ouchie quita

Dylan,

"Mariquita" is Spanish for ladybug. You shortened it to simply "quita", and it's your word for bugs of all kinds (and sometimes for tiny inanimate objects, like the broken tip of a dried leaf).

You were home with Mom the other day and playing in the pool when you picked up something small between the fingers of both hands and said "quita!, quita!, quita!".

Rather than a ladybug, what you had picked up and were now holding onto was a bee.

Mom, of course, is highly allergic to and very uncomfortable around bees. We'd been wondering if you might be allergic too, and we've tried to be especially careful.

So she rushed over and pulled your hands away from each other. Right about that time, thinking he was seeing the final curtains closing on his act, the bee decided to go out with a scream and sank his sharp end into your index finger in a brazen act of self-determination.

You cried, but not too terribly much. Your finger swelled, but again, not too much. And you were a little irritable the rest of the afternoon after soaking your hand in ice water awhile, but I think you took it pretty well.

Dad