"I wanna see the Worms, Daddy!"

It's been raining in Los Angeles.  Like, alot.  Too bad it's not going to help us out with our drought.

When it rains, the worms come out to play.  Our toddler knows this thanks to the Wild Kratts, so today she nearly threw a fit because she wanted to go outside to see all the worms!

Mommy thinks worms are yucky and gross.

This looks like a job for Gaijin Daddy!
Since we had just eaten breakfast and I was still in my pajamas, I had to get changed.  Meanwhile, she's downstairs on the verge of a tantrum, screaming "I wanna go outside!  I wanna see the worms!"

Mind you, it's still kinda raining outside, but this doesn't deter her one bit.  I better grab her rain jacket before heading downstairs.

As I am getting dressed, I call down to her that she needs to wait for Daddy, Daddy is going to take her outside to see the worms!  This calms her down a little bit, and takes her back from the full on meltdown point-of-no-return.

She really wants to see the worms.

As we get in our rain jackets and her super special rain boots, I get a paper cup for her to put all her worms in.  It's not enough to only see them, she also has to pick them up and watch them wiggle in her fingers.

We go outside and start our hunt.  Luckily, the rain has subsided for now, so we don't get that wet.

Gotcha!

Right off the bat, she finds a worm outside our door.  "LOOK DADDY!  A Worm!" she squeals.  She bends down to pick it up, and as soon as she touches it, it starts wiggling like it just got zapped by electricity.

That causes her to squeal again and laugh with delight, while doing her little happy dance.

Finally she's able to grab it, and into her cup it goes.

The collection grows

We circled around our apartment complex, stopping to pick up every worm we could find.  I think we got about six of them.

It's in my hand!

"Outside, Daddy!" she suggests.
"OK, let's go get the worms outside," She's referring to outside the gate, and all the worms that may be out on the sidewalk.

Again, she gets lucky.  She finds a monster worm, the size of something you would find at a bait shop.  As she is holding it, she mentions that it tickles her hands as it is crawling around.

Monster Earthworm

Her mom is going to love this.  She definitely needs to wash her hands before she tells Mommy all about her adventures.

Hold me a little longer

Into the cup it goes, with all it's other worm buddies.  There's no more worms to be found here, just a bunch of sticks that do really good worm impressions.  She still has to check to be sure though...

When she's satisfied that we haven't missed any worms, we cross the street together to check the other side.  She's learned not to cross without us, and is sure to tell us to look both ways a few times before we go any further.  We've made it her job to make sure we do so, and she's become pretty strict!

As we cross, we see a bird fly down to the sidewalk that we are heading to.  It's bouncing around, and my little worm hunter tells me that the bird is looking for worms too!  "He's hungry, we can share." she says.

No Escape!

Splish Splash,
 Guess who's getting a bath

Sure enough, the bird was hungry, and we find a torn up worm in a puddle.  "It's OK Daddy.  Bird's like worms, they eat them!"  She throws what's left of the worm onto the grass, the returns to the puddle.  It's splashing time!

After all, who can resist jumping around in a rain puddle? It's not just for 3 year olds!

What do we have here?

After searching up and down the street and making an impressive collection of worms, we head back home.  The final destination for the worms is our garden, where they are going to help make the soil better for the plants.  But first, we have to show Mommy the collection!

"Ewww.... You guys are so strange!" is her reaction.  Our girl just giggles.

Learning through Touch

We dump the worms into the garden, but that's not the end of the fun with worms!  Oh no, now we have to touch all of them!  My wife, an RN, comments that they look like intestines.

 The hunter is now thoroughly examining her catch. She is examining each and every worm, and telling me how they are different.  Some are really big, some are really skinny.  Some of them wiggle when they are touched. "The boring one's just sit there" she says.  It's more exciting when they move around.

Back to the pile for you!

 Some of the worms try to slink away from the pile, but she catches them before they can get too far, and are placed back into the gelatinous blob of writhing worm bodies.

 When she's finished up examining them, it's time for their agility trials. The worms are picked up, and placed on top of the sprinkler head. She tries to pile them up, but for some reason, making a tower of worms is a lot harder than making a tower out of blocks.

Worm Pile!

Finally, she's done playing with her catch, and she lets them wiggle away into the garden. We go inside, wash our hands really good, and she proceeds Mommy all about her adventures to the last detail.

 My wife later tells me that she's glad our kid got the chance to go exploring outside, and play with the worms.  She got to experience something different, and learn through doing, rather than just watching a show on TV about worms.

She says that she's glad that Daddy is willing to take his daughter outside to play with worms, rather than tell her "That's not for girls."  Mommy isn't into worms or other bugs, but is glad that her little girl isn't squeamish, and is getting the chance to experience these things for herself.

All in all, Gaijin Daddy did a good job today by letting his little girl get messy.