a lesson learned

THE SETTING: It's a beautiful fall day in Tallahassee. The windows are open and the kids are happily playing together outside in the sandbox. Jay and I are enjoying a rare moment of peace and quiet inside the house (we can see and hear the kids through the open windows and we have a privacy fence in our backyard). It's just a perfect afternoon.

THE INCIDENT: We hear Logan and Gavin screaming at the top of their lungs. Loud, terrified, girly screams. Horror movie screams. We race outside to find the boys running out of the sandbox and towards us, leaving Keegan all alone in the sandbox shaking with fear. "SNAKE!!!!! SNAKE!!!!! IN THE SANDBOX!!!!!!" Everything is in slow motion. We can't seem get to Keegan fast enough and he's terrified. Jay wisks him out of the sandbox. When Keegan is calm enough to speak again, he insists it bit him. The boys agree, but when questioned they admit they did not actually see the snake bite Keegan with their own eyes. The only marks I can find on him are a couple of little leftover ant bites from the day before. Incidentally, if you ask him today (7 days later), he will still tell you he was bit by a snake in the sandbox.

Jay captures the snake in question (a creepy looking orange and black baby snake) and brings him inside to Google him. Though initially thought to be a Copperhead (!!!!!!!!), since we found one of those in the backyard earlier in the summer, it eventually turns out to be a harmless Corn snake. Relieved by the fact that we are not dealing with a poisonous snake that has taken up residence in our sandbox, this little baby snake actually starts to seem kinda cute. Gavin wants to keep him. I still want Jay to get him out of the house before we lose him.

Later, we debrief with the children.

THE DEBRIEFING

ME: So, what happened?

LOGAN: There was a snake! And not just any old snake, Mom, a POISON snake!

ME: How do you know it was poison?

LOGAN: BECAUSE!!!!!! t was ORANGE! And orange is a bad color on a snake (my thoughts exactly)

ME: Ok, well let's talk about what we did right and what we could have done better.

LOGAN/GAVIN: (yelling and at the same time) We shouldn't have done it that way. We shouldn't have screamed. Screaming is BAD and you don't like it when we scream.

ME: Well, screaming is ok in this case because when you need help and it's an emergency, sometimes you have to scream so you can get mommy and daddy's attention. But what else could you have done better or done differently.

(they look at me cluelessly)

LOGAN: (I can see the light bulb go off in his head) You should NEVER leave your baby brother behind and we left Keegan all alone!

BINGO!