Sunday, March 23, 2008

My son, my teacher.

I've changed a lot since Aaron came along. I've become more serious. I worry more. And I am infinitely more patient.

Today, I realized that he has also been chipping away at my disgust for certain cold blooded creatures.

I really REALLY dislike frogs. Always have. Yet, I'm now alright with closely examining frogs before buying them for Aaron's dinner. And, not long ago, a friend and I were in the garden playing with a baby frog for Aaron's benefit.

Lizards are something else that usually sends me jumping on a chair. Yet, I now happily point out lizards to Aaron and take him closer for a better look. Yesterday, we were nose to nose with a dead gecko that was being slowly eaten by ants.

We also dig for worms on a daily basis. He can't find them most of the time so I end up being the one looking for them and lining them up for him to look at.

I feel some sort of pride in being able to do these things now. In the past, these small creatures would literally set my heart pounding from panic. Yes, its stupid....but I just found them so disgusting. In a roundabout way, my wanting to make sure that Aaron didn't develop irrational fears ended up with me mostly overcoming my own. Win-Win.

5 comments:

John A Hill said...

Oddly enough, it was my little girl that was more likely to dig in the dirt for worms or play with bugs. I think that my Aaron spent too much time with his mom telling him that things like that were "yucky."

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Some people always get a dislike for certain creatures.

Bilbo said...

I have no problem with frogs. Lizards are a little more problematical. But I love earthworms ... I'm always trying to find worms to add to the mulch pile for my garden, because they add nutrients to the mulch as they happily eat their way through the old vegetables and other stuff. Let's hear it for the worms!

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

I so can relate to this. It's funny how we are supposed to teach them things and quite often it's them teaching US!

And for the records, reptiles make me SQUIRM.

Anonymous said...

May the lizard rest in peace...