Eight Legged Friend

I don't know what it is but my family loves bugs. They most certainly did not get this trait from me. We have had a HUGE spider spinning webs on our porch for the past 2 months, yet I got specific instructions from Mike that I was not allowed to kill it unless it came into the house. Ian has taken to watching the spider and gets excited as he sees a fly or knat get trapped in the web. I hear the question, "Are spiders nice or mean?" at least 10 times a day from Ian. My reply is "They are nice" as any other answer will not suffice. He will keep asking me until he hears that they are nice. Then he always follows it with, "They help us by eating the bugs."

The past two days have been raining a ton thanks to some of the tropical storm clouds blowing this way. Ian was devastated to look out the window and see that his little spider friend was gone. With tears in his eyes he asked me where it was. I am not a spider expert by any means so I hoped I would be right when I said, "Don't worry. He is just hiding from the rain. He'll be back". Ian kept checking the window for hours and no sign of the spider. I could see that he was getting frustrated with me for telling him something that was wrong. The more time that past without a sign of the spider, the more worried he got. I started to think the rain had washed the spider away and we would never see it again. Thankfully, before the sun set, it showed up again, spinning a new web. (I cannot believe I just said I was thankful a spider showed up. What is wrong with me?) Ian yelled to me, "Mom, the spider is back. It helps us eat the bugs."

I love how he gets such joy from simple things like spiders. I wish I were so easy to pacify. I don't know what we are going to do in winter time. Anyone know where I can get a real looking fake spider?