Allie's love of bugs

Note to all the rolly pollies of our area...get out while you can!

Allie loves bugs. She thinks bees are "cute", and wants to hug and hold every living thing. She has named the box elder bugs that have infested our house "Boxie" and thinks they are all one and the same. One day she is sad because Boxie has died, then she finds that Boxie is alive again and holds her and loves her.

Luckily she hasn't been fast enough to catch the ones that mean her harm.

Unluckily, our home has become the grave yard for many of her "friends".

The obsession began in the Spring with rolly pollies. I always called them potato bugs. I remember my Mom would pay me a penny for every one I collected. I would go to bed with dreams of potato bugs crawling all over.

Anyway, Allie discovered them this year and she was immediately in love. She classifies them in size categories (a Mommy one, a Daddy one, and baby ones). Her favorite ones are the baby ones of course. She carries them around all day. If something else requires a hand, she stuffs them in pockets. (In case you wondered, yes, I have found rolly pollie parts in the washing machine.) After a while of collecting, her hands and pockets would get too full and she would request a cup to put them in. She has collected many a cup full of them. I usually let them hang around until she forgets about them and toss them.

When she carries them around enough, some have been unfortunate enough to lose parts in her hand. "Look Mom, his wisker fell off! But he's okay. He's just sleeping."

She insists that they are sleeping when she finds a cup that has been neglected for days. The poor little guys! I would be more compassionate if she had chosen to love butterflies or caterpillars. I would save them from the certain death they would face when meeting Allie. But these bugs eat my petunias.

The other day, Allie was able to combine her two latest loves...

Sidewalk chalk and rolly pollies.

Can you tell that the legs are green? She was really excited that she was able to make her friend the same color as her art. Really, he is her art.

Big words and privacy

I feel bad that I haven't posted very regularly lately. It's not like we have been overwhelmingly busy. I sit down with dozens of ideas that I want to share, then I get up and walk away. I don't know why I am having such a hard time with it. Today I decided to just tell two of our "how we are messing up our kids" stories.

Jake has been picking up and understanding more things than I thought. The other day, completely out of the blue, he came to me and said,
Jake: "Mom, when I was born I had a healthy heart."
Me: "Yep, you have a healthy heart"
Jake: "I didn't need a transplant, or a surgery."
Pause...
Me: "No, you didn't." (Pretty shocked that he even knows the word transplant).
Jake: "I didn't have Hypoplastic Heart Syndrome..."
Me: Pause... (because I am speechless)
Jake: "Sam does."
Pause...
Me: "Wow, that's a pretty big word. Did you hear that from Mommy and Daddy?"
Jake: "Yeah, that's what Sam has. Hypoplastic Heart Syndrome."

I was completely shocked. Since then, I have heard him several times saying "Hypoplastic Syndrome" to himself as he is walking down the hall. I guess he hears more than I thought he did. What other 4 year old can use those words in a conversation?

Now for Allie's story. As a preface, there are many things we do and say that could mess our children up for life. When I was a child, my parents had no idea that telling me there was a syrup shortage in California would cause me to forever limit the amount of syrup I put on my pancakes. (I have asked my Mom about it and she doesn't remember it. She said it was probably just something they said so we would quit wasting syrup.)
Anyway, Allie likes to have privacy when she is using the bathroom. She tells us she needs privacy and to go away until she is done. I have heard many shouts of "Mom, Jake won't let me have privacy!" down the hall. I only wish she would respect my privacy so well.
Anyway, she also struggles and fights about going in her car seat sometimes. She tries to worm her way out of the car seat and if she succeeds, she jumps from place to place and we always tell her that she needs to sit in her seat so "officer friendly" won't give us a ticket. It has been an ongoing battle for a long time.
So now, the story...
Mike had the kids in the car waiting for me to be ready to go (a familiar scene at our house). I got in the car and the first thing I heard was, "Officer friendly will take me to jail and I have to poop with everyone." Allie's face was a little frightened and she was buckled in her car seat. Mike laughed, and when she wouldn't get in her car seat he told her that officer friendly would take her to jail if she didn't get in. He described her jail cell, and as a clincher told her she would have to poop in the potty without any privacy.
Before telling a story like that, I might have thought of the repercussions: Allie fearing police officers, getting the wrong idea about who goes to jail, etc. Not Mike.
So now, when I tell her to get in her car seat, she says "so I won't have to poop in front of everyone?"
Yes, that's the reason for car seats.