Invasion

It's not enough that we have deer eating our trees and turkeys and rabbits making full use of our yard, we have now been taken over by the ladybugs. I expect them to be answering the door any time now. They are everywhere! They like to congregate around the windows in the bathroom and climb all over the bathtub, the sink, mirrors and the windows. Darryl has gotten mad at me quite a few times for not closing the lids on the cereal box because he kept finding ladybugs in his cereal. He really blew it when he ate one. I was only leaving them open a few minutes because the kids always want more.

Darryl wants us to respect the ladybugs and not kill them (even after he ate one) because they supposedly eat bugs that harm the Christmas trees. I'm not sure how they can do their job living in our house. They must have a short life because we see an awful lot of dead ones. The kids have begun to respect them a little more and at least don't play with them so much (except Kevin). Maybe they have finally gotten bored with them. We opened the windows in the bathroom to let some of them out in hopes that they might find the trees they are suppose to help. Unfortunately the wasps flew in. At one time I counted 10 wasps in the bathroom.

Darryl wants us to respect the wasps also (they may have a purpose but if so I don't know what it is) so I stopped killing them. He says this kind is not the violent kind. My theory was that if we killed them, that would be less wasps to fly in the window. His theory was that the queen wasp noticing that fewer wasps were returning would just produce more. The kids use to be deathly afraid of wasps and hollered and screamed whenever they saw one. With our nonchalant attitude towards them, they have begun to watch them and are no longer as afraid. We now use a broom to get them to go back out the window. We discovered that this worked by accident. They cling to the broom and it is easier to get them back out. Scott even said the other day that Margaret told him that if you didn't bother them they wouldn't bother you. Seeing that they were no longer afraid of wasps, I did caution them not to pick one up. Deann even said that she liked watching them. That was until one flew in her bath while she was in it. She freaked out! She screamed so loud that I thought she had been stung. I had a heck of a time getting her to get back in the tub to wash her hair even after I had gotten rid of it.

I've wondered if it would be profitable to gather up all these ladybugs and sell them.

From My Journal

4/3/09 – Friday. Nana kept the kids. Read a couple of books to the kids this morning on the bed. They are as interested in reading books as they are watching movies. The kids played this morning. Janie got here about 10:00. We did read a couple more books on the couch. The kids watched Barney and then Deann watched Princess and the Pauper. After work they watched Scooby Doo. This evening we played Hi Ho Cheerio each of them winning one game. Deann gets upset if she looses several in a row. We tried again to play Chutes and Ladders but the boys don’t really enjoy this game so we generally quit about two rows up. We put together the Alphabet Train Puzzle. We got out the other floor puzzle and Kevin worked for quite a while trying to put it together. While he was doing this, I worked with Scott on writing letters on the chalk board – H, I, T, A, S, C, O. Worked with Kevin on the chalk board and he wrote H, I, T and then got off on his own thing. He is more difficult to direct and wants to play and do his own thing. Next, I wrote the numbers from 10 to 20 on the chalk board. Deann could identify most of them but missed 13, 14, 15, and 17. Also doesn’t know 20. Scott did identify quite a few letters in the bath tub including K and X which I didn’t know he knew. The boys were playing with magnets on the refrigerator after our chalk board lessons while Deann was doing the dishes. Scott made an I with the magnets and then told Kevin this was an I. I also noticed him trying to correct Kevin’s pronunciation of fire the same way we tell him how to say fire. He kept saying no you say fire not bire. Kevin can say it correctly if he thinks about it. It is so funny to see Scott trying to instruct Kevin. After the boys bath, the kids all drew pictures – their task was to draw their family. Scott drew monsters, Kevin drew a spider and then himself and then started to draw Scott but wound up scribbling. Deann did draw her family. Deann started to do a lesson in her 100 lessons book but just seemed too tired. She tried on her costume again to show her Daddy. She loves the gloves.