Thursday, May 8, 2008

Caterpillars

I have a crippling fear of caterpillars.  Yes, the fuzzy, little harmless insects that live in trees and eat leaves.  Those caterpillars.

It stems from an incident at my childhood cabin when I was 8 years old.  I was pulling on my bathing suit (it was really snazzy, with a traffic sign pattern) when I noticed things didn't feel right.  So I pulled my suit back down, and there were caterpillars in the butt of my suit (I get heebies just writing about this).  

This incident has traumatized me for the past 21 years (I should mention that my fear was compounded by my dickhead brother chasing me around the backyard with every caterpillar he could find).

Fast forward to the other day.  

The Dude is playing in the sandbox when he starts swatting at his hair.  

The Dude: "Mom, I think I have a bug in my hair"

Me: "Let's take a...oh...dear God...um...Bud, hang tight (at this point I was trying not to pass out)...(I BRAVELY get a stick and get the little THING out of my son's hair and on to the edge of the sandbox).

The Dude:  "Isn't he cute Mom?

Me:  (No response, I was a good 20 feet away, trying to stay upright).

Here are the pictures.

Rikki- 1
Caterpillar- 0

Yes, THAT is the caterpillar.  He was small (I admit) but he could have GOT me. 



5 comments:

LiteralDan said...

One doesn't get to say this often, but you made my butt tingle.

I don't mind bugs that much, but I don't want them near any of my orifices. (Or is that orifici?)

jen said...

Who am I to judge. If it had been a spider, I would have told my child he was on his own. :)

Gwendolyn Peregrine said...

Hehe, you're right, that caterpiller was so little that at first I didn't see him in the picture! But who am I to talk; I'm terrified of the freaking King From BK commercials.

Swanny said...

But really, who isn't scared of the BK King?

kittenpie said...

Hey, when you have the Fear, they appear about 100X their actual size. I understand that, because I swear spiders average 3-6 feet in diameter, in kittenpieview.