Suspect Line-Up adds Macabre Twist to Minibeast Mystery

It's lovely now that our children are getting bigger.  When once I would have to get up to their cries and attend to them early in the morning, now I lie in bed beside Mr de Elba, listening to Buzz and Jessie getting up and chatting to each other, then going in to Woody's room when he starts stirring.  I am usually aware of the sound of Woody's cot rail being lowered and Woody being lifted out of the cot, and then I hear his little hands going pat-pat-pat on the floor as he crawls around after two sets of little feet running and dancing in the early morning.

They are only allowed to get out of their beds and do this when they hear the radio alarm coming on at 6:30am, so this doesn't happen too early in the morning.  Then at about 7:00am, the sunshine floods through our bedroom window and lights up the whole room, warming my face as it splashes over the bed.

Last Sunday morning, the bliss of this perfect moment was ruined by a Sound No Mother Wants To Hear.  There are many sounds in this category, including breaking glass and that sound you can easily replicate by slowly dribbling a stream of water onto a dinner plate with a few layers of folded towel on it.  That sound.

But these weren't the sounds I heard.  The sound that spoiled my Sunday morning lie-in was Jessie's little voice saying, "Oh no.  Mum.  Woody ate a creature."

Woody eats a lot of non-food items.  He eats so many non-food items that I am unbothered by him picking up discarded food from the floor and putting it in his mouth, to the shock of my Play Group friends (sorry girls.)  We often joke that he is so heavy and solid because of all the sandpit sand he has eaten, and it's quite common to hear anyone in Woody's vicinity saying the words, "What are you eating Woody?  Oh no.  Spit it out."

So it came as no surprise to hear Jessie claiming that Woody "ate a creature."

But what sort of creature?

I asked three year old Jessie many questions regarding the size, shape and number of legs on the particular creature allegedly eaten by her baby brother, and ended with the hypothesis that perhaps he had eaten a millipede.  However, no residual odour of millipede lingered around his mouth, so I wasn't entirely sure.

Fast forward to tonight.  Woody had not suffered any lasting effects of eating the alleged creature, and I had all but forgotten this episode.  Then tonight while reading Jessie her stories, I came across this page from Wombat Stew:

A page of creatures.  I took a wild stab and asked Jessie if she could identify the culprit from this comprehensive line-up of minibeasts.  "Which creature looks most like the one that Woody ate, sweetheart?"

"This one," she replied, with far too little hesitation to ensure me a good night's sleep.