Groundhog day

Today is Lucy's half-birthday. Growing up we always celebrated half-birthdays, singing half the "happy birthday" song and sometimes having half a cake and a small present. It's a fun tradition. So hap- bir- Lucy!

Lucy and I had quite an exciting afternoon, prompted by what I thought was a minor event. As we were saying goodbye to our babysitter, I noticed a small animal in the bushes at the edge of our lawn. It was gray and the size of a very large, plump cat, wide with a flat tail, and was munching on the grass. We only saw it from behind and I had no idea what it was but thought it was interesting, so we opened the door to get a better look. Apparently this totally freaked Lucy out. She started crying and told me to shut the door because she was scared. I guess she's at the age where kids start developing fears. Thus began about 45 minutes of talking about the "little animal" outside, with Lucy periodically saying, "I was so scared!" We went upstairs to look on my computer to see what it could be, since I thought that might help Lucy feel better. After some fruitless searching on the web, we called my grandma, who helped us figure out what it was (go Grandma!)- a groundhog!

Here's an excerpt from one of our many conversations upstairs about the groundhog- we were on the computer anyway so I just typed it out. It took us 15-20 minutes to make it back downstairs.

Lucy- It’s scary downstairs.

Me- Why?

Lucy- Because the groundhog come and he went away. So we not going to go downstairs.

Me- But you’re safe- he’s outside and he’s scared of you. Can we go downstairs for dinner?

Lucy- No. It’s scary downstairs. You know how animals come to our house sometimes, mommy?

Me- Yeah, they come sometimes.

Lucy- Why little animals come to our house and meet them? [I think she meant, "meet us"]

Me- Because they want to eat grass and we have grass in our front yard.

Lucy- Maybe he should run away and go to another house to eat some grass. I want him to go to another house and eat some grass. Because we are here.

Later she told Matt about it on the phone:

Lucy- After we say bye to Meg, we saw a little animal outside eating grass. So Mama called Grandma to call what it is. And grandma thought it was a groundhog. In a little bit, I talk to Grandma, and..[this was said to me] you tell him the other things. [back to Matt] When Mama opened the door I was really scared.