It's not a spider

I sat the girls down to eat breakfast this morning, while I finished getting ready for work.  While I was in my bathroom, I heard a loud shriek.  That was quickly followed by another scream and loud crying.  I threw my crutches out of the way, went flying out of my room and down the hall, prepping myself for whatever may have happened.  E and A were in tears, A just kept screaming "GET IT OFF OF HER!"  Completely unsure what was happening, I finally realized that E and A were pointing to O and that she was standing there, full of shock, staring at her hand.  I got everyone quieted down and I heard O say softly, "Mommy, I can't move, there is a SPIDER on my hand." 

Really?  Let me just pass out on the floor right now.  I can handle a lot of things.  Spiders are not one of them.  I didn't realize how much they bothered me until we moved over the summer.  Now that we live on a lake, I fight a never ending battle with the not so little monsters on the deck.  So, let's just say that the idea there was one climbing on my child's hand was NOT the way I wanted to start my morning. 

I reached towards O and she extended her hand, very carefully.  I was looking at her hand, not seeing a spider...or anything really.  A moment of additional panic hit when I realized it must have fallen off of her hand and it must be on the floor.  I scooped up all 3 kiddos, as quickly as I could, to get them onto the couch.  I was feeling a little nauseous about my spider killing mission, but it would be ok. 

E and A were clinging to their little sister, trying to soothe her, while I got out the vacuum and prepared to find and eliminate the spider.  Suddenly, another scream erupted out of O.  I dropped the vacuum and ran over to the sofa.  She kept screaming, there it is!  It's on my hand!  I finally got ahold of her hand long enough to realize that she had a tiny black mark on the edge of her fingernail.  I looked at her and said, "This?  This is what you thought was a spider?"  With tears in her eyes, she nodded.  "O, that's marker.  See, it's all over the other side of your hand too."  She paused.  Turned her hand over and examined the other side.  Then, she burst into giggles, jumped off the couch, and said, "Oh, I forgot that I used markers yesterday!  It's on my arm too!"  Crisis averted. 

An hour and a half later, I'm still shaking my head.  Morning shenanigans.  Welcome to my world. 

Happy Tuesday!

 See that tiny black dot?  Yep, that's not a spider. 

Disregard her really bad morning hair...we ran out of time. 

She was still laughing about it in the car...all the way to Grampa Doodle's! 

She couldn't wait to show him.