My kid attends La Escuela Fratney, a two-way bilingual, public elementary school in Riverwest. He's in K5, and every day when he gets home, he chatters about random things that happened at school.

I've noticed that many of his school-related conversations have to do with the pet tarantulas in the library. He absolutely adores them, and passionately tells me stuff like, "Mom, did you know their skin falls off?"

Hence, I really shouldn't have been surprised when the "mother" of the tarantulas, who doubles as the school librarian, asked Kai if he wanted to take care of the tarantulas over winter break. Of course she said he had to discuss it with his parents, but discussing it involved him jumping up and down, shouting, "Please, Mom, please can we babysit the spiders? Please?!"

So, guess who's going to pick up two aquariums today, each housing a big, fat, furry, fang-y tarantula? As much as I would like to lament my dislike for these leggy web weavers, there's really no time for arachnophobia now. I've got live crickets to buy for their dinner.