Freckles

Brighton has been super interested in insects lately. I think it stemmed from when they got to pet worms during a science unit in school. Anywho, she has definitely gotten over her fear of bugs. In fact, whenever we go out to the pool, she loves 'investigating nature' as she puts it. This always ends with her collecting these ladybug-looking insects and letting them walk all over her. I must admit, I am not a fan of this new infatuation. One day she begged me to take one home with us and I told she could walk it to our house but had to let it go free after that. In my book, bugs are NOT indoor pets. So on our little walk home, her and Freckles (she decided to name her after seeing the two dots on her back that reminded Brighton of her own freckles) became best buds. When it was time to say goodbye, she let Freckles crawl around on our porch. This bug didn't have any wings and had nowhere else to be so Brighton and her played out there together for what seemed like hours. Disclaimer: Don't think I'm a bad mom for letting my kid play with bugs. We knew it wasn't poisonous and wouldn't bite long before Brighton became friends with Freckles. Finally when it was dinnertime, she had to come inside and leave Freckles to her own volition. She hoped that Freckles would be outside waiting for her in the morning but I told her not to count on it. The next morning, the first thing Brighton did was run outside to look for Freckles. The forlorn face that came back inside told me that Freckles didn't stick around. I told her that Freckles probably just wanted to find some of her friends again and go back to her home. Brighton seemed better after that and said, "I guess I would want to go home to if I were that far away, but she was my friend." After I reminded her that she had human friends too that she would see that day, all was right with the world again. Before she went off to play she said to me, "Maybe I can just look in the mirror and whenever I see my freckles on my face, I can think of my buggy friend." I thought that was a pretty okay idea.