It is 3 am and unfortunately I am awake.  The baby woke up (yet again) and it took me forever to get him to relax.  Once he was finally quiet I had to run out of there because seeing me will cause him to cry for me to pick him back up.  So I am stuck downstairs, dead tired I might add, until he falls back asleep (which I hope is VERY soon).  I really should be counting my blessings that he has settled down at all, but I have to be up early!  Okay, enough of my whining. 

It is pretty chilly down here.  Outside snow blankets the ground.  So this time of the year makes listening to our crickets very very strange.  We have 3 tarantulas (2 itty bitty ones that we had gotten from a breeder and one adult one my husband got from a pet store).  So we also have crickets.  My husband knows I hate the ones who chirp (the ones we buy at petsmart do not chirp) so he made sure he went and bought them anyway.  I don't like the chirping ones for two reasons.   

#1--they are a constant reminder that there a little creatures in this house whose sole purpose here is to be eaten.  That bothers me.  I'm one of those freaky animal people.  I'm a vegetarian.  I don't even kill bugs.  Should a bug, no matter what kind, makes its way into our house I catch it and bring it outside.  Even if it is a fly and it takes me 20 minutes to catch him.  I know, I am weird.  The only bugs I don't mind killing are fleas, well, because you really don't have any other choice.  Oh, and mosquitoes, since I am a hyperchondriac and don't want to get West Nile Virus after all the hoopla they've been pushing the past 6 or so years.  More than enough to make me paranoid.  Every summer I have this internal struggle over whether its worse for my kids to wear mosquito repellent or risk getting bit by a virus carrying mosquito.  I know, I'm getting weirder by the minute.  But I digress.  

#2-it is just plain weird to be hearing mosquitoes in the dead of winter.  It really plays a trick on your senses!  I'm freezing, yet I have the strange urge to go outside and catch lightening bugs.  I'm torn between drinking hot chocolate or lemonade.  It being 3 am makes the whole thing all the more disorienting. 

Its time for me to creep upstairs to check on little Paulie, without getting caught if he is still awake.  Wish me luck!