The Ants Go Marching

Garrett got an ant farm for Christmas. Yes. I know it is now the end of May. The thing is-it didn’t come with the ants, but it had a form to mail order your own family of harvester ants. Of course, Garrett was too excited on Christmas morning not to open the box and examine the antless farm.
A few days later when he was taking his gifts to his room he realized that he didn’t have to order form. I told him that when he found it we would send for the ants. Then I forgot all about it (and so did Garrett!). The ant farm was pushed to the back of the closet-out of sight, out of mind. UNTIL. . .
Last week Garrett and his friend Donny were playing in his room. While looking for something interesting to do they found the ant farm. (Surprisingly enough it was STILL antless!) The exciting thing was Garrett remembered seeing the order form just a few days earlier and was actually able to remember where he had put it and had no trouble locating it in his less-than-organized room.
“Mom! Guess what!?!? I found it! The ant paper! We can get my ants now! Mom! Mom!!! Mom!!!! Will you do it now?!? Will you order them now?!?! PPPLLLLEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I tried to contain my excitement (ha-ha) as I took the order form from Garrett thinking he would go back to playing with his friend and I could worry about it later. (I mean, the kid has had the ant farm for 5 months, what’s a couple more days going to hurt?) He wouldn’t leave me alone! He stood there. Staring at me with those pitiful little brown puppy dog eyes. I tried to go back to the paperwork I was trying to get finished. “Mom? When are you going to order them? Will they be here tomorrow? How many will I get? How long do ants live? Will I have to feed them? . . .” The questions went on. And on. And on.
“Garrett, why don’t you go read all the directions so we will know how to take care of the ants when we get them? I’m sure all your questions will be answered in that little booklet.” I said. He turned and walked towards his room. Now I thought I had outsmarted him and he would be busy reading for a while and might even get tired of reading and find something less “boring” to do. NOT GARRETT. He read the booklet cover to cover. All 22 pages of it. I know because he returned about 10 minutes later and recited the entire thing for me. He knows just about everything there is to know about ants-and then some. His excitement had only grown. And I had been outsmarted by a 9-year-old boy.
I stopped what I was doing and looked at the order form. Garrett never quit talking--telling me about the lifespan of the average ant and their oxygen requirements. I was beginning to think I would be listening to the ant talk for 4-6 weeks while we waited for the delivery of a mail-order vial of ants when I saw it. The web site. “Order on-line for fastest service. Ants delivered within 72 hours of order processing.” I went straight to the computer and ordered the “approximately 25 Western Harvester ants” for $4.95 (Shipping included!).
The ants were ordered and we had nothing left to do but wait. Garrett was surprisingly patient. Other than the occasional ant-facts that spurt from his mouth he was actually kind of quiet. He didn’t lose his excitement though, because every day for the next four days he ran in to see if the mailman (mail-woman actually) had delivered his new friends. (He even forgot we don’t get mail on Sundays!)
The ants arrived on Monday while Garrett was at school, but the minute he walked in the door he was asking about them. The look of pure joy on his face when he saw the brown padded envelope was priceless.

TO BE CONTINUED. . . . . . . . . . . . . .