growth and development

I know that for many of you this photo is wrong on so many levels.

I know it's not my typical. (If this is your first visit here please move on and check out other posts, the pictures there are so much more, shall we say, nice and artful, pretty.) And I'm sorry if you have a repulsion for snakes. I, on the other hand, have an odd like for them. (Don't ask me about lizards or scaled-legged things.)  And there is a story to tell so do scroll up so that the picture is off your screen and read on for the story.

The setting: A hilly back road out in the country that locals use (instead of the freeway) to get from one town to the next. (Feelin' pretty good that I can call myself a local.) The weather is warm enough to heat the pavement to a nice reflective ripple effect, to the point where I can see the on coming car's headlights in the heat waves. The kids are in the back seat eating a snack. Kid is reading his book. It's 4:30pm and we are on our way home from Bean's riding lesson--silent in our seats enjoying the back road scenery.

A quarter of a mile ahead of me I notice a car stopped in the middle of the road, slightly pulled off, but still enough in the middle that I begin to wonder if I will have to swerve over the double yellow lines to go around it. It is parked on the crest of a small hill so going around it is risky as I can't see that far ahead of it to know if an on coming car is approaching. As I come to a slow stop behind it I realize they are not stranded, but instead, looking at something out their window. I follow their gaze to the ground below them and see what they see...

"A snake!" I yell, out of excitement. "Kids, it's a snake!"

My kids burst forward in their seats and we all crane our heads to get a better look. The car in front of us creeps off and we move into their place. But it isn't good enough for me. I pull off the road, park my car and jump out to discover that it is not one snake, but in fact, TWO snakes. And they are doing their thing right there on the side of the road for every stinkin' car and passerby to see. I am flabbergasted. I mean, it's actually kind of cool how they slither along, weaving themselves into a braid, but really? They do this out in the open for everyone to see? And do they not realize that they can get hit? Run over? Flattened? Seriously. Were they slithering along their merry way when a chance run in gave them an idea to do it right there on the road? This must happen in the wild more than I know. Clearly I have not watched enough Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel.

My son slowly approaches. Bean is right behind him. 

"Mom, there's two!"

"Yes, I see. Don't get too close, I'm not sure what kind of snakes they are."

We watch for a few moments.

"Mom...what are they doing?"

"Mating."

And then it was if my kids had never left the car. I turned around to grab my camera and they were crawling back in their seats.

(Now I know how to clear them from a room.)

But since the snakes weren't interested in keeping any privacy I whipped out my camera and sat on the ground a few feet away from them and fired off a few shots. I mean, who sees this kind of stuff everyday?!

I got back in the car, looked at my son in the review mirror and smiled. At school, the day before, he had finally had the "growth and development" talk with the school nurse. The 5th grade talk where they split the boys from the girls and teach them about the stages of puberty...you know "the talk".
We knew the talk was coming. The info was going to be nothing new for the Kid as we have made it a point to teach him this stuff ourselves. But for the last few days leading up to it we have been bombarded with:

"So did you and dad have a lot of acne when you hit puberty?"

"When did you hit puberty mom/dad?"

"When do you think I'll hit it?"

"Do you think I'll have a lot of acne?"

(Must I really relive these years?) 

On the day of the talk he came home with a little baggie with a booklet and a trial size bottle of Old Spice deodorant. He asked me if I thought he should start wearing it. I told him if he wanted to he could, but I didn't think he was that stinky. I mean, why run ahead to puberty when we all know that once you are there you will regret the rush.

All this growth and development talk leading up to the witnessing of two snakes doing it on the side of the road and I think my Kid had hit his limit. Enough with the body talk and mating animals. (Oh, and we had also just learned that Bean's horse was newly pregnant so a mini talk had followed that before we got in the car to come home.) Too much for a ten year old boy that just wants to ride his bike and build Legos and talk about his field trip to NASA.

So I will not leave you with the image of two mating snakes. That would not be a very fun weekend send off. Instead I will leave you with a couple of pictures of Bean riding Ruby. Prego Ruby. That picture on the right? That's Bean hearing the Ruby news. What you can't really see are the wheels spinning in her brain, the questions swirling. When we got back to the stall and she was brushing Ruby down she told me that she could already feel the baby in Ruby's belly. I told her that it probably wasn't the baby, but rather Ruby's normal belly.  Babies do not grow in bellies.

No...it was the baby.

Alrighty then. I can see that the growth and development talk still needs some tweaks and minor touch ups with the Bean.

Happy happy Friday all! 

xoxo