Category: Monster Tales

Last weekend, Middle Monster found a huge gorgeous moth in the back yard with damaged wings.  I’m pretty sure it was this Polyphemus Moth — freaking big enough to creep her out when it hopped around.  But she couldn’t leave the poor thing outside to get eaten, so she scooped it up in a plastic bowl (at least it wasn’t my good Tupperware this time). 

She put lots of grass and flowers and leaves in the bowl, determined to “feed” and “water” it.  The next morning, she came in and told me the butterfly was “pooping” in the bowl.

Ummm, do butterflies poop?  Anyway, this moth was not pooping.  In fact, it was laying eggs.  Absolutely thrilled, Middle started moving the tiny eggs into another plastic container for safe keeping.  Before Mama Moth died, she laid at least 20 or so eggs, and I’m pretty sure Middle found each and every one of them.

We had a somber burial for the poor damaged moth.

All this week, Middle rushed home from school to check her eggs.  Now I had no idea if the things would actually hatch or not, especially with all her handling and moving.  I also had no idea how long they’d actually take to hatch.  But when she came screaming into the house tonight after school, I knew the miracle had happened.

Middle Monster is now the proud mama of three tiny little caterpillars.  They’re about 1 cm long.  She immediately went racing about the yard gathering every green leaf she could find (it’s been very dry and hot this summer, so not as easy as you’d think) to “feed” her babies.

If they all hatch, I’m going to encourage her to release most of them.  I have no idea if we can feed and grow a caterpillar into a moth, but she’s determined to try!  What a nice little science experiment, too.

Last night I was cooking dinner when Middle Monster casually stepped into the kitchen and said, “Hey, Mom.”  (Drawing out the Mom part.)

I finished shaping the hamburger patty and immediately washed my hands.  Something was up.  Definitely.  “What?”

“Did you know there’s a suitcase in the middle of the street?”

Ugh, still washing my hands — I hate raw meat.  More soap, but I’m hurrying, because I have a very bad feeling about this.  “You didn’t get close to it.  Did you?”

“Uhhhhh…..”

Crap.  “You didn’t touch it, did you?”

“Uhhhhh….  There’s only gloves and stuff inside.”

Taking deep breaths, I tried to remain cool and collected.  “You know there could have been a bomb in there or something.”

Cheerfully, Middle Monster replies, “Nope.  I didn’t hear any ticking.”

While I lectured her on all the horrible nasty things that could have been in that mysterious bag (yeah, we live in “safe” suburbia in a relatively small town, but you just never know), I headed out to investigate.  From a safe, boring distance.  It wasn’t a suitcase, but a duffel bag.  Now I’m imagining drug money, dirty needles, weapons….

In the end, the bag belonged to the neighbor across the street.  They have a truck, and I suspect it might have fallen out the back when he pulled into their slightly sloped driveway.  Anyway, I was just starting to recover from the “bomb” scare when we watched the news last night.

Evidently there was an attempted abduction of two girls on the street that is THREE HOUSES AWAY from us.  *dies*  My girls play outside with the neighbors all the time.  They walk down that street each day to come home from summer school.  Needless to say…

I’m having a very hard time letting them out of their locked rooms right now.  I know they have to live and not be afraid, but that’s just too close to home.  Literally.

P.S. As far as the attempted abduction, the man never got out of the van, but when he tried to get the girls to come over to him, they smartly ran to a neighboring house.  I have no idea how old the girls were but it’s very scary with three little girl monsters in this house. 

P.S.S. And no, the suspect has not been apprehended.  *deep breaths*

But at least the mysterious duffel bag wasn’t ticking.

I guess it wouldn’t be spring break without a trip to the ER!  If you’ve been reading here long I bet you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it was Middle Monster requiring medical attention.

Last night after dark, the two youngest monsters were riding their skateboards inside the garage (we’d parked the family van outside to give them room).  I guess she decided she needed more of a challenge, so she switched to a bike.  She made a turn too sharply and feel forward, hitting her throat on the handle bars.

She came running upstairs gasping like the wind had been knocked out of her.  I got her calmed and we put ice on it immediately.  She hadn’t broke the skin but there was definitely a rising white welt and tiny scratches on her throat.  She could breathe (after the initial panic) and turn her head without pain, but I was still worried because she couldn’t talk normally.  Her voice was hoarse and raspy, and it hurt to swallow. 

Of course this is all happening about 9:30 pm.  That Man and I were getting ready for bed since we were supposed to work today, but I couldn’t stand the thought of going to bed — even though she seemed fine — for fear something would swell up in the middle of the night and she’d die.  (A writer’s imagination is not a kind gift to have when your child has been injured.)  I called our pediatrician’s office to talk to the on-call nurse and she recommended we go ahead to the ER just to be safe.

So Middle and I headed up to the closest hospital.  Unfortunately, every crazy and sick person in town must have decided that was the best time to show up, too, because we waited for THREE HOURS.  Kids were puking in buckets all around us.  I can only pray we don’t get the flu now!  Middle was feeling better but bored to tears and still a little worried.

Finally after 1 AM we saw the doctor — for a grand total of FIVE MINUTES.  He came in, felt her throat, and looked inside.  Since she doesn’t have her tonsils, he could see way inside without having to scope her or anything.  No cartilage damage, just soft tissue bruising.  He told her to stick with a liquid diet today but that everything seemed fine.  Whew. 

It’s strange to be driving home in the middle of the night, but it was a very happy trip.  Middle kept looking for a place to get a shake but nothing was open.  (By now, she was starving.)  We got home and I made her a Weight Watcher’s chocolate smoothie so she could sleep without her tummy grumbling, and then sent a note to my boss at the Evil Day Job that I needed to take today off.

She did have problems sleeping and came in to join me in bed after That Man left around 6 AM for work.  We slept a bit longer and then had a lazy morning of watching TV.  I was out of soup, so we had a late lunch of hot and soup soup at our favorite Chinese place, and then I took the monsters to the library.

Tonight, she’s feeling back to her normal vivacious self and is outside playing with the neighbor kids.  You wouldn’t even know she’d been hurt last night, until she talks.  Her voice sounds like she’s been cheering a few hours at a football game!

So I lost a day of work, both EDJ and writing, but it was a very good day anyway.