This afternoon Laylee began a parental love affair with a roly poly pill bug she found under a log in the back yard. She “saved” him, brought him tenderly inside and showed me how CUTE he was. Ay, Lassie. He was the cutest roly poly that ever I did see.
She carried him around all afternoon, chattering away to him, singing and teaching him tricks. They played games, wherein she chased him across the carpet with a plastic cup trying to capture him. If he ended up under the cup, she won. If he made it out before the cup came down, he won. I think that if the cup came down and he was half-way in and halfway out, everyone would have lost but luckily that didn’t happen.
She told me she was training him. Apparently he would stop when she yelled “stop” and go when she yelled “go.” He was obedient because she loved him and she yelled because he had small ears. She told me that he was her best friend.
At some point in the afternoon her yelling became louder as she frantically searched the family room looking for her crawly friend. “Roly Poly! I love you! Where are you?”
He was nowhere to be found. As she cried, she told me that she had last seen him in the small plastic car she was giving him a ride in. She’d left the room for just a moment and when she came back he was gone. I hobbled around on my crutches and helped her search but apparently did not show adequate emotion and she cried in despair and said, “MOM! I’m as sad from losing him as you’d be if you lost me.”
I told her that I didn’t think that was the case but I knew she really loved him and then I had a brilliant idea, “I bet I know where he is. I bet he wanted to get back to his home. You should go out and look in that rotting log where you originally found him and I bet he’s right back there, hanging out with his friends.”
Apparently she’d disturbed the log to the point that he and all his friends had gone into hiding but I feel confident that they’ll be back and she can reclaim her baby… or another one just like him, a deaf little ball of slime that’s very obedient to 5-year-olds and loves riding around in plastic cars. In the meantime, I’ll be looking very carefully inside my shoes before I step inside them.
Once my sister adopted a roly-poly on the way to church. In the midst of the sacrament she jumped up and yelled, “No one move! I lost my roly-poly.” Classic.
My son does this. The other day, though, he got one for himself, and then he found another one and said, this is daddy’s. And he took it inside and gave it to daddy.
I haven’t told him about the time when he was about 8 months old and ate one…and nearly made me throw up.
Isn’t Love Grand? She’s the cutest!
That’s funny.
That is so cute!
I hope your ankle is doing better! Dont’ squish roly with one of your crutches, that’d make a mess!
My kids had a roly poly business in the backyard. They would find as many as the could and then pass them out to their friends through the gate. It was funny seeing a line of children at our back gate waiting for their share of roly pollies.
Thanks for the link to Wikipedia. I called those things “potato bugs” as a kid. “Roly-poly” is cute, but I like armadilladium best. “Mommy! Look! A cute little armadilladium!” Tiny little armadillos in our own backyards.
So THAT’S what they eat in The Emperor’s New Groove! I thought that was a made-up creature…
What a stroke of mom-genius! (sending her out to see if he had returned to his home) I hope I can think on my toes as quickly in the coming years. 🙂
Time to sweep the floors!
🙂 Priceless
Adorable… but don’t get her a puppy any time soon.