"NO!, BEAN bug!"

Isaac, upon seeing the bug again, in his underwear

Isaac came in to the bathroom to brush his teeth and very casually started talking about a bee bug in his room. I thought about it and said, "No, Isaac, there's not a bee in your room." (He's been stung twice, so I thought he was still on the "every bug is a bee and will hurt you" kick. He kept repeating himself and I kept repeating myself.

"It told me, 'Get out!'"

"It told you to get out?"

"Yeah."

"A bee?"

Finally, he goes, "NO! A bug with a stomach like beans!" Then it ocurred to me that when I was putting away his laundry I had seen a praying mantis in his room. I had completely shrugged it off. (aside...Ask me now, after being a mother for over 4 years, why I didn't respond then? Ask me now, why, when a praying mantis is the nastiest, creepiest, eeeew, bug on the earth, why didn't I respond then?)

So, I played dumb and asked him to show me the bug. He started to get progressively nervous. He walked in and pointed and immediately began to back-pedal. He got icked out too. Jason came in and responded like it was such a cool bug. We told him how it looked like he was praying, so he was called a praying mantis. Total confusion and disbelief. Until he went to bed he asked us why the bug prayed. I told him it was because he was scared to be in such a crazy boy's bedroom and wanted our daddy to take him out again, (which he did).

When we put the girls to bed (before Isaac), he came in and said, "Mama, I sleep with Georgia, she won't get out of bed." He'd helped me get her to stay in her bed for her nap today. He wasn't being altruistic, he was being a wuss. That nasty bug shook him, and I don't blame him.

We did a bedroom sweep for bugs, but it wasn't good enough. Jason lectured him on being a man and facing his fears. He's upstairs in our bed as I write. ;)