I'm not sure about the rest of the nation, but Western PA has been experiencing what can only be described as a full-blown invasion of Forest Tent Caterpillars. They're everywhere!! There are literally legions of them wiggling and crawling over everything in our town. (If you really want to get Andy riled up, call and ask, "When is DCNR going to do something about these darn caterpillars?!") Discovering a couple fuzzy little guys sunbathing on your sidewalk is pretty cute, but an army of the little buggers squirming everywhere you look is just creepy. So it comes as no real shock to learn that Janelle is terrified of them. To our knowledge, she never had a traumatic experience involving a caterpillar. She never discovered one in her bed or crawling up her leg. She simply saw her first one on the sidewalk a few weeks ago, screamed a shrill, piercing shriek, and latched on to Daddy's leg, her entire body shaking. Nothing we have tried has done anything to alleviate Nelly's fears. We have...
1.) Assured her that caterpillars are nice and will not hurt her.
2.) Explained that caterpillars just hang out to say Hello and would love to help her draw on the driveway with chalk.
3.) Learned all about caterpillars and how they make cocoons and turn into moths.
4.) Made up fairy tales with a caterpillar protagonist. (For those of you wondering, it was about Carleton the Cowardly Caterpillar and his friend Fergus the Frog who are both deathly afraid of dandelions.)
...all to no avail. Janelle remains utterly petrified by caterpillars.
So it was with a sense of dread that I packed this morning for our annual playgroup picnic at Sizerville State Park. Janelle was excited beyond belief because Sizerville is one of her favorite places. I, however, unsure of the extent of the caterpillar invasion, was a little more hesitant. We arrived and, sure enough: caterpillars galore. Initially, Janelle's enthusiasm for the picnic caused her to forget to relentlessly search for any signs of caterpillars like she usually does when we're outside. So with Lilly in the Bjorn and Nelly's hand in mine, I set my caterpillar radar to hyper-sensitive. I stepped on every caterpillar I saw, squashing the little buggers before Janelle could spot them. It was an amusing little dance I did for about 15 minutes: big step-squash, little step-squash, little step-squash, double step-squash squash, reach, reach, big step-squash... I was the Caterpillar Terminator. I must have killed 50 of those things. It was at least enough to make me feel like I needed to hose the caterpillar guts off my sandals this afternoon.
But alas, there were just too many for even Mama to keep up with and Janelle eventually spotted one. With a horrified scream she was instantly clinging to my leg, begging to be picked up. Not even eating Cheetos on Miss Kristen's lap could save the picnic for Nelly, so we packed up and headed home.
I try not to get too frustrated with Janelle over her caterpillar phobia. I'm mostly sad that this is just the first of many things that Mama can't "fix." And part of me understands her fear. If every one of those caterpillars magically turned into a little green garter snakes overnight, I would not leave the house. I'm not kidding. You could give me all the lectures in the world about how harmless they were and how they are more scared of you blah blah blah. I would not set one foot outside until every last one was gone. So I guess comparatively, Nelly is being much braver than her mother to even venture outdoors and face those caterpillars.
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