Don't worry, I know I am weird

So I am dedicating this post to one of my favorite things about summer '11. No, not snowcones. Although I do love them, I have disappointingly only made it out for three snowcone runs this year. So that is probably one of the worst things about summer '11. But if you know me, you'd never, ever in a million years guess that one of my favorite things about this summer has been an arachnid. I really do hate spiders and have an irrational fear of them but I've been able to make peace with many spiders I find in my yard by researching them and knowing that they pose no threat to me & my family. (I still won't go into the crawl space though. The day I do will be the day I officially declare my arachnophobia over.)

Anyway, one such spider that I feel like I've really bonded with and actually make frequent visits over to the side of the house just to see how she's doing is a very special kind of spider. At first, when Eric found it, I was on the phone with him and he startled and said, "Oh there's a spider right here! I think its a hobo spider!" Of course, I was like, "Oooh! Kill it!" But he didn't. So when I got home I had to check it out. I took several pictures and then came in the house to begin sleuthing everything I could find about this spider. I really did spend over an hour researching and I came to find out that this spider is called a horned orb-weaver. This particular one is a cat-faced spider, or jewel spider. You can see the reason why it got both of these names in the pictures. It spins the classic orb web. Here's a some interesting facts about this spider: It spins a new web everyday and eats the old silk as a way to conserve energy. It is prevalent mostly throughout the west and can be found as far north as Canada (Alberta) and as far south as Arizona. This spider will lay an egg sac (Its "magnum opus") and then die shortly thereafter. When the eggs hatch, the spiderlings will let a bit of silk out into the breeze and fly away, possibly hundreds of miles! We may never have another spider like this in our yard and I've never seen anything like this one before so I feel very special. Its like we have our own little Charlotte from "Charlotte's Web", which is coincidentally one of Gigi's favorite movies right now. In fact, its not just me who wants to go visit our spider friend everyday, Gigi has started to request going out to see the spider too! She is cautious about it but has a very healthy curiosity about it, and all the other bugs in our yard and its so fun to see her amazement with them all.

So these first two pictures were taken in August, back when I thought the spider was pretty good sized. Now compare these with the next two and you'll see that the spider has, at least, doubled in size over the last month. Also, the markings and coloring have changed too.

Now in these two pictures, you'll note in the top photo where it gets the name "Cat-faced" from. See the two horns the look like cat ears and the white line running towards the front? Plus, its somewhat fuzzy! In the bottom picture you can see why its sometimes called a Jewel spider though. Its like a reverse black widow- only not poisonous or aggressive.

Actually, because she is so curious about spiders and bugs, I thought it would be a good idea to let her watch a national geographic video of a jumping spider attacking a bee that I found on youtube. Well, it turns out this was NOT a good idea. It totally freaked her out and she's completely obsessed with it. She will bring it up all the time and tells everyone about it. (Of course, I usually have to explain what she's talking about as she's telling them, "The spider gets the bee! The spider jump! The spider eat the bee!) She also asks to watch the video almost daily but I'm trying to make her forget about it because I know it scares her. Anyway, the point being, MPAA doesn't rate National Geographic videos so use your judgement and keep two year olds away from videos of animals of any kind killing other animals. Save that kind of stuff for the four-year-olds.