Molly and other such tales

About a week ago we added a new member to our family. Her name was Molly. No... Audra did not go into labor (our new baby is not due until August 15). Molly was our new pet. Elsa found Molly in desperate need of rescuing. She fell immediately in love with her. Elsa actually took the responsibility of naming her too. Elsa gently carried her around saying things like "Molly is the bestest pet every!" and "I love Molly sooooo much". Molly made a brief escape after about 15 minutes of being part of our family. There were some tears and a lot of searching. There were statements like "We will never find Molly now" that are kind of reminiscent of Swiper the fox. Finally Molly was located and put back in her home to the relief of all.
Now you may be wondering "is Molly a cat?". No, Audra would kill us if we got a cat. Is Molly a dog??? No, Molly is way more glamorous than a dog. Molly is a moth.
A strange thing happened about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Elsa started filling buckets with sand and dirt. Then she would go and catch ants. She started putting the ants in the buckets and carrying them around EVERYWHERE! She wanted to take the ants inside the house. She wanted the ants to ride in the bike trailer. She would have slept with the ants if we would have allowed it. She wanted to feed the ants EVERYTHING! We had to keep all the fruit and vegetables out of Elsa's reach. Elsa started saying things like "I love my ants...." and so on.
Then came Molly. Prior to the newly found love for ants, Elsa didn't care much for moths. Well, she really didn't care for the freaky dusty brown moths anyway. That is just the type of moth that Molly was. For some strange reason, Elsa's new found desire to be a pet owner overcame her dislike of moths. As a side note...she has been asking us if she can buy a butterfly net too. Anyway, I am not sure how this new intense interest in pets came about. All I know is Elsa is convinced that bugs can be pets.
There is a happy end to Molly's story. After Elsa selected a location she deemed safe enough for Molly to sleep in (a kitchen cupboard that has pots and pans in it), Elsa went to bed. I devised a plan to free Molly. Well, the plan was actually to free me of Molly. The next day Elsa was leaving for Oregon. Now we had established that Elsa's "pets" could not travel in any family vehicle, including the bike trailer. In the morning I explained to Elsa that she would be gone for a long time and we needed to let Molly go back to her family so she could be taken care of while Elsa was away. That resonated with Elsa, so she freed Molly.
I have started to feel bad for Elsa. Maybe this obsession with "pets" is really some kind of reaction to the fact that she will be a big sister that has to help take care of a new baby. We have been talking to her quite a bit about the big cut that mom will have in order for the new baby to be born. That will in turn require Elsa to help mom a lot. For whatever reason, Elsa feels a great compulsion to have pets that she takes care of. I guess I should find solace in the fact that someone I know who is very intelligent had something like 7 imaginary friends, one of which was named donut, and she turned out just fine. That seems similar to me anyway.
I never thought I would be spending extensive amounts of time on the Humane Society's website reading about small animals that I might not be allergic to. Just so you know, the Humane Society doesn't recommend reptiles for pregnant women or children under the age of 5. Maybe a guinea pig will fit the bill for us.
Here are some more teaser photos of our trip to Rushmore.

And here is what our kitchen looked like one year ago. This is the flooring being installed. If only it would stop raining so I could plant my garden, put up my fence, and paint my garage, along with fixing the last sprinkler line.....