Mourning

I am sorry to report that Bob the beetle has died.  

He lived to be a ripe old age of about 4 days longer than I would have like.

I am grateful to him to him for bringing out good qualities in my kids, such as compassion, although not so grateful for the eye twitch he brought out in me.

He instilled a real sense of team spirit in the boys, which is really fun to watch.

He instilled a real sense of fear and loathing in me, and I did not think he was fun to watch.

Bob inspired my oldest to do some research, and I'm all for learning new things.

Bob inspired me to lie.  When my oldest asked me to do some research and find out what Bob like to eat, I said I looked into it and he wanted to eat leaves and grass and dirt.  (I had to really sell the dirt thing, which also inspired me to be creative, so thats a good thing.)

He showed me that my kids are full of endless amounts of hope, that was refreshing to see.

He showed me that I still really hate bugs (insects?)*, and never want to see one again.

My oldest wants to build an elaborate (yet tasteful) coffin out of legos.  Which he would also like to line with "some red, shiny material..you know, to make it look really fancy".  Uhhh, no.  Because in three weeks, when he's looking for "that" lego - the one that was used for a hinge on Bob's burial bed - I'm not digging him up and cleaning off all those legos.  I mean, yes, I'd make HIM dig it up and clean the legos, but then I'd have to clean the legos because he won't get it clean enough.  For me.  We will have a nice, quiet service for Bob (closed jewlery box) in the back yard - I will not be speaking, but the kids understand.  

*Bug/insect?  I know you can tell which it is by counting the legs, but come on.  I was not able to focus on him long enough to see anything other than what looked like 85 legs, and each and everyone of them were reaching for me like Johnny coming through the bathroom door in "The Shining".    Bye Bob.