Daddy said, "She is NOT Dr. Doolittle."

Today Charlotte:

1. got her first ever bee sting.

2.  's pet snail Ben died.

3.  got scratched by the cat.

She's doing okay with the death of Ben.  She goes between crying about it, to pragmatically discussing the life cycle, to asking when she can get a new snail.  And then cries because he's dead and she doesn't want anything to die.  Like, can we get a new snail tonight?  Or do we have to wait until tomorrow?  Typical four year old stuff.

Water Bees

Charlotte decided that "Water Bees" is a more appropriate name for brine shrimp than "Sea Monkeys."  Sometimes she remembers that she calls them water bees, sometimes she calls them sea monkeys.  We started them in the beginning of January, and they have done quite well.  We had a large initial batch; they are supposed to keep reproducing themselves after you hatch the packet of eggs.  It seems to be working - though we just had a massive die-off as the first bunch, hatched from eggs, all, ahem, "aged out of the system."  However, we can see some tiny ones growing, which is exciting.  The circle of life!  It moves us all!

When we had, say, 20 big sea monkeys swimming around, Charlotte didn't really bother naming them.  Sometimes she'd say, "That one is Long Taila, and that one is Big Taila," but it wasn't a big deal.  Now that there are two big ones left, one medium one, and a few tiny ones, she is constantly telling me their names.  Here are their names, in order of size (and presumably age):

Bigga
Fatta
Plubber
Smalla
Smallera
Charlotte

QOTD: Charlotte, Cat Scientist

C:  Mom!  I made a discovery about [our cat] Virgil!

M:  Oh?  What kind of discovery?

C:  Look, his tooth sticks out of his mouth. You can see it.  Actually, two.  I think he's a vampire.