Cayden's 'Pet'

Ah, peacefully sleeping children...

I'll just savor this picture after some already crazy-busy summer days.

One of our activities has been catching fireflies.

I don't think I'd ever actually seen a firefly until this summer.

Colorado doesn't have them.

Hawaii doesn't have them.

Mississippi might have had them, amongst the millions of other bugs that swarmed around outside each night.

So suffice it to say I was not interested in finding out if there were fireflies in Mississippi.

But here in Virginia, they're all we see out our windows when it gets dark.

So Andy caught one in a jar one night, and brought it up to show Cayden.

Cayden was interested.

Of course.

He's our self-proclaimed "Nature Kid".

He fell asleep studying and holding that firefly.

He was pretty proud of his new pet.

But the next day he worried all day long about what fireflies eat.

I didn't know; I suppose I should have looked it up for him.

But alas, Cayden ended up releasing him back into the wild of our backyard so it wouldn't starve to death in our care.

Goodbye, pet firefly.

Maybe we'll see you lighting up our back porch again.