A person is a person no matter how small

My apologies to those of you who have not yet been Dr. Seussed enough to know that this is a quote from "Horton Hears a Who". Lately, just like poor Horton I keep discovering that I am indeed entrusted with care for a real person, even though she might appear too small for others to understand that she is indeed intelligent and complex and strange.

Several times a day now Eva points to something that might be scary - a spider in a book, a ladybug on a building block, a loud truck outside - and she tells herself that no, it will not bite. "No bite, no bite" she repeats to herself and shakes her head - I hope that she finds these exercises therapeutic. I wish I could be like Horton and cover my little baby puff with my big ears and protect her from all the scary things that might just completely destroy her. But they come up every day and not from where you think. I, for example, love the warm steam that comes from the grates on the sidewalks - this petrifies her. I can spend a happy hour inside a butterfly house, which she finds her version of personal hell. I guess we will work through her little phobias and I will do my best to let her feel afraid and work through it instead of constantly telling her that no, the train is not scary and the bugs are not scary either. I do have a hard time drawing this line with insects - because, get this, they do bite, and it hurts. A little tan-colored spider got Chris's finger numb for hours, and the ants sting for no reason at all, and even those sweet-looking lady-bugs, to my great surprize, bite really hard. Maybe Eva is picking up on my dislike of them?

On other hands, Eva's likes are just as bizarre as her dislikes. I was going to title this post "butt lodie", meaning her butt lotion, to which she is completely addicted. Every time I change her she asks for it and will keep asking until you smear the vaseline-like substance on her privates. Good thing that we are cheap and buy our generic butt lodie for $3 a tube, so we can indulge her as many times a day as she likes.

Another bizarre fact that I wanted to mention is that Eva draws lines and squiggles and calls everything she drew "kat" - I took a picture of one of her masterpieces for my memory, because it actually does look like a cat with multi-colored stripes and a red mouth.

If you have watched or read "Horton hears a Who" you will remember that he keeps finding out that the little puff has a whole civilization there, with researchers and libraries and churches, and finally one guy builds a megaphone big enough to communicate with the outside world. Eva is working on her megaphone. We are now up to 3-word sentences, usually involving her barking or whining commands such as "mommy open door" or "no walk, mommy carry". Sometimes, like Horton, I am the only one with big enough ears to understand her, but more and more other people can hear her too. Good going, little plum, mom is now looking forward to having real conversations, especially the ones that do not involve butt lodie.