Handsome the Spider

Anyone who knows me at all will be EXTREMELY surprised to see photos of spiders on my blog. You see spiders are the single most frightening, disgusting thing on the planet(in my humble opinion). However over the last couple of weeks my kids have grown rather attached to one particular spider. He took up residence outside the window on our staircase about two weeks ago. The fact that he chose to keep double paned glass between he and I is the reason he is still alive. A very wise spider indeed.

We've been able to witness nature at it's finest. We've seen artful web building. We've been awed by the capture of japanese beetles, watching them become wrapped in a cocoon of death and then having their guts sucked out.
Just a few days ago Aislyn asked me what his name was. I said he didn't have one and that she could name him. She said," I think his name is Handsome because he is a such a nice spider." So Handsome it is. Not a word I've ever associated with a spider, but I'm growing.

So today this punk kid spider comes and tries to kick Handsome out of his prime real estate. We were all huddled on the stairs for almost 45 minutes watching the drama unfold as this little spider keeps trying to attack our guy. He kept biting Handsome and hitting him with his icky spider legs. It was crazy. Marley and Townsend went outside and tried to throw rocks at the attacker but to no avail. I think she was almost crying......over a spider!

Finally "Killer"(as we called him) gave up and left. We were scared that Handsome was done for, he was all curled up like a dead spider does. But much to my children's joy Handsome is now spread out in his web eating some dinner.

Just looking at these pictures still make me a little nauseus.