Skip to main content

We have a pet praying mantis named Cereal.

Well, his name might not actually be Cereal, because there was a big debate and nothing was decided.  The options were between: Pointy, Praying Mantis, and Cereal (of course).  And since the other names were so boring, I decided that I can say his name is Cereal, because WHY NOT?  Even though mostly we just call it, IT.

(My kids are never very creative when it comes to naming things.  This sort of annoys me.  For example, say they have a stuffed animal that is a black kitten.  They'll name it either Kitty or Blackie.  Even though I'm right there saying, "Why not name it Biscotti?  Or Cleopatra?  Or Flappy-Doodle?"  And the kids all look at me like I'm stupid and go on calling things Kitty and Blackie.  It's kind of sad.)

The whole idea of having a pet praying mantis is, in my opinion, extremely stupid.  What with my tremendous dislike of the entire bugdom, and the fact that my children are even afraid of things like fruit flies, I don't know what Husband was thinking when he bought a plastic "insect habitat" and decided to keep something that looks like this:



in my house.

(Ok, I'm super creeped out by that picture.  Does that creep anyone else out?  Because I feel like screaming now.)

So far my kids are fascinated by Cereal the praying mantis.  Husband fed it some other bugs this morning, which was, obviously, the highlight of breakfast.  You know, if you like watching small things get devoured in a violent manner.  Which, apparently, my kids do.

I seriously hope it dies.  And soon.  And that it's not replaced by something even more gross.  Like a tarantula or something (that my kids would probably name Spidey).

Comments

Barbaloot said…
Ew. That picture is awful---and I hardly even looked at it! Although I can appreciate anything being named Cereal.
I bet it IS fascinating and a great learning op for the kids, but I am REALLY creeped out by that picture. ICK

Stop by A Creative Spirit www.acreativespirit.com Wednesday.... I am announcing a new GREAT monthly giveaway..... I would love to know your thoughts on it.
We are VERY good at naming things. You should let us pick the next names. We'll come up with a top 3, and they can pick from that. PROBLEM SOLVED.
My kids sound a lot like yours. They named their teddy bear...(wait for it) BEAR. And the toy wombat from Australia? WOMBAT. And yes, i too try to persuade them to lean more towards creativity. No go.

Except for when we got a baby chicken. My teenagers thought it was hilarious to call it: Nugget. And then they said, "When it grows up we can call it, McChicken!"

I was not amused.
Or Tarry. Tarry the Tarantula.
Unknown said…
I was told (but I don't know if it's true) that it is illegal to capture a praying mantis> seriously. They are like the yoda of the bug kingdom.

You can always use this as an excuse (true or not) to release the guy into the great outdoors.
Janice said…
I love your blog! Am becoming a follower. My kid's have the same naming problem. The animals they sleep with? Chick, Hoppy, Dog, Bunny and another Bunny. Sad, sad.

Popular posts from this blog

I am an artist.

I really am. But not one of those deeply moving, "what do you mean you don't understand my painting, it's BLUE" kind of artists.  I'm more like one of those "oh hey, a pen and a napkin, doodle doodle doodle" kind of artists.  Because I do it for fun.  And yeah, for money.  But still.  Fun....most of the time. But I feel like branching into new mediums.  Do you know how long it's been since I painted?  Like with something other than finger paints or the kids' water colors where all the colors are mixed so they just come out brown anyway? It's been awhile.  I've been itching to paint for months. I've also wanted to let Monkey loose on a canvas for awhile.  He's not like my other kids (who all carry mine and Husband's arty genes) who like to draw endless pictures of unicorns, princesses, transformers or dinosaurs.  Monkey likes to feel his art.  He'll probably end up being one of those deeply moving types.  And I'

I won't be offended if you answer NO to the question at the end of this post

So this post will probably lose me a lot of respect and friends and possibly even a few phone calls to the Health and Welfare department. But I just feel like posting it, it's kind of like saying it outloud, but without having to watch someone's face react to the horror. And today, I really feel the need to say it outloud. So if you read this and don't feel like being friends anymore, I get it. With everyone's kids going back to school (and our school district being the last to start in the entire world, so I'm still sitting here dealing with summer child overload) I keep reading the posts about how mothers are sad to see their kids go, and how much they're going to miss them, and how much they absolutely love motherhood. Want me to tell you what I think about motherhood? I hate it. There are times when I hate it more than any other thing on the planet. And there goes most of my friends. But I'm sorry. I do. I hate being a mother. I don't hate my c

I'm not fat, my scale just hates me.

That's what it is. It's probably an evil scale anyway.  Always lying to me.  Telling me I'm fat. The worst part about it is that the scale has also convinced all the mirrors in my house to play along.  And I know it got my pant size on board ages ago.  It's also managed to get the camera to cooperate, even though I treat that camera like one of my dear precious children.  And this evil, hateful scale has attached a big mound of blubber right on my midsection. Well guess what scale - I hate you too. ***************************************************** I think showers are a waste of time. You get in just to get all wet, emerge dripping, get a nice clean towel wet, redress yourself, figure out something to do with your crazy 'just got wet and now it's going to dry ultra fuzzy, don't even think about using a blowdryer' hair, and put on all the makeup that you just washed off even though your mascara could probably have passed for a whole extra d