Sleeping With Spiders

In my never-ending quest to get Daniel to sleep in his own room (shared with Lula), I set up a little bed next to his for us to fall asleep in together:

Sweet, isn't it?

Every other kid transitioned into their own bed by this age (except IJ now that I think about it-which doesn't surprise me.  IJ and Daniel have been my neediest kids so far).  Most of them needed either Mark or I to snuggle with them to sleep in their bottom bunk.  They would wake up once during the night for a few weeks and then slept through the night.

Daniel and I spent the weekend while Mark and the older boys were gone getting used to our new little bed.  I was hoping that we would sleep together on the floor for awhile, then I would get him up to his own bed while I slept on the floor, and then I would just holler, "Go to bed!" like I do with the rest of the kids that successfully moved out of my bed.

But then a bad thing happened last night, right before bed.  A teensy tiny spider crawled across the floor.  The older kids played with it.  The younger kids were fascinated by it, but didn't want to get too close.  And then all of a sudden, I was left alone with the teensy tiny spider, Daniel, and Lula.  I was attached to my pump and wasn't free to move about.  I watched the teensy tiny spider crawl slowly toward Lula, who was busy picking up little things and putting them in her mouth.  Of course I had to call Mark to come kill the teensy tiny spider so Lula wouldn't eat it.  I wasn't scared.  Mark couldn't even see it when he came in-that's how small it was.  But Daniel saw me call Mark to kill a perceived threat and he came to his own conclusions.

Daniel has his own special relationship with spiders.  He has always been fascinated with their webs and their eight legs, but has always been a little jumpy when they move.  We have a lot of spiders in and around our house.  That just comes with our chemical-free farmy woodsy lifestyle.

Anyway, right after Mark "rescued" Lula from the teensy tiny spider, Daniel got up on his toddler bed and checked out the window sill for more spiders.  He saw a false black widow spider on its web, which I quickly removed before he could make a big deal about it.  And then I saw The Rock, covered with web:

Awesome rock.  Awesome spider habitat.

I slowly spun the rock around to see...a Giant Funnel Spider!  There are three species of funneling spider in this area: the barn funnel weaver, the giant house spider, and the hobo spider.  You need a microscope to tell the difference-or a good magnifying glass and an education in entomology.  My husband has both, thank goodness.  I took a deep calming breath, turned around, and slowly walked to Mark's office.  I said, slowly and calmly, my voice getting higher and higher, "Honey, I don't want to freak out in front of the kids because I don't believe its a good idea to teach them to freak out when they see a spider.  But there is another really big spider and I need you to KILL IT."  He of course is big and brave around spiders, so he had a good time poking fun at me as he turned the rock this way and that, trying to see the spider in the many holes.  After finding a flashlight and illuminating the right hole, he jumped back, which caused me to jump and gasp.

Dead.  We don't take chances with funnel web spiders.  (You can see the moth it ate at the top)

And then it was bedtime.  But the damage was done.  There was NO WAY we could talk Daniel into sleeping in that room last night.  We tried to convince him Daddy killed all the spiders.  We tried to show him the spiders were all dead.  I think I might have even told him something like, "Guess what? There are spiders in every room in our house!  There are probably some right under MY bed.  So go to sleep!"

Guess who had nightmares all night?  Apparently, my bed is FULL of spiders (it sure felt like it with all the thrashing around he did last night).  Maybe he will sleep in his own bed tonight...