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Swimming ladybugs and other short stories

By Jess
Yesterday, I was cleaning up in the bathroom and Alex noticed a ladybug in the toilet. "Get him out, mama." I hadn't noticed the ladybug when I emptied the potty. With visions of tantrums and dirty-toilet insect rescues dancing in my head, I fumbled a few words out about how we were not getting the (probably dead) ladybug out of the potty and then blurted out that the ladybug was just swimming and was happy there in the toilet.

This seemed to be a great relief to him, because then Alex went over to wave hello to the ladybug (more visions, like please don't try to kiss the ladybug!), and turned back three or four times on his way out of the bathroom to point to the toilet and talk about the ladybug swimming. By then, I was concerned that flushing said toilet was going to cause a scene, but I just calmly pressed the lever and we went about our day.

This made quite an impression on the lad because he's mentioned it several times since in the vicinity of toilets, as though it's just a fact of nature that ladybugs swim in toilets and, if you're lucky, you can spy on their fun.
Alex started down-and-up strumming on the guitar this week. Paul encouraged him to sing Alleluia last week, but try explaining to a toddler that he ought not to sing "Alleluia" during the Lenten season. I tried to help him think of other songs to sing, so when it came up at a friend's house this morning, he answered that he should be singing "Abiyoyo and Amen." We're getting there...
Today, Alex started smiling for the camera. Twice he stopped what he was doing to turn towards me and say "smile". He freezes and makes this really unnatural face. I'm curious to see where this leads us. At least he's not saying "No pictures!" like another little boy we know. ;)

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