such a sucker for anything in top ten format).  I think the type of ants featured were harvester ants, but anyhow they're small ants that live in gigantic hordes in Africa and they have large mandibles so that they can actually rip human flesh. It hurts, so an adult would jump up and run away. But in the feature, I watched people talk about how the ants move very very quickly and you can get consumed - eaten alive!- in a short period of time and that it happens to immobile people, like the sick or the old or the young. And the worst thing, what really makes me ill, is then they said babies get eaten because the ants pour down their mouths and suffocate the baby's cries so that no one comes to help them.  ugh. i'm sick all over again.**

So that's why I'm afraid of ants. Because the same concept could happen here with regular garden ants (only minus the mandibles, but still) and I also envision a swarm of ants lifting my baby one inch off the ground and carrying her away. I'm crazy worried about my kids all the time.

Recently Heather had a swarm of ants in her kitchen one morning that attacked Lillian's high chair and she found them all over the chair and Lillian. gives me the shivers. Heather got an exterminator immediately. Good for her. 

I had a time in college when I was toying with the ideals of PETA. Although, without the belief that others should do what I believe (I've never been able to feel that way, even when I know I'm right. I'm "live and let live" even when I'm talking about death.). I even contemplated living like a Jainist but that's really hard core and I didn't have the energy.  But I didn't see why people should get worked up trying to kill flies and ants and other household pests. Why not set them free outside and if you can't get them out, just accept that they're in? At that time, I had no idea what ants were capable of. 

Up until 3 years ago I lived without pest control. I shooed things out the window, caught insects in jars for release, bought a have-a-heart trap and used it, and just kept things clean to minimize ants. 

And then three things happened: I learned about ants, I got stung between my eyes by a carpenter bee (that's a different story), and I moved to Pasadena with a baby.

Now suddenly, I'm afraid of what ants might do to my baby, I have an automatic reaction to bees that I just can't hide, and I'm living on a huge sandbank filled with pests.

Pasadena is a beautiful area. I think we'll be here for 20 years or more. I love almost everything about it and I love our house and yard and neighborhood. But geologically (hydrologically), this whole area is a sandy shore to the local rivers.  We have ridiculous mosquitos bc we have a stream at the edge of our property. We have raccoons, possums, and a fox (which is only an issue if you have chickens, but that's another story). And most disturbing, everyone that I know has an ant problem every single spring. 

I tried lots of weird things like sprinkling red pepper along all windowsills. Didn't work. I tried for years to just wipe up ants every single day and apply layers of caulk. Guess how good that was? So this year, I bought those little ant traps and put them out. It took all spring, but it worked! Until 2 days ago when J. showed me the new stream of ants in our living room. Ugh! 

J.'s idea is to catch them all and put them in our ant farm with the others (Jeremiah thinks we should let the farm ants free because he calls it a death camp. Maybe I'm a little mean bc that doesn't bother me.). I teach the kids that we don't hurt things, not people or plants or animals or insects.  But we fuzz that concept when it comes to ants. Somehow it's ok to lecture the ants in our house about why they need to stay outside in their habitat and then wipe them up and put them into the trash can. This is a parenting dilemma that I'm going to have to face one day. But maybe by then my babies will be grown and I can make peace with the ants again.

Best moment of my day: All of my hard work at treating J. right has finally paid off. 

First off, I had several rounds in a row of changing wet or poopy underpants (not mine) and wet or poopy diapers (again, not mine) this afternoon. The last one required a full outfit change for C. and crib blanket and sheets change. Simultaneous pooping is not fun for mommy.

Combine that with how I had the early shift this morning and my general bout of sleepiness today. So I needed someone to be nice to me. I finally got C. down for her nap (once she was empty) and asked J. to have quiet time in her room alone so I could have some quiet time alone. This worked for a few minutes and then J. called for me. Sigh. So upstairs I go. 

She had made a bed on the pullout couch for me. She asked me to lay down and then tucked me in (letting me borrow one of her dolls to cuddle with). Then she played quietly on the couch beside me for a few minutes. Then- and I can't even believe what a good girl she is- she went and got my favorite kind of Body Shop body butter and massaged it onto my feet.  Sometimes we take turns doing this for each other. But for her to sense my needs and then tend to them so acutely without me asking for it, well, I was blown away. SOMEONE got to help me make and eat homemade strawberry ice cream tonight!

worst moment of the day: cleaning up pee and poop. but what else is new?

Notice: You may have noticed that I stopped being secretive about my husband and kids' names in my blog. (if you didn't before, this notice should help.) As Elizabeth pointed out, the web address says it all if you know enough to look. Right. So, screw it.  But I did change the settings so that it shouldn't come up in search engines (but again, if you want to find it, a general guess will get you here)