Little Misses Muffet

The girls were enjoying a breakfast of cream of wheat this morning, but in hindsight, I might as well have been feeding them curds and whey. Separately, they both pointed towards the ceiling a couple of times. Each time, I said, “Yes, that’s the light,” thinking they were admiring the beautiful pendant lighting in the kitchen.

After this happened several times, I looked skyward myself, past the beautiful pendants, and saw a tiny spider on the ceiling. “Hmmm…how to get that down,” I pondered. But my mind immediately jumped to the fact that the girls must have good eyesight, and that makes me happy. I promptly forgot about our itsy bitsy spider friend while we continued to eat our cereal.

An hour or so later, the girls and I were playing in the den. I thought I saw something in my periphery, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. A moment later, I realized our itsy bitsy spider friend had made his way across the kitchen, into the den, and was trying his darnedest to sit down beside Baby A and me.

After nearly having scared my poor husband to death with a ghastly scream over a spider when we first got married, I have since trained myself to remain calm in such situations. But this was different…there was a spider, dangling precariously in front of my face, inches away from my baby girls.

I all but panicked.

In hindsight again, I believe my panic was brought on by the fact that I needed to do something right then to save my girls from serious peril…yet I didn’t have anything with which to nab the spider. And I surely wasn’t about to use my hand. (For some reason I can easier imagine rescuing the girls from in front of a fast-moving train than grabbing that spider bare-handed.)

And then I remembered the baby wipes! We have them in every room. (And yes, they are seriously good for everything.)

I darted across the den, narrowly averting scattered blocks, toy trucks, dolls, and Babies A and B. I darted as quickly as possible, while trying not to alarm the girls. (A budding animal rights activist, Baby B was once scared beyond belief when she witnessed her daddy swat a fly.)

I’ll spare you the details of the itsy bitsy spider’s untimely demise, but I think it’s safe to say that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men probably wouldn’t be able to put him together again.

And Mommy, Daddy, Baby A, and Baby B all lived happily ever after. The End.