She Was Born With a Gift

Here we are with more adventure, as promised in the post below, but this time a bit less creepy. A bit.

You see, this third-born of ours was born with a gift. Think "The Karate Kid" with no chopsticks. Beth has always been fascinated with bugs of any kind. Flying bugs. Crawling bugs. Cute bugs. Creepy bugs. Snakes. Lizards. Frogs. Anything in any of those animal families. It's just IN her. She loves them. And here's the gift...from little-bitty, this girl has been able to catch flies with her thumb and pointer finger. As a little 18-month old, as in the picture below, she would patiently watch them fly around, wait for them to go to the window, climb up on the back of the couch, and work hard to snag one. Then she'd hold it really close and study it. Most of the time they survived. This was the one area of her life that she had patience and an attention span beyond her age. She didn't care how long it took, but she always got it. I know, a fly is dirty and gross. But a girl's gotta pursue her passion. (And notice Brenna staying safely behind her little sister...) Beth will still occasionally catch a fly to feed to her frogs, but she's moved on for the most part. She's expanded the gift...

Now, she will catch just about anything. Frogs of course are a favorite, though not much of a challenge. The patience is more used up in locating the right creature. I thought nothing could surprise me with what was being caught, until a couple nights ago...

Beth came rushing into the house from the garage, straight into the bathroom, then rushed back out. I asked what she was getting. "Floss." Floss?? I knew better than to assume she was going to self-initiate flossing her teeth, so I followed her out to the garage to see what she was going to do with the floss. Here was the answer:

"I'm going to tie it around the frozen bee."

Apparently, Alex and Beth had the brilliant idea to freeze a bee, tie a piece of floss around it, then let it thaw to see if they could fly the bee around on a "leash". Oh, my. Now I know from growing up with brothers that it can be done with dragonflies. I've never shared that little tidbit with my own kids. But bees??

When I checked out the final product, I found that bee to have had no chance. That "leash" was cinched up around the bees waist good and tight. More like a tourniquet than a leash. And, surprise!, the bee never "thawed". But it was a good try. A funny twist...when Brad came home and I shared with him the animal adventure of the day, he didn't even miss a beat. He said, "Oh, they must have frozen the bee too quickly." HUH?! I didn't even ask for clarification. There are some things I prefer not to clutter my mind with.

But here's the bountiful supply of bees...makes for easy hunting.

Enough about bugs...how about some beauty?



Here are Brenna and Beth before the last choir concert of the year. They are looking more and more alike all the time. Two beautiful little ladies, for sure.