The Circle of Life

Once again we have a new friend living on our front porch. It just kind of hangs out on the side of the house. The kids are really enamoured with it and check to make sure it is there whenever we come and go. They are quite sweet and gentle with it.

Today we were looking at the Praying Mantis and I noticed this weird looking thing. I realized that it must be an egg pod. So the kids and I came in and looked it up on the Internet and, wouldn't you know it, I was right!

The Internet also said that a Praying Mantis lives for about 12 months and that they usually die in late fall. I sometimes struggle with telling the kids the truth or protecting them from the harsh realities of life by "sugar coating" things. But this time I decided to tell them the truth about what the Internet said. So I told them that we wouldn't catch the Mantis because it was getting ready to die. Oh, poor Joshy. There were crocodile tears. "I don't want the Praying Mantis to die..." I don't know, I guess he would have been sad now or after we found it dead. I don't know? But I did tell the kids that in the spring the egg pod is going to hatch and we will have lots of baby Mantises to enjoy. No solace for Josh. Poor little dude is so sensitive. So we decided to leave it alone and just keep our eye on it. So that's what we'll do. Ah, the circle of life, so hard to take when you are a 4 year old boy.