My little hero

One thing that Jennifer takes pride in talking about is how she once "saved" me. When we were moving in, I was pulling a bookcase through a narrow area of my bedroom. I had the bookcase leaning towards me and was very carefully pulling it along. My foot got caught on something and I tripped, falling to the floor. I looked up to see the bookcase coming down towards me. I screeched and threw my hands out to block it from landing on me but immediately noticed it was going back up in the other direction!

Apparently, Jennifer, who was 4 at the time, had been close by and seen what happened. She ran into the room just in time to grab the bookcase and sit it back upright before it got anywhere near me. Never mind how amazed I was that she was so freaking STRONG enough to do that; my heart was racing that she'd actually come to my rescue! In between trying to catch my breath and waiting for my fear to fade away, I clutched my little girl against me and kept thanking her for helping me. I told her how strong she was and how she was my "hero" for "saving" me. (It may not be a big deal to other people, but having a bookcase fall on you isn't exactly a good thing!)

Well, today, Jennifer got a chance to be a hero again. This time, she saved her baby brother from getting bitten by a poisonous spider.

Today, I cleared away EVERYTHING on the floor in the living room -- toys, pillows, baby's blanket, TV dinner trays -- and did the sweeping and dusting to prepare for the vacuuming job. This is something I do lots of times, and I tend to notice the occasional penny on the carpet or a forgotten small toy car Jennifer left out. The little "hazards" to my crawling 9-month-old son, who will put anything into his mouth. This time, though, I hadn't noticed something that was another hazard. Jennifer had been the one to find it: A GIANT black spider against the wall, near the fireplace. I ran in one direction to get the flyswatter to kill it, the spider ran in the other direction to get away. I'd seen where it had gone: Behind the entertainment center.

Now cue the visual of me practically TEARING everything out of that entertainment center and AWAY from the wall as I frantically hunted for that beast.

After I cleared the stuff out and ended my search, I sat there, puzzled. WHERE had it gone?

Jennifer once again spotted it. She informed me that, during my attack on the poor entertainment center, the spider had gone the OTHER way, towards the fireplace.

"Did you see where it went?" I asked, almost out of breath from my rampage.

"There," Jennifer answered, fearfully pointing at a corner of where the wall and fireplace met. (This was a BIG spider we were dealing with! We're talking Charlotte's Web big!)

I looked but couldn't figure out where it could have gone. I didn't see a hole, or anything.

"Where, Jen?" I asked, confusedly studying the spot.

She got closer and pointed. That's when I saw it: A tiny crack in the wall, right next to the fireplace. Apparently, the spider had gotten into the house through there.

I gingerly tapped at the crack with the flyswatter, even though I couldn't see anything. I shrieked and Jennifer fell back as the spider came RUNNING out of that crack and charged right at me. It looked MAD! EEK!! I was fumbling first with the duster as I tried to keep it away from me then I grabbed the nearby flyswatter and, when it was on the bricks around the fireplace, I swatted at it. It took two swats to get it to stop moving. The danger thwarted, NOW I let out my fear and cried out. "Oh my God! That was a big spider!"

I went to the bathroom to get a thick bundle of toilet paper to pick the spider up with in order to give it a water funeral. I came back to where Jennifer had been inspecting the crushed arachnid, only for her to tell me that it wasn't dead! WHAT! THE! HECK! I got down on my knees to look at it, even though my instincts wanted me to RUN! I studied it and, sure enough, the spider's mouth with the sharp fangs (FANGS!!!) was going up and down. I let out an "eek!" and swatted it again as hard as I could. This time, it was ALL flat. (Note to self: Get a stronger flyswatter.)

But after THAT, there was noooo way I was gonna trust anything to pick that spider up with my hands. It was the spider from Hell! The spider that wouldn't die! So Jennifer suggested I use the toilet paper to scoop up the dead spider (and, yes, it WAS finally dead!) onto the flyswatter then carefully carry it to the bathroom to empty it into the toilet. So that's what we did. And I was glad to be rid of it!

I'll definitely be even more glad after we patch up that crack on the wall. I am NOT taking my chances of anything else getting in. And you can bet I'm going to be more attentive to any other cracks or holes that might appear where outside creatures can get in.

I told Jennifer she was a hero today. If she hadn't seen that spider, I wouldn't have destroyed it. And if I hadn't destroyed it, it could've bitten my baby boy. That spider definitely looked poisonous, or that a bite from it would really HURT. And an aggressive spider is never a good thing. So I'm glad that is not a threat anymore. Jennifer had saved her little brother today, without him even noticing it. Well, at least her mommy and, later, her daddy took notice. And we're proud of her for it.