Ladybugs, Scraped Knees, and Finishing UP

Leah has a new pet. Actually, two new pets---ladybugs to be exact. She came inside on Monday morning, walking as if on eggshells so she wouldn't harm her new friend---who happened to be crawling on her, and insisted on a jar for her new pet. The next hour was precious: she quickly gathered leaves (lots of them from our gorgeous, slow-growing succulents), blossoms, rocks, blades of grass to make a new habitat for Lady. My favorite moment was when I looked over and she had a red plastic twisty straw in the jar . . . the ladybug's play structure. She's brilliant, I tell you! If I were a ladybug, that's what I'd want for my jungle gym! Later, the straw was gone and I asked her what had happened. "We decided it was too much." Classic.

She insisted on bringing her ladybug to preschool that afternoon. As she walked into school with her Mason jar of wonder, she was a little timid; she had that cute I'm-so-pleased-I-could-burst expression---the one where she's smiling, but kind of trying not to. When I came to pick her up, she had placed the jar in her "cuvvy" (I can't bear to tell her it's a "cubby" because I think "cuvvy" is so much cuter!) . . . the whole class had eagerly checked in on Lady periodically.

That night, Esther accidentally (?) threw Ladybug's home on the back aggregate patio. Yikes! Leah cried, Jon swept, and I hid out in my office so I didn't have to help in the melee. I thought that was the end of that phase.

But, yesterday, she realized she wanted another pet and started collecting again. This time I gave her lots of stickers to decorate the jar with. And, this morning we took the new Lady to the gym, Target, and of course to preschool again. I love that girl!

She also drew a million pictures on construction paper and had me as her scribe for the captions. She then went around the house hanging them up on windows, doors, walls, etc. My personal favorite sign is actually on the outside of the front door (as per her orders). It says: The party of nature and other things. There's no picture. Just that announcement. I'd love to have seen the look on our contractor's face when he showed up to finish our mold job this morning and found that as his greeting. (And it's in my handwriting.)

On a different note, Esther has fallen three times this week and repeatedly scraped her knees. This morning as we left the gym, she was thrilled because I had asked for an orange helium balloon for her. She was running as fast as she could (in her brand new, slightly too large See Kai Run shoes), tripped and skidded---oucH!---and let the balloon go all at the same time. It was tragedy. Her little body was shaking and she was crying, "Hold you, mama! Hold you!" We've run out of bandaids on her this last week, so we immediately went to Target where she picked out Dora bandaids. Being a kid is sometimes so glorious, sometimes so traumatic. But I do love it when she comes to me for comfort, I must admit. She's become such an independent spirit, insisting "I DO IT!" at every chance.

Our laundry room and bathroom were finished today! Yippee! I feel like I'm in ecstasy when I walk into the laundry room with its amazing new tile. Can I just say BEAUTIFUL! Wish you were here. I'll take pictures once we get the washer and dryer back in and the new Ikea cabinets up. But for now it's just my little happy spot. (Aside: I really want to get new front-loading machines for my new gorgeous laundry room. The others have served us very well, but I'm not sure they "fit" anymore. I'm sure Jon will beg to differ. There are definitely bigger fish to fry in our lives, our home, etc . . . but it's fun imagining the big stainless steel beauties glimmering almost as much as the floor.)

Time to go retrieve Leah and said ladybugs. Over and out.