An interesting skill

Today Colin was standing at our sliding glass door. I could tell he was looking at something, and I thought that the 'something' was outside. After a moment, I learned differently. He says to me:

"Mom, there's a fly in here."

Oh, great. That's gross. I hate flies. "Okay, Colin. Thanks for letting me know." I'll get it later, I think to myself.

He was quiet for a moment and then said, "Can I get him?"

"What, honey?"

"Mom, can I get him?"

"Col, what do you mean? You mean, kill him?"

"Yeah."

"How would you do that?" He has seen me use a fly-swatter, but I had never actually taught him how to use one. I assumed that he was going to ask me to teach him how to use it so that he could 'get' the fly. I was in the middle of baking, and didn't want to touch the icky fly-swatter, so I was preparing to tell him that 'I couldn't teach him how to use that at this moment, but maybe another time'. It didn't really matter that I was busy at that moment; turns out, I was wrong about the swatter anyway.

"Col? (still staring) How would you do that, honey?"

"With my hands."

"You want to try to kill the fly with your hands?"

"Yeah."

"Colin--the one thing about flies is that they are very, very fast. As soon as you move toward them, they fly away. You'll never get him with your hands."

"Oh."

He was quiet again for a few moments, still studying the fly intently.

"Mom......can I try to get him?"

Exasperated, I gave in. What did I care if he 'tried to get him', anyway? He never would catch him.

"Sure, Colin. Go ahead and try."

Next thing I hear is SMACK! Colin's hand hitting the glass door. Okay, that's done and over with now. Maybe he'll give up the pursuit and go play.

"Mom, I got him."

"WHAT?!"

"I got the fly."

"With your hands?! You got him?!"

He turns to me, and holds out his palm to show me. Attached to said palm were the remains of what apparently was a slower-than-usual fly. Yeah.....he had gotten him, alright.

We then had a discussion of the utter grossness of flies, and proceeded to wash his hands 2 (or maybe it was 10?) times.

I think I will go ahead and teach him how to use that fly-swatter.....