On Saturday, I did a very brave thing and took Tillie to the UT entomology department's Insecta Fiesta, which was basically an all day bug petting zoo at their field lab. Tillie just loves bugs--and I think it is safe to say that she loves them more than other kids do. I have posted before how she likes to catch flies with her bare hands and then begs to keep them as pets. Daily, she has affectionate (one-sided) encounters with ants, butterflies, bees, doodlebugs (isopods), and caterpillars, too. I'm constantly trying to get her to leave them alone because she often injures them in her clumsy attempts to interact with them lovingly. Anyway, I felt like it would be dishonest to avoid this event where she could meet like-minded insect-loving friends who would let her hold and "pet" bugs to her heart's content. And of course, she loved it! We spent two hours at this thing and I had to drag her away kicking and screaming. It was a clear illustration that one person's dream-come-true can be another person's living nightmare. I had to mentally escape to my happy place many times, but it was worth it to see Tillie so excited.
IMPORTANT WARNING to people who get icked out by bugs: Lest you think that this is all about pretty butterflies, proceed carefully! What follows after some scrolling are some f'ed up pictures of giant insects crawling on people, including Tillie. I'm sorry.
This is where it starts to get horrible...
(Not shown are the pictures of her cradling a maggot, catching large water bugs with her bare hands, playing with an ox beetle, sniffing edible bug snacks, and clamoring to hold a hissing cockroach.)
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING: I personally cannot stomach watching this video, even though I manned the camera. The squeamish should hit play AT THEIR OWN RISK. (Also, I don't condone treating animals this way, even gross animals.)
Okay, to get that image out of your head, here's a cute one with just a butterfly in it. Plus, she looks like some sort of goofy forest brownie with a plant growing out of her head:
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