A Bug’s Life

I’ve talked a lot about how I wanted a girl when I got pregnant, and how God gave me a little girl but not the one I had in mind.  I’ve gotten over the fact that Charlotte, for the most part, isn’t a girly girl because it makes the times when she does things like wear a ballerina dress all the more exciting for me.  The fact that she is pretty much the opposite of what I envisioned has really made me embrace the fact that I can’t push my ideas of what I think a little girl should be onto her.  With that being said, there is one aspect of her personality that I can’t really wrap my head around or embrace.  And that is her love of bugs.

If anyone knows me, you know I am petrified of all bugs.  Even flies freak me out.  But for some reason this child is obsessed with bugs.  Especially fake bugs.  The house next to my parents decorated with these giant fake spiders for Halloween and she was standing outside of it last night begging me to go touch them.  We went in to feed the dog and she was waiting by the door to go BACK outside to see the spiders.  She wanted to know why the house didn’t have roaches.  I cannot.

She also watches these videos on YouTube where this guy picks up fake bugs and says what they are and then transitions into showing the real bug in its natural habitat.  She loves these videos.  One day she came up to me and says, “mommy, do you like scarabs?” And I honestly thought she was making up words.  WTF is a scarab?  And then she showed me what a scarab was and I almost fainted.  No Charlotte, I most certainly do NOT like scarabs.  (If you are afraid of bugs do NOT look up a scarab).

Last night she was watching one of these videos while I was watching The Voice (great parenting, I know – don’t @ me) and she was holding the phone very close to her chest.  I leaned over to ask what she was doing and she said “the bugs you don’t like are coming! I hide it so you don’t see.  Look at the TV mommy!” and she pushed my face away from the phone.  So even though she is looking at scarabs and dragon flies and God knows what else, she was protecting me from seeing the bugs.  So while I may not love that I have a kid who likes bugs, I must be doing something right if she is empathetic enough to shield me from them.