My daughter, the Bee Charmer

We have a wooden playground in our back yard...  and it is Havana's favorite thing. That girl wants to play outside every day rain or shine. Since it has been nice weather lately I have been taking her and Jonah out there often. At first it was fun and refreshing for me. It helped to pass the time and she was able to burn a lot of her energy. Then it happened... she and I were sitting on the picnic table area talking and I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, what seems like a piece of dirt on her. Before I get a better glance, I realize that she has picked up the dirt and is holding it and that is when I notice that she is holding a huge bee. Yes, a real, live, sting you type bee. I was frozen. She looked at me with the bee in her hand and then she simply let it go. She was not stung...

Perhaps I should clarify here that I am scared of bees. If one is around I will literally run in the opposite direction usually flapping my arms in a very dramatic fashion. I can't help it... they scare me. I am even more fearful with them around my children.

So, after I gain my composure, I tell Havana that we don't touch bees and I hope that she receives the message. I mean, surely if she touches another bee it won't be so kind as to not sting her, right?!

Well, the next day, we venture outside to play and my daughter runs towards the swing set yelling, "Bee, Where are you? Bee, Where are you?" To which I reminder her that "oh no, we don't want to play with bees" which is met to her climbing back onto the picnic table and continuing to yell for the bee while patting her leg where the bee once landed. Whose child is this?! :)

In an unrelated Havana story... she has a new saying these day. "Oh, Man..." ("aw, mae" is how it sounds) which she says if she is upset or disappointed. It is quite funny. The other day she was on a walk with Jason and they passed by the tennis courts in our neighborhood... she wanted to play on them and Jason told her they could. However, as he approached he realized you needed the key card to enter (we have yet to use them) and that was at home. So he told her he was so sorry but they couldn't go in to play because they didn't have the key. Her response, "Oh Man." And since then, every time we see the tennis courts she points and says, "Oh Man."

I also don't know when she became old enough to answer my questions. She was on the couch and I couldn't see her, but I called from the kitchen asking if she wanted a snack. Normally a question like that simply brings her into the kitchen where I then put her at the kitchen table for her snack. However, all I hear from the other room is, "No" -- that's it. She doesn't enter the kitchen, she doesn't look over the couch at me... she simply carries on with whatever game she was playing with her dolls. It took me a minute to fully grasp what had happened. She is getting so big and her communication, while still lagging, is getting to a point that she can answer most of my questions. I'm so proud of her...