E is for Eating Bugs

Will’s been traveling a bit to sell his books this week, and one of the traditions he has when he’s away from home is to bring suckers back for the boys. But not just any sucker – a sucker with a real bug inside. Seahawk and Munchkin are well versed in this tradition, but it was Small Fry’s first time participating. To introduce him to the idea slowly, he got a cricket lollipop, while the other boys got scorpions. You can see the cricket suspended in the candy in the larger photograph up above.

The thing you have to know about Small Fry is that he’s a candy fiend. We didn’t let him have any processed sugar until he was a year old, but ever since that first taste (it was a blizzard from Dairy Queen), he’s been hooked. We have to be really careful with him and very deliberate about what he has, because given a choice, cookies and candy would be all he ate (like most 2-year-olds, I suppose). Now, that isn’t to say that he doesn’t like good food, because he does. He just also really likes candy. Any candy.

So. The boys were awake late the night Will came home (in bed but awake), and he showed them the candy. They were all super excited, despite the fact that they knew they wouldn’t be able to eat them until the next day – after lunch. In the morning, Small Fry found his sucker and carried it around all day until he was given permission to open it up after lunch. Even though he’s expressed interest in eating bugs before (before our frog died, we almost always had crickets around the house – in a container, of course, but here nonetheless), he was suddenly apprehensive when the sucker was actually opened. After just a moment of examining it, he finally took the plunge and when he did, it was all in! He sucked the candy for a while, and when the cricket head became exposed, he sucked for a while longer. But not much longer. Pretty much as soon as he could feel the bug in his mouth, he abandoned the candy.

Your turn: Have you ever eaten a bug? (I haven’t.)

Blessings,

Wendy