BUGS, MOVIE STARS, AND HEAVEN

I never thought I would have a daughter who enjoyed bugs. Avery has been discovering bugs lately, and I am not sure how to respond to this new side of her. These days she has asked me several times, "Do you know what my favorite bugs are? Ladybugs and butterflies." About two weeks ago she started finding ladybugs outside in our yard. She would play with them for a long period of time until they got lost (or escaped her clutches). She would be sad and look for them for a while until she got distracted by something else. When we went to a park about a week and a half ago she found a ladybug and insisted on bringing it home. She carried it safely home to our house. It was nap time, so she got the bright idea to put it on one of our house plants. She said it needed to take a nap too. Surprisingly that ladybug stayed there for 2 hours while Avery napped. Guess what she named it? Sarah! That is the name she gives almost everything. I am not sure why. We have some Sarah's at church. Anyways she had fun playing with the ladybug for a couple of more hours before it got lost in our carpet. For days after that she did not give up hope on finding Sarah. A couple of days later she found another one in our yard. She lost it after playing with it for some time. Later at the dinner table she said, "Oh, I got some food in my hair. I looked closer and it was the ladybug! She was so excited! She was almost done with dinner so I let her finish her food while it crawled on her arms or legs. Then it, again, got lost. She was a little sad, but went off to play in her room. As I was cleaning up the table I accidentally smashed it on the dish rag thinking it was just a mere crumb. OOPS! I didn't tell Avery. How does a mother tell her daughter she is a killer?

Our family was at Target soon after that and they had a bug home for about $4. I knew that Avery didn't really need anymore toys, but I asked her if she would like to use some of her piggy bank money for the bug home, so she could have a real home for her ladybugs. She thought that was a great idea. I figured, now is a good time to start teaching her the concept of money and saving- maybe?

The thing is now she can't find any ladybugs, she finds all kinds of rollypollies that she puts in there, but no ladybugs. Poor girl.

She doesn't like spiders and has even been known to smash a few with her shoe. Yay! Wes and I are not fond of spiders at all so we figure we can train her to kill them for us. Is that so wrong? She needs to start pulling her weight around here. Ha!

Last weekend we went to cheer Wes on as he played softball on our church team. I sprayed the girls and I with mosquito repellent. Abby and I STILL got bit terribly. The bites quickly turned into huge whelps! Avery and Wes remained untouched. For days after that Abby had huge red marks on her legs despite the ointment I put on them. I was glad she didn't seem to scratch them much. She was too busy playing for that nonsense! Sorry Abby, I am sorry you inherited yummy blood from your mommy. The mosquitos have always loved me, which is probably why I got malaria FIVE times while growing up in Kenya.

Okay now for the movie stars bit... A lady at church asked if the girls could be in a video she was putting together for a Reba McEntire benefit. Reba has donated a lot of money to our hospital here in town and is in a parade we have almost every year on Memorial Day. Well, this year they wanted to put together a video to show the many facilities she has helped provide funds for. One of these buildings is the Reba Ranch House which was built for families with critically ill patients hospitalized in Texoma Medical Center. There is a playroom in it, and she wanted to record the girls playing in it. They did wonderfully! You don't have to teach them how to play! The played with dishes at a table and then Avery picked up a teddy bear and hugged it and rocked it on her lap in a rocking chair. I was proud of my movie stars, but I don't wish the movie star life on them. :) I was just tickled that they were asked to be the stars of this show... okay the stars of that segment of the show.

And now for a little piece of Heaven. The other day at the lunch table Avery randomly exclaimed, "It won't be too sad to die, because you get to go to Heaven. We will get to see Grandma there and that will be fun." After I picked my jaw off the floor and agreed with her about how nice Heaven will be she added, "Oh, and our dog that died when I was a baby will be there too." I was elated that she was thinking "Heavenly thoughts" and was excited about our hope in Heaven. She surprises us all the time with her random thoughts.