Jon and I have proudly trained Everett to give us little things he finds on the floor - usually lint, crumbs, gum wrappers and other things of that nature. We figured this way, he won't put them in his mouth. He is a great little learner and pretty much always does it, however, the other day was the first time I started to question this training.
I was in the kitchen making lunch and he walked over holding out his thumb and forefinger pinching some little object. I casually held out my hand to receive it. As soon as he dropped it in my palm and I saw that it was an inch long and wiggling, I let out a yelp and dropped it on the floor. Everett was totally amused by this and started yelping himself with a big grin on his face. We squatted down and examined the mystery squirmy object together. Originally, I thought it was a centipede but after a closer look realized that it was...... A LIZARD'S TAIL!!! No longer attached to a lizard, it was still wiggling as if it was and gave me some serious heeby jeebies. After spending the next couple minutes in an obsessive hand washing session, which E also found comical, I realized there was another unpleasant job to be done: find the rest of the lizard that he had no doubt maimed. I retraced his steps and there it was - tail missing with one leg all mangled, poor thing. I went to scoop it up with a piece of paper when it started scurrying (or hobbling, really) away from me! This, of course, prompted my second yelp and E picked back up with the yelping as well. That was enough for me so I ended the event by putting an old sour cream container over Mr. Lizard and deciding to let Jon deal with it when he woke up ;)
There's never a dull moment with this toddler of ours around. Although it scares me to think this is just a preview of the disgusting boy things I will likely encounter in the coming years, I am thankful for the excitement he adds to my life. Watching him learn is such a joy :)
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