Leeches Suck

Ahhhh summer. Lazy days of biking and playing and swimming in the lake . . . and pulling off little leeches.

Fortunately they are generally little around here. But they seem to really like my boys. Tonight I found Elliot bleeding from the ankles twice. The first time I didn't find a leech, but when I pulled the second leech off his other ankle, I clued into what caused the first bloody mess.

At home we cleaned and re-applied bandages. Ethan went potty while we were in the bandaging process in the bathroom. Elliot, who is not disposed to averting his eyes when someone else is doing their business, promptly pointed out the small black spot on Ethan's penis.

You guessed it. A tiny leech trying to go in the out door. Yuck.

And no, removing a leech from that area is not pleasant for anyone involved. Fortunately, Elliot remembered Ethan in our family prayer this evening.

Please bless Ethan's penis . . .

Afterwards my boys sat around listing the parts of God's creations they would be content to do without: mosquitoes, ticks, leeches . . .

Ethan, who feels the world is always unfairly skewed, and not in his favor, asked me once why God created mosquitoes, and why they all bite him. And this evening, why he was the one who the leech chose to get so friendly with and I was reminded of a lesson from the scriptures. How could their be the sweet without the bitter? How could we know joy with out sorrow? Maybe if the world is stacked against us, it's because God has great things in store.

I'm sure that's why I taste soooo good to mosquitoes. And why my boys are making friends with leeches.

Ahhh summer.

Lephrechauns

Ethan is at camp. He's growing up.

Elliot is jealous. He thinks he should be old enough to go to camp.

As a consolation prize, I took Elliot to the zoo today. When asked what he most wanted to see at the zoo he listed peacocks and giraffes and leprechauns.

I felt compelled to warn him.

You know, Leprechauns aren't real.

Yes they are. They're also called leopards.

Oh, so Leprechauns are leopards?

Yes. That's just another name.

So now my favorite thing is to listen to him list his favorite animals he saw at the zoo:

Zebras. Prarie Dogs. Snow Leprechauns.

Awesome.

P.S. I think I decided again today that I don't really like zoos. But that is a post for another day.