A few days ago J came in from his daily "exploring" in the woods, breathless and excited. " I saw a coyote, mom! It ran away when it saw me." Of course I completely freaked out and banned all children from ever stepping foot outside again. I asked myself WWMD? (What Would Ma Do) If this was Little House on the Prairie, Pa would simply get his rifle and shoot the thing and they'd probably make coyote stew. That wasn't an option, though, because they only weapons we have are light sabers. I called the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife for advice, and learned that WA voters have apparently made it illegal to trap coyotes. They did say it was completely safe for J to be out in the woods, as there has never been an attack on a human by a coyote in our state. I'm so conflicted, because we bought this property basically for the kids to explore. So, I'm considering getting a big dog, because the DFW guy suggested it, if only to make myself feel safer. I will probably change my mind a few more times about it, though. He also said coyotes hate noise, so that works in our favor too. I also learned that downtown Seattle is currently overrun with coyotes that sleep under the viaduct and roam the streets at night. Weird!

In other news, H has been reading the Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing series, in which a kid carries around a bottle of Monster Spray. Henry thought this was a great idea, and he put in an order for an industrial spray bottle from Home Depot. We filled it with water, and added a few drops of extremely rare, expensive monster repellent to it (brown bottle of vanilla extract with Mr. Yuk stickers on it). Every day he goes outside and sprays the perimeter of the house, sprays under his bed, and under the crack of his closet door. He also sprays the handles of his bedroom door and closet. Last night, I was in the kids' bathroom, peeing without the lights on so I wouldn't wake them when I got pelted with a stream of cold monster spray. H was delighted to discover it was me and that he got me right in the face. Too bad I don't have a bottle of extremely expensive and rare coyote repellent.