Yesterday, I had the urge to go take some pictures. There is an arboretum in the city that I work in but not in the city in which I live. I wanted to go home first so instead of wasting the expensive gas, decided to go to one of our area parks. Feeling a little self-conscious about going to the park alone with a camera in hand, I called to see if Kendall wanted to join me. At almost four years old, she didn't disappoint me. After running home to clean out my extremely messy back seat, I went over to pick her up. She was excited to see me! That's always a good feeling.
I know a little girl that really doesn't like cicadas. It was kinda comical. We started our adventure with her talking about how scared she was of the mean bugs and how she didn't want them near her because they might bite her. Of course, it didn't help that the noise they were making was deafening. I don't mind bugs. Granted, I don't want them crawling all over me but I'm not going to allow them to keep me from enjoying the outdoors. So I tried to calm Kendall down and told her about the cicadas.
I told her that they couldn't bite her, their mouths are too small. If they landed on her, that it was their 'nails' that made it feel like they were biting her. They need those nails to hold on to the trees and they just thought she was a tree. She was working on understanding that. "But if they land on me, will you get them off?" "Of course! You just tell them, 'Shoo, fly! Don't bother me!' " That worked, for about five minutes.
Then she started wanting to leave because she didn't want to have them land on her. We were swinging at this point, well, she was anyway. "You're going too fast for them to catch you." All of this was doing little to assuage her fears. Finally, when I said, "They aren't trying to hurt you. If they land on you, it's because you're in their way." Light bulbs came on. You could see the wheels turning. With a tilt of her head, she repeated this as if it were some revelation, "I'm just in their way." We were okay after that, for the most part.
It was about 85 degrees outside yesterday afternoon. After playing for about thirty minutes in the sun, we sat in the grass under a shade tree and ate our goldfish and drank our nice cold water. And we talked about the birds and the bees. No... not that kind. But the birds in how they eat cicadas (she liked that one), and who made the bees and various other animals. We talked about which animals ate grass, how we'd just brush any cicadas off, and if I was her friend when she was little.
Sufficiently cool, we went back to playing. There was another girl there now who introduced herself as Taylor. Now I have a confession to make. Taylor's mom thought I was Kendall's mom. I didn't correct her. I kind of enjoyed that! One day, it'll be true and I'll take my own kids to the park. Until then, I suffice with taking others kids and my nieces and nephews (how I wished they lived closer).
All in all though, we had a great time. I didn't get the pictures that I wanted but we certainly enjoyed ourselves. Kendall may be able to tolerate cicadas a little more now. One landed on her in the car as we were getting ready to leave. I thought, "This is it. Flood gates are going to open." Nope, she just jumped, squeaked, and brushed it off. I was so proud! She did ask me to close the windows though. Guess I can't blame her. After all, she is only four.
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