I need to start with a story from the past. When I was 3 or 4 years old, my wonderful sister (who was 6.5 years older) so sweetly tried to protect me from a common backyard visitor - the caterpillar. Apparently, she had watched some nature program that featured caterpillars in the Amazonian rainforest that were, in fact, poisonous. Nikki translated that to mean that all caterpillars were poisonous. My best friend, Amy and I were terrified. Caterpillars were all over the place where we lived...and they were apparently going to kill us. It did not matter how many adults tried to explain that our caterpillars were not "killers", we now knew the truth. It took many years for me to accept that the caterpillars are actually safe.
I felt the need to tell this story because apparently that fear of caterpillars was absorbed into the genetic material that I passed on to Bryce! Today, while climbing up on the ladder of his swing set, Bryce saw a very tiny caterpillar...and he let go. Thankfully, all he did was knock the wind out of himself - the mulch did a nice job cushioning the fall. After calming down from the scare, I found another caterpillar crawling on a plant. Bryce asked me to hold it, but he didn't want to be near me when I picked it up. I put the caterpillar over on the swing set with the other caterpillar and they began to race up the ladder. This was too much for Bryce and he started screaming and crying - completely out of control hysterics - even threw himself on the ground. I was so caught off guard by this response that I started laughing! Eventually, both of us were able to calm down and I moved both caterpillars over to some leaves that Bryce thought were acceptable.
Other than that event, we had a good time playing on the swings. Bryce worked on pumping his legs and I worked on pushing him as high as I could to tickle his belly!
I felt the need to tell this story because apparently that fear of caterpillars was absorbed into the genetic material that I passed on to Bryce! Today, while climbing up on the ladder of his swing set, Bryce saw a very tiny caterpillar...and he let go. Thankfully, all he did was knock the wind out of himself - the mulch did a nice job cushioning the fall. After calming down from the scare, I found another caterpillar crawling on a plant. Bryce asked me to hold it, but he didn't want to be near me when I picked it up. I put the caterpillar over on the swing set with the other caterpillar and they began to race up the ladder. This was too much for Bryce and he started screaming and crying - completely out of control hysterics - even threw himself on the ground. I was so caught off guard by this response that I started laughing! Eventually, both of us were able to calm down and I moved both caterpillars over to some leaves that Bryce thought were acceptable.
Other than that event, we had a good time playing on the swings. Bryce worked on pumping his legs and I worked on pushing him as high as I could to tickle his belly!
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