Look, It's A...

...snake! Yes, we have joined the ranks of having little boys who love snakes. You may already know this, but I am deathly afraid of snakes. There is little else that makes me shudder and run and scream like a snake does. I don't even like the plastic ones, the rubber ones, or the wood ones - a fact that my brothers exploited on many occasions. I'm pretty sure I went into hysterical sobbing one night when they snuck one into my bed. It's okay, you can laugh.

I've overcome this fear enough to take the kids through the very dark and scary snake exhibit at the zoo and to talk to them about the different kinds and colors. You see, I don't want them to have the same, somewhat irrational, fear. And so yesterday, when I bribed them to leave the crowded zoo with a visit to the gift shop (we pretty much NEVER set foot in it but I was desperate and they don't have many things to play with at the hotel...can you tell I'm justifying it? :)), one of my sons decided to choose this:


I aquiesced and was super happy he chose hot pink because it doesn't look quite as real as some of the others. I decided and purposed that I would be okay with it. But you know what? Within 5 minutes of getting back to our room for naps, that snake had scared me. My son put it under the bed and I saw what I thought was a shoelace sticking out - I pulled on it and jumped. It was that snake. I guess some things never really change. Don't tell my kids how scared I am - I can only imagine how much mileage they would get out of that... :) We'll just keep that secret between us.

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