the cats and the bees

last night i took my codeine cough syrup thinking it would certainly knock me out. ohhh nooooo, we went to bed at midnight and my little brain was buzzing. i had no less than five blogs posts written in my head. i was tempted to get up and write them but realized how late it was, how late it would be when i finished and how much i needed to rest.

when we went to bed the girl was still awake (she's always been the hard kid to get to sleep, even as a baby). i asked if she wanted to come to bed with us, she said she was too old for that. i checked on her 20 minutes later and she was lying down, rather than sitting on the end of her bed, but still not asleep. i told her to wake me if she needed me.

at 3am she crawled into bed with us; she'd had a nightmare. so i cradled her, petted her and tried to give her other things to think about other than the dream (i didn't ask about it, not wanting her to have to relive whatever it was). she started talking about the dream. bees. it was about the fastest bee in the world attacking her. since she got stung on the nose (her first sting ever) a few weeks ago, she's been inordinately petrified of bees. i tried to explain that bees aren't malicious, they don't sting you on purpose and aren't out to get you. she talked about it for awhile. we got up, went to the bathroom, got a drink of milk and went back to bed.

then her cat started meowing, looking for her. my cat was curled up behind my legs, the girl was in the middle of our bed and the hubs was snoring like a banshee. the girl signaled her cat--she has two signals--one is a sniffing noise the other is a psst noise. her cat responds to this no matter where she is in the house. so her cat (who's gained a bit of weight since being spayed this summer) comes charging in the bed and walks up the girl and rubs her face to the girl's face. it was as if to say, i have found my girl, i am marking her with my scent. she purred a minute then moved to the chair in my room to guard the bed. it was incredibly sweet and totally took the girl's mind off the bee.

i need to help the girl get beyond this bee fear. oddly enough this summer was also the first time the boy had been stung. twice. his reaction was completely opposite. there's a strip of clover in our yard and though i tell them both to wear shoes, they don't, and he's been stung twice. he doesn't cry, doesn't flinch, nothing; just casually walks up and says, i think i got stung. and he's not thought a thing about it since.

so--curious as to the other five posts roaming through my head? look for these in upcoming issues : )
1. how not to be a ho
2. things i think about my grandma (the one that's dead)
3. things i would talk about if i were in therapy

damn, i can't remember the other two.