a bug's life...

It is my belief that somehow, many of us are born with this innate feeling that bugs are icky. Whether it be 6 legs or 8, there's just something about creepy crawlies that simply doesn't feel right. Somehow the butterfly and ladybug pass as acceptable bugs - beyond that, you'd be hard pressed for one that people are thrilled about seeing.

A week or so ago, we were out on our front, concrete patio, and one of the large black ants that live around our house was making its way across. We pointed it out to Alexis, thinking this was a nice opportunity to meet something new. I'm positive that we did absolutely nothing to make the situation uncomfortable or to indicate that the ant was a bug, and therefore scary.

The ant did an about face and started marching toward her. She suddenly began breathing more quickly and started to whine about the "annnt". Then, this ballsy ant decides it wants to make its way up onto her adorable pink sneaker. She starts freaking out. "Ant! Ant! Shoe! Shoe!"

We fling the ant off of her shoe, but the damage was done. She was telling it, "not nice. ant." (There are pauses between her phrases, as if they're separate sentences.) Now, most bugs are "ants", and they're all "not nice."

Today, we were sitting in the kitchen and one of those stupid, loud flies was making a slow attempt at flying through the window. Alexis takes note and starts to cringe while whining. I tell her, "it's ok...it's a fly." "Not nice. Ant." "No, sweetpea, it's a fly, see?" I swat at the fly who makes very little attempt to move, ultimately falling down and going who knows where.

I'm big on her becoming a fan of nature. I love her relationship with animals. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of telling her to step on the ant when it made her upset. Swatting at the fly wasn't a good example either. Now, if she sees a bug, she makes a move for it to smoosh it. A relatively harmless moth unwittingly landed by her foot yesterday as we stood outside. Stomp. No more moth. Oops.

I'm not fan of bugs, and it seems that she wasn't one, and definitely isn't one now. I will try to expose her to other bugs and see if we can't at least make her comfortable with some of the insect kingdom. Firefly anyone? I need to reacquaint myself with them too. And for any bug that we don't want to shake hands with? "Daddy!"