Meet Buzz

 

One night, about a week or so ago, Jackson was really excited about something. He kept pointing and trying to get Ryan's attention. At first, Ryan thought Jackson was excited about a book, but when he picked it up, Jackson said, "No! THAT!"

There on a ground was a ladybug.

We have a ladybug problem sometimes, so we usually just kill them. We thought Jackson was upset about it, so Ryan killed it and threw it in the trashcan. Wrong move. Jackson was devastated. His poor bottom lip was sticking out, quivering. He had huge crocodile tears streaming down his cheeks. Poor guy, we felt really bad.

Ryan took the ladybug carcass out of the trash and let Jackson see it.

Jackson endearingly named the bug "Buzz". I think he was trying to say bug, but it sounded more like "Buzz". "Buzz!" he would say proudly, pointing to his new pet. "Mama, Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!" He was so excited, he grabbed the paper towel and ran towards me.

I hate bugs. Hate them. This was my worst nightmare. I scrambled away and yelped, "No! No, no, no, no!"

Jackson was completely offended. With one last effort to show me how cool Buzz was, he chucked the dead bug at me.

Yuck.

We finally threw the bug away after Jackson went to bed. "G'night, Buzz!" he exclaimed lovingly.

The next morning, Jackson was asking about Buzz. "Buzz? Buzz?"

Eventually, we found another one, and Ryan put it in a jar. It is now Jackson's pet. He proudly carries the jar around. This one's name is Buzz too. We keep collecting Buzzes and now there are 3 in there (although I think one may be dead). We looked up and saw that ladybugs eat aphids and sometimes leaves, but we are feeding our Buzz apple peels. He is still alive, so he must be okay. Maybe he is snacking on the dead Buzz.

Jackson loves his new pet so much, he even posed with it and said "Cheese!" for me.

 

 

The best thing about Buzz is that if he dies, there are always more Buzzes, and they look exactly the same!