The Sting of Friendship

Thursday morning was just a typical start to a day in the Evatt house. Wesley and I were scrambling around trying to get kids up, dressed, fed, and on their way to school. Nate and Marleigh, obviously not in school, were doing their usual meandering around the house, taking note of all that had been cleaned since the previous night and plotting how to make an even bigger mess than the day before. Knowing that it was going to be a beautiful day, I put the diapers outside to dry and evidently let an intruder in as well; a wasp! Showing interest in our morning meal, Wesley was determined to put the small creature to death. One small problem; no fly swat! In these instances in our home, you always grab the next best thing; a shoe. Lucky for Wesley, the wasp landed on the floor and there was no need to even take his shoe off. He stomped it, and we went about our hurried morning routine.

It was no time before Nate found the poor wasp on the floor. He was intrigued! All he could say was "bug" over and over and OVER again very excitedly! It was cute, honestly! He befriended the dead creature and sat down beside it as if to have a chat about his plans for the day. The absolute most adorable thing was his offer of food to the "bug". Nate would never let a friend go hungry. He laid three crackers on the floor beside the "bug". Wesley and I watched the whole thing play out and even had a conversation about how we dreaded the first time that our children would have to feel the pain of a bee sting. For "normal" parents, this would usually be the cue to get the wasp out of the floor and out the door! You must always keep in mind though that we are FAR from normal! We were rather enjoying watching Nate's new friendship develop!

Before we could enjoy too long of a quality chat, the bus pulled to the drive, and we went into "rush mode" again, seeing that Juana made it to the bus and keeping Bella on track to be off to school on time. Nate however, desired to be a typical boy (which I will NEVER get used to), and "reach out" to his friend in need and "make" him enjoy the snack provided. As we were gathered in the living room, performing the dreaded task of brushing Bella's hair(and yes, on certain days that takes the two of us!), Nate excitedly bounced into the living room! However, his shrills of excitement only lasted momentarily and then changed to shrills of pain! Yep, you guessed it! The wasp fell from his hand as he ran to me, and here we were in the middle of a moment we had just discussed 15 minutes prior.

He recovered nicely, and like most boys, he was back to his normal self within minutes. He seemingly cursed the "bug" throughout the rest of the day though each time he looked at his thumb and realized the pain. His limited 2 yr. vocabulary would only allow him to continually repeat, "BUG HURT"!