Lately B. has taken to plopping down in the grass and gently touching the white clover blossoms which are everywhere right now. That sounds so lovely, and looks pretty sweet, too. The thing is, his interest in objects usual progresses through three stages:
- lightly touching with the fingertips (a couple of days)
- putting object gingerly up to his lips (one day)
- consuming whatever the object is as quickly as possible (indefinitely)
Well, we are only in stage two with the clover at this point, but there is a certain drawback which comes along with the whole exciting Texan lifestyle: Fire Ants.
Due to a very brief clover appreciation session today, both B. and I have fire ant bites on various body parts. He is doing much better than I am at ignoring them. I am a big baby about fire ant bites. I alternate between looking at them, scratching them, asking my husband to look at them, and so on. After one dose of Benadryl, B. doesn't seem to notice them at all.
I am ready to start a campaign to bring in some very tough breed of aardvark, but of course this might throw off the whole delicate armadillo/fire ant/flying cockroach ecosystem that we enjoy here in southeast Texas. I really do try to hide it, but sometimes my ambivalence about the Lone Star State comes sneaking out.
But seriously, I'm wondering if a social story about fire ants would help. My three-year-old recognizes their ant hills and steers clear, but B. and G. still see them as an inviting pile of sand. So far I just yell out "Ants, bites, boo-boo" and things like that, and sometimes that does startle them into changing direction.
1 comment:
Depends how far along their comprehension is. If a story is just a bunch of pictures... it will be interesting but won't explain things.
I started simple when mine were small... they both knew what "No" was before they were 2.
No was for everything from going on the road to touching the stove to bouncing on the sofa etc...
Had to start somewhere.
S.
Post a Comment