Squirmy Wormies

Well, I think I officially had my "Oh my gosh I'm the mother of a little boy and that can be really gross sometimes" moment the other day after picking Ben up at school...

He proudly opened his lunchbox to show me what he and a classmate, Claire had discovered under the picnic table after lunch that day...

Worms.

I quickly recoiled, but thought that I shouldn't visibly overreact because I don't want him to be as afraid of creepy crawlies as I am--he's a boy, after all! He should be coming home with dirty fingernails and scrapes from playing in the dirt...right?

So, I displayed a jaw-clenched grin and said, through my gritted teeth, "That's great, bud! Uh...what should we do with them?"

"I want to take them home and feed them!" Duh.

I quickly closed the lunchbag flap and instructed him to keep it that way--the last thing I, or any other driver in Orlando, needed was me behind the wheel with worms crawling all over the inside of my immaculately clean car. ;-)

After the short trip home, Ben carried his new pet carrier into the house and we headed out to the backyard. I grabbed a jar--you know, one of those old-timey jam jars that have the metal lid with the other metal ring that screws in over it? (What? I'm from North Carolina--of course I have jars. What else would I drink my moonshine out of?)

We filled up the jar with some potting soil and I grabbed some saran wrap so we could close these critters in but still give them an oxygen supply. Ben dug down in his lunchbag and pulled out a handful of worms...and they weren't moving. :-(

"Uh...babe--I don't know if they made it..."

"Sure they did, Mommy!" How, I ask you, could I crush his dream of keeping these as pets? We've already crushed his dream of having a dog for now--he's convinced he's getting a puppy instead of a new brother or sister...

So, I just put on my best Mommy-will-fix-everything smile and said, "Well, let's just poke some holes in the top of the plastic wrap and I'm sure they'll be fine." Ben took the jar inside the house, and we got him ready for bed.

The next morning, he had forgotten about them and we headed off to school. After getting home, he quickly ran over to the jar and looked at them, puzzled.

"Mommy! They're growing hair!"

For the first time, I took a good look at our new "housepets"...

They were moldy spaghetti noodles.

They'll be "moving" to the compost pile tonight...but the real question is this--what kid brings noodles to school for lunch??