Our pets.

Well technically we don't "own" any pets. Well, I am not sure if anyone can own a pet so to speak and the pets may very well choose to own us. In the bigger sense of things, I like to think that God has given all of us to each other to enjoy. So, I often tell Taylor the animals can be our friends instead of the term pets.

Anyway, Taylor and I have been talking about pets lately, as a three year old is curious about these things. Yesterday when we were out in the back yard, we found some of our "pets" while we were playing. First, when Taylor opened up the sand box, a tiny sand covered frog was jumping around. Poor thing was covered in sand and Probably could not see a thing, Taylor said "Look, Mommy my pet froggie is in the sand box!" I went over and said "What a funny thing. A frog jumping inside a turtle!" The sand box is a big old plastic turtle.

Next, we see two "Grandaddy Long Legs" as I call them which are also known as Phalangium opilio and "harvestmen". These amazing creatures look almost alien like. While I do not care for spiders I grew up these guys and have never been afraid of them. We had one inside our screen door and one on the patio wall. Taylor said we have a "granddaddy and grandmama set."

A short time later, I had to take Jamie inside for a minute. Taylor was still kicking the ball where I could see her. Suddenly, she came running inside crying and screaming "Mommy!". Finally, she settled down and told me she saw a spider by the ball a "creepy spider." This was the first time she had ever been scared of anything like that that I can remember. She usually refers to spiders or animals as "my friend ...fill in the blank animal." I wonder if this fear was due to the snake "friend" we saw last week.