Am I up for this?

A couple of weeks ago, my husband came home from a walk with Elijah and accused me of making him scared of spiders. He had very good reason to believe that I may have passed that fear onto our son....I am petrified of them. What had happened, in reality, was that one day while leaving our apartment, we encountered a very large spider in the breezeway. Because my son is 2 and fascinated by all things living, he wanted to stop and pet it. My heart started to pound in my chest and things began to move in slow motion as he crouched to get closer to the beast. I was certain that if he touched it, the spider would jump to get away from him, then most certainly land on my face, where she would proceed to crawl in my mouth and lay eggs. I could not let that happen, so as calmly as I could, I said "Please, son, do not touch the sweet, sweet spider." (It may have come out something more like "Don't you dare touch that thing!" and I may have been screaming, but one can't be sure). So, despite my best intentions not to, I taught my son that spiders are to be avoided and maybe even feared. Darn it.

On our walks through the nature park that we take three times a week, we have seen rabbits, squirrels and birds. We have even been blessed enough to run into some snakes. Because the snakes are scared of us, this has never been an issue. They get a load of 2 ladies with 4 kids and a couple of strollers coming their way and they high-tail it back into the brush. On one occasion my girlfriend told her son that if the snake had stuck around, she would have let him hold it. The thought horrified me. HOLD a snake?! Maybe when the kids are with their father, but with me?! Was this something I was going to be expected to do as a mother of 2 boys?

So there we were today, walking out to the car to meet our friends for our walk, and there it was.....the world's largest snail. There was no avoiding it. It was right on the sidewalk next to our car. I was determined to keep my son away from it without instilling any unnecessary fear. I just didn't have any idea how. I told Elijah to go play in the grass while I strapped Micah into his car seat, like I always do. Elijah was having none of it. He was mesmerized by this slow moving, slime oozing, shell carrying creature just inches from where he stood. I came over to where he was standing, every part of me wanting to tell him how gross snails are and how he is never, ever to touch one, pick one up, eat one or bring one home. But I didn't. I held his hand and pointed to the snail. I told him all about what it was and why it had a shell. Then I reminded him that we needed to get going...our friends were waiting for us. He seemed happy enough to let the snail be on it's merry way, and for that I was so glad. As I strapped him into his car seat he said, "Mommy, there was snail, so where is froggy?" I'm not sure if this is something he's seen in a book or on TV, but I all of a sudden had a mental picture of my sons, coming home from a day at the park, bringing with them a frog in their pockets, and I wondered to myself...am I up for this?