Ashley

Kenzie has decided that the babe in my tummy's name is to be Ashley. She's so fond of the name, actually, that she names everything Ashley. Including this praying mantis that we found in the early a.m. last week. It was a friendly guy, and he ended up being her friend all. day. long. We set him free at the end of the day.

At first, I was a little creeped out by him. I can't remember if I posted these pictures, but earlier in the summer a praying mantis came in through our sunroofs while we left them open at the library. He was HUGE. We brought him home, finagled him into the bug catcher for awhile and then set him free. While sharing the story with my mother, she originally joked with me and and said the guy was "Harmless!! Just let her play with it!!" She called back a few days later after having watched a documentary on them and changed her position. Apparently, when the things get THIS big, they can be meat eaters! So, now..I have a difficult time judging which ones are small enough to cart around on my kids shoulder all day...and which should be studied from far, far away. :)



I get such a kick out of Kenzie's interest in bugs (obviously). I try to let her explore them (when safe) and teach her to treat them nicely (don't harm any that won't harm you!)... When we first moved into our neighborhood 1.5 years ago, the neighbors found this totally creepy. I'm proud to say that we now see many of the kids running around with Kenzie on bug hunts. (she's still pretty lonely while wallowing in the mud, but even I wrestle with inner screams when she heads in that direction...)