Today there was a dead spider on the stair.
Jonah doesn’t know about dead. He just knows spider. And he knows he likes spider.
His commentary runs thusly:
LOOKatthe Spai-durr!
Want to TOUCH it.
(Mother exhorts child not to touch. We don’t touch spiders, we only look at them.)
Put HIM onmy HAND
(We did let him play with an ant the other day. Scott helped Jonah get the ant onto his hand. Jonah delightedly turned his arm this way and that as the ant crawled over his skin. But spider on the hand? Even a dead spider? No.)
Spai-durr spinns a WEB.
Spai-durr spinns a WEB for DA-deeeeee.
(Sure. Okay.)
Want to SITnextto HIMmmm.
(He sits on stair, next to spider).
Want MOMmeee to SIT onthe o-thurrr SIiiide.
(Um, no thanks, Mommy can’t fit between the spider and the wall.)
Wantto show him TOYZ dowen-STayurrrs.
(No.)
Want to HOLD HIMmmm.
(No. At this point, child starts clamboring around stairs, to get different looks at the spider from different angles.)
The Spai-durrr is LITTLE! The Spai-durr is BIG-uh.
The Spai-durr is little AYUND big-uh!
(He’s right about this. The spider is both small in circumference and has a remarakbly thick torso and legs, relative to most spiders one sees.)
WantTO TAKE a PIC-churrrr of HIM.
(Okay. I get my big fancy camera. Shoot three or four pictures. Without a macro lens I’m having a hard time getting what I would consider a satisfying shot.)
WantTO SEEit.
(I show him one of the pictures. He is pleased.)
WANTto HOLD HIMmmmm.
(I suggest we put the spider in a jar. I still have the one from our last spider adventure handily stashed in the window near the front door. He agrees. It is remarkably hard to scooch a dead spider into a jar without scrunching it, especially when a toddler is assisting with the scooching. Eventually we get the dead, scrunched spider into the jar. Jonah is pleased.)
Take HIM DOWN-stayurrrs.
(And so I hand him the jar and the boy brings the spider to his toys.)
The End.
I love the way you write how Jonah says the words.
Oh, and the dead spider reminds me of when my son would find dead ladybugs in the house (but like Jonah didn’t understand dead). We’d decide that the ladybugs were taking naps. And then later, maybe after a nap or the next morning, we would see if they had woken up to go home (if I had remembered to dispose of the ladybug or not).
Oh this was such a sweet funny dead spider story! :). I love it.