He was a good roach...

As Yannos pointed out, this was a pretty gentle way to introduce a 2-year-old to death.

Many of you will be happy to hear, we had a pet die: Our beloved cockroach, Bee.

So, we buried him in the garden...

mmmm, cockroach carrots!

Coincidentally, we had already talked about death last week. We were watching the Lion King when Zoe announced, "That lion sleeping!"

3-week postpartum tears poured down my face, while Simba snuggled under his dead father's paw and I sobbed, "No sweetheart. That lion died."

To which Zoe happily responded with...

She totally gets it.




(Don't worry, we still have Curly. Read about our pets here)

Meet Friends

We have new pets.

I may be using the term pet loosely.

Ever heard of Madagascar hissing cockroaches? Didn't think so. The Wikipedia page about them is fascinating. Apparently, they are very popular in Hollywood and have been in movies like Men in Black.

Yannos brought two males home the other day and Zoe is in love with them. When he first told me about the roaches, he sent me this video.

I showed the video to Zoe to get her stamp of approval...

She was enthusiastic about the "bees."

There has been a big outcry from those who know us in real life. People are really disturbed by them.

Since Zoe was small, we've tried to teach her to be nice to living things. From the neighbor's dog to the ants on the sidewalk, we make an effort to teach her how to treat things. They may not always be things I particularly love, like when she wanted to hold this grasshopper we found.

The point is: I may not help her hold all these creepy crawly things, but I will definitely stay calm, let her get close, and allow investigation without her having to listen to me whine.

She has no fear of these things. Being scared of bugs is a completely learned behavior and I'm going to do my best not to teach it to her.

Maybe she won't be traumatized when the boy who likes her in second grade puts a spider in her hair.