And the Coolest Dad award goes to...

At least I think it's the Coolest Dad award - if not, perhaps it's the Guy With the Grossest Job award. I'll have to ask Elisabeth and get back to you on that one.

Either way, there should be an award for Mark.

Oh by the way, this happened in April but I'm way behind on things. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe it's the mommy of two beautiful girls and wife to a man who had a heart attack and woman with the so-called career thing that got in the way.

Anyway, back in April Elisabeth was learning about bugs in her pre-K class. So with daycare's permission, Mark brought in some living, creeping, crawling specimens to Elisabeth's class.

Actually, before he brought them to pre-K he had them shipped to his office.

And then brought them home to sleep at our house.

And then he brought them to her class. Great, thanks. I've always wanted giant petri dishes of fleas, houseflies and cockroaches (two kinds - American and German, so as not to discriminate) in my house.


Eww.

I went in with Mr. Mark the Bug Man, eagerly awaiting the kids' reactions. I grew nervous after Miss Becky informed me that the kids usually freak out over any kind of bug that accidentally travels off course and into their classroom. I worried that the kids would freak their freaks when they saw these Monster-sized cockroaches, too.


Amazingly, when a bug is trapped inside a petri dish and sealed shut with black electric tape the kids lose all fear and realize that THEY are the ones in control.

Eventually the kids got so confident in their bug-handling abilities that they got a little rougher with the petri dishes. Some so rough that the mini-water capsules that are attached to the inside of the dish and help to sustain the bugs broke loose. Do you know what happens when a bug-sustaining mini-water capsule breaks loose? It pretty much turns into a weapon of mass bug destruction, and starts rolling over all of the bugs. And I will admit, there was a monstrously large part tiny fraction of me that enjoyed seeing the yucky gross bugs be demolished. I think the boys thought this was great too. Although I am not quite sure they understood exactly what they were doing, as some of them started asking things like "how come this one's wings came off?"

And just for fun...

I mean...

I should say thank you to the daycare directors for letting Mark bring the bugs in. I think the kids really enjoyed the hands-on experience.


I think the daycare directors enjoyed it too, no?