The Butterfly Slayer

I think that Jacie has forgotten that she has a broken leg and hip. In the last couple of days she has fallen several times. She tries to get around too quickly and isn't willing to wait for the little things like...well...her walker. She is such a busybody that she has taken to dropping to the floor on her 'good cheek,' if you will and doing what we call butt walking. It is incredibly funny to watch. She definitely brings laughter into the house. She has taken up building Legos full time. She loves it. She keeps trying to engage me in playing with her. The issue is that when Loren (whom we affectionately called 'Lego' because of his love for Legos) first began, he learned to not include me in building. I am a one woman wrecking crew when it comes to them. I NEVER could help him without breaking his masterpiece. Every time. It is almost pathetic. So... for the safety of her projects, I send Loren to play with her. She is doing well, though she does not enjoy the whole invalid mentality that she is living. If she could cut off her cast herself, I have no doubt she would have already. She keeps sticking things down in it in order to itch. Not a good plan from where I am sitting. I am afraid that she will get something stuck and have to complain about it for the next three weeks but hey, what do I know? I am just the mom. I am very happy to report that she is sleeping upstairs (in her little green cot, of course) again. I cannot even tell you how happy this makes me. I love my space and with her downstairs, I was WAY too available for 24 hour service. She would wake me up all of the time and just want to talk. Not my thing at 2 am. At all. In fact, we intentionally did not adopt a baby or toddler for that reason. I love my sleep. She voluntarily went up to her cot. She probably was sick of hearing me tell her to go to sleep. I am not sure I have really ever talked about Jacie's enormous bug fetish. She has it and it is a huge deal. She does not like bugs of any type. Or butterflies. Moths. Dragonflies. She wants to kill them all. At night, she fixates on the fact that bugs (box elders) can be found in the house. Than she will not sleep. She cries and fusses. Bart goes on bug detail and rids the house every night but she is not convinced. She uses her fear as a tool to manipulate. Every night. She wants to sleep in bed with Bart and I. So our nightly ritual sounds something like this: "Is it time for sleep?" "Yes." "With you, ma?" "No. In your own bed." "I no like my bed." "Why?" "Bugs there." "There are no bugs there daddy already checked." "I see them." "Where?" To this she points outside. "Oh, you saw a bug outside?" "Yes." "Good because that is where bugs belong." "They crawl on me." "When has a bug crawled on you?" And on. And on. And on. Until I finally say, "Go to bed." That is when I disengage the conversation. She does not ever want to go to bed and will do anything she can think of to stay out of it. I love my bed and will do anything I can think of to get to it. Another war of the wills. I said in the last post that I wonder which of us has the stronger one. She is definitely strong. I know the strength will benefit her in life but Whew... The good news is that I cannot picture life any other way than what I am living today. I am extremely blessed and for that I am grateful. ~CP BTW: Something must be wrong with Blogspot. I can properly format these posts and click update, Bam they slam all together and look well...like this looks. I have tried both of my computers and got the same result. Yuck.