Really, Really Gross

Last night, I sent the kids upstairs to brush their teeth. It was really cold outside, and every year when the weather gets really cold, a couple of those big crunchy wood roaches roam in looking for warmer weather. Well, one was in the bathroom. I could hear Oliver's squeals of delight along with Caroline and Charles coaching him in his effort to grab the fellow.

Suddenly, there was a blood curdling scream, followed by panicked crying. It was definitely Oliver. But what was more strange was that Charles and Caroline were laughing hard. I raced upstairs, and there stood Oliver, looking very stiff, panicked eyes, unable to communicate in words. "What happened?" I yelled at the giggling duo. They recovered themselves enough to say that when Oliver grabbed for the roach, it suddenly jumped onto his hand and ran up his sleeve.

Oliver was wearing a turtleneck, and I did not relish the thought of attempting to locate and extricate the roach from the shirt. Roaches TOTALLY gross me out. So I decided to raise the shirt a bit and flap it to see if the bug would come out. Well, the bug got moving and Oliver was shrieking in complete terror. I guess it is one thing to hold a roach, and it is quite another to have it scurrying around your body. Finally, FINALLY, the dumb thing fell to the floor, Charles immediately grasped it and threw it in the toilet, and I flushed.

Oliver looked very solemn, and a little sheepish. He sniffed in silence and I gave him a long, bear hug. Poor little chap.