reptiles

I took John to a birthday party on Saturday.  It was for one of his friend's in his class, Thomas.  Thomas had a reptile party with Rizzo's Reptiles.  John was very excited about seeing the reptiles.  "Except for the tarantulas!  I don't like them." he told me.  When we arrived there were quite a few of the boys from John's class there.  And they all gathered around Mr. Joe from Rizzo's Reptiles.  He told us that he would be showing us animals and some we could touch and others we couldn't.  The first animal Mr. Joe took out was two small corn snakes.  He put them into Thomas' hands and Thomas walked around and showed all the boys the snakes.  A couple of the other boys held the snakes.  John touched them, but didn't hold them.  Next, Mr. Joe took out a tarantula.  John was not happy to see the spider.  He stood up next to me and didn't want to even look at it.  Lucky for us, the tarantula was not passed around and no one got to hold it.  Then Mr. Joe took out a hedgehog.  He was all white and super cute.  He asked the boys if they knew of a famous hedgehog.  Someone finally said Sonic the Hedgehog.  Since Sonic is super fast in his video game, Mr. Joe put down the hedgehog to show us how fast they really are.  Well he wasn't too fast.  John and all the boys laughed.  We got to see a baby alligator, a blue tongue skink, a California king snake and big bullfrog.  John got bored after the skink.  He kept asking "Are we done yet?  They should have told us how long this would be."  I had to keep him quiet so he didn't upset the birthday boy or his parents. 

Finally it was time for the last animal.  Mr. Joe asked for some help from a couple of the dads.  They stood there while Mr. Joe put a huge constrictor in their arms.  It wasn't a boa constrictor.  I don't remember the type, but he was a constrictor.  The snake was really big.  John stayed in the back of the room with me.  He kept whispering "I'm not going to touch him.  I'll stay with you."  Mr. Joe let the boys hold the snake by laying the snake down on their laps.  After a few rows of boys got to hold the snake, John got closer and closer.  Finally it was only the parents and a couple of kids left in the basement, and John was brave enough to get close.  I am so proud of him.  He faced his fear and held the snake.