Emotionally Displayed.

If you haven't noticed, we love babies in our house.

This was not entirely understood until today. A normal morning, I sat at the computer eating a form of white bread for breakfast. Lillie was wrapped in a blanket laying on my chest while Ruby tornadoed around my room. Suddenly, she stopped, frozen, bent over, face inches from the carpet.

"A ANT! Mommy, uh, A, AAAANT!"
"Ya, An Ant. Get it."
"But I don't have a cup! You, you, you have tuh take a CUP and put it over duh ANT and den you can put it in the TOILET!!"

We talked about cups for a few minutes, the physics involved in catching and smooshing the ant, and what would be done once we caught it. I did not want to remove myself from my perch of course, so I kept telling her that she had to take care of the ant. She stared at me with the weight of that responsibility. Eyes round and full of that deep blue thought. Ruby takes things very seriously.

So she smooshed it. I reluctantly helped her pick it up in a cup that she found in the bath toy container. She ran with anticipation to the toilet, dumped the ant carcass in the water, and flushed it down. It was mid-flush, I sat in my comfy chair, she was in the bathroom. Then came the shriek. Followed by a moan. I turned around quickly to see her walking heavily into the room, her shoulders hunched, moaning a long string of something inaudible. As she came closer, I could see the tears already streaming down her cheeks along with that little drip that comes from her nose when she cries. She was a wreck. And this is what she said.

"MOMMY. The ant wasn't a big ant 'cause I thought it was a big ant. But it wasn't a big ant it was a BABY ANT!! I didn't want to flush a baby ant!" Sobbing, rubbing eyes, lips red and drooling a little bit. Then with a new realization of what happened came a louder cry, "I FLUSHDED A BABY ANT! The baby ant is DEAD!"

And the wailing continued. We love babies in this house, yes we do.