Frogs and snails and puppy-dogs' tails...

...that's what little boys are made of.

In one of our favorite nursery rhyme books, Here Comes Mother Goose, by Iona Opie and Rosemary Wells, this traditional rhyme is turned around so that it's the little boys who are made of "sugar and spice and all things nice" and little girls who are made of "frogs and snails and puppy-dogs' tails."

I still find myself tripping over the words a bit when we come to that rhyme, as the traditional version is so etched in me mind, but I am grateful for this gentle reminder of the power of language.

And I am grateful that my creepy-crawly-critter-loving daughter has ample roll models, both in literature and life, that encourage her to pursue her love of nature and insects and mud, as well as dolls and tea parties.

And I guess I should also consider myself, her primary caregiver for the last four years, among these roll models -- though that feels odd as I have yet to make peace with most things that creep or crawl myself.

My parents were (are) fantastically wonderful parents (and grandparents) but, near as I can tell, neither of them -- a math/computer science teacher and an electrical engineer -- were particularly interested in exploring nature. I don't remember ever having a garden as a child or going camping or (intentionally) having bugs or other critters in our house.

It was actually my experiences, beginning as a young teenager and continuing through college, as a mother's helper, babysitter, camp counselor and eventually (albeit briefly) as an elementary school teacher, that got me really excited about the discoveries one can make by digging in the dirt.

And like most every parent on the planet who looks back at their own childhood and notices something lacking, I set the intention to raise our children to feel comfortable in and connected to the natural world.

And yet I still didn't feel any more comfortable with the thought of handling critters.

Over the course of the last four years, and most significantly this past year, I have been stretching outside of my comfort zone and getting to know the creature world.

In the beginning, I mainly just noticed how uncomfortable creepy-crawly things make me feel and tried to use this new awareness as a growth opportunity.

One of the biggest things for me has been reading books -- lots of them! Every couple of weeks I go online and order books about a particular critter that is of interest to our daughter (often inspired by her favorite TV shows, Zoboomafoo and Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies).

Sometimes I read them with her. Sometimes I read them myself and talk about them with her. Sometimes I just put them on our book shelf to have as a reference if something comes up (like today when we wondered how to create a habitat for a garden snail).

I also have started handling critters -- well sort of.

What I do is wear garden gloves when we work outside. When Lily finds something interesting -- a small toad, a wriggling worm, ants, spiders, inchworms -- she joyfully picks them up and often wants me to do the same.

Without my gloves on I am (still) pretty freaked out to touch them but with my gloves on it doesn't bother me a bit. And she really doesn't seem to notice that I'm wearing gloves because their just kind of part of my gardening/yard work gear!

We also visit the aquarium often and enjoy some of the less splashy (literally) exhibits like the bat cave and snake and lizard habitats. Observing the critters through glass feels very comfortable for me -- and is actually a lot of fun!

A few weeks ago, I decided it would be fun to get a tank and create a little habitat in our house like the one at Lily's preschool (pictured below).



Through the wonders of technology, I posted a request on Freecycle and within a couple of days, we had our tank! It's been sitting empty for a few weeks, waiting for its first inhabitants.

Then yesterday, while out working in the garden, John and Lily happened upon a garden snail (which a few years ago would have evoked a loud "EWWWWWW" from me), but after hearing about the snails at school for months now, I was thrilled to welcome our first critter.

This afternoon Lily and I spent some time making the tank a little cozier for our guest by adding soil, rocks, sticks, leaves, rocks, moss and a shell. Lily told me that at school they feed the snails carrot peels, so that is what ours received as its first meal. I learned, yesterday, while visiting her school for her birthday celebration, that it is also necessary to spray the tank with water every couple of days.

Here's Lily (nails freshly painted for the baby shower luncheon we attended today) checking out the snail.



Apparently she was right! The snail moved (surprisingly quickly) to the carrot shreds, which, according to the book I read last night, it will use its rough tongue to lick nutrients off of.



And here is our new critter tank. Like everyone else in our cozy, little house, our snail friend will live in our "living" room!



Thank you Rosemary Wells, Iona Opie, and my sweet Lily for reminding me that both boys and girls -- and grown ups too -- can be made of "frogs and snails and puppy-dogs' tails"!