Dead ant, dead ant....

We have ants wandering around our house again this Spring. Today it so happened that the boys spent some time looking at and being completely captivated by a rather large black ant on the floor by the kitchen table and they must have really bonded with it.
Soon after, something else caught there attention and they started dancing about and horsing around. Kuba quickly noticed that they had accidentally stepped on and killed the ant.
TEARS, big tears, came rolling down the boys cheeks as well as runny noses and sobbing throaty sounds. In fact, they were crying so hard about the dead ant that Anna had to move to the couch with the boys to comfort them. Anna said it was amazing how sincere they were in their horror and grief. (She told me she was secretly wishing she could have grabbed the camera and videotaped them as they cried about the dead ant- she was struck by the intensity of their emotion and at the same time secretly amused.) They kept moving in and out of tears, with Kuba asking her melodramatically "When are we ever going to stop crying?" Anna suggested that they just cry until all of their sadness and tears were gone.
From what she told me, she finally had to distract them with a story. (not about ants)

Coincidentally and recently the boys have been given an ant farm. They have been watching these little red insects forming tunnels in green transparent gel. This free and much larger black ant must have been even more fascinating to them - boldly taking up space here within their own home.

It seems that they do understand how important the life of even a little ant is.