The Lily Ann Diaries

Last Sunday Katrina and her good neighbor friend, Kylee, pictured above with Katrina,
found a worm in the sandbox.
You would have thought they found a stash of dress-up jewels for how excited they were!
Katrina came running inside, asking for a container to make a home for her new pet, Lily Ann.
I obliged, not intending that Lily Ann would ever dwell within our home.
Katrina and Kylee worked very hard preparing the Hillshire Farms container as Lily Ann's new residence.
I overheard them conversing.
Katrina: I am going to keep Lily Ann forever.
Kylee: Well, you cannot keep her forever. But maybe at least until you die.
Katrina came running inside to ask if she could keep Lily Ann until she herself died.
Again, I obliged, reminding her that the likelihood was greater that Lily Ann would die before she would.
The girls continued to chat.
Kylee: What did your mom say? Can you keep her until you die?
Katrina, very proud to have a mom as kind as me: Yup. I get to keep her until I die.
Kylee: Wow. I cannot believe you get to keep Lily Ann until you are 6.
Katrina, in a very exasperated tone: Kylee, I'm not going to die when I am 6.
Later that evening as the kids in the neighborhood were all going inside for the
night Katrina brought Lily Ann to the patio door
where your's truly stopped her in her tracks.
Me: Katrina, Lily Ann will have to sleep outside tonight.
Katrina: Outside? She is my best pet. She can't sleep outside.
Katrina began to cry, rather hard.
I was not really in the mood to pick this as a fight, so I reconsidered.
Me: OK. Guess what? I thought it over and I have decided that she can sleep inside on the
kitchen counter but we cannot open her house inside of our house because there will be sand everywhere.
Katrina agreed to the stipulations and Lily Ann spent the night as part of our fall centerpiece on our kitchen peninsula.
In the morning what was the absolute first thing Katrina asked to do?
Check on Lily Ann.
I sent her out to the deck and after a bit of digging in the container,
she found her,
alive and well.
Katrina came inside.
Katrina: Mom, can I keep Lily Ann till I die?
Me: Yes.
Katrina: Wow. I am so happy that I can keep Lily Ann until I am 18.
Me: Katrina, our prayer for you is that you live to be older than 18.
It went on like this for days.
Much to the surprise of Pancho and myself, Lily Ann survived the
apparently traumatic move from the luxurious sandbox to Hillshire Farms.
Much to the surprise of both of us, Lily Ann survived all of the
handling and manipulating by both Katrina and Kylee.
Samuel even got to touch her one afternoon.
Touch being the key word.
Then, a very sad thing happened on Friday.
Right after we took these pictures of the girls with Lily Ann, in fact.
The girls were playing with Lily Ann and she was crawling around on
Katrina's painted pumpkin (Elizabeth!), having a gay-old time.
The girls actually thought Lily Ann was giving birth and were
beyond excited to witness a worm giving birth
(and may be able to be recorded as the first people in history to witness a worm's birth, I am thinking).
And then it was time for dinner and Katrina put Lily Ann back in Hillshire Farms.
After dinner we went outside with Grandpa and Nana who had been our dinner guests.
Katrina wanted to play with Lily Ann.
I grabbed Hillshire Farms and headed outside.
Katrina began sifting through the sand and leaves and could not find Lily Ann.
I sifted through as well and could not find Lily Ann.
Katrina started crying.
No.
Sobbing.
No.
Bawling.
She was beside herself.
Nana began digging in the general vicinity,
not being able to handle her granddaughter's sobs much longer.
It was a traumatic moment for our family.
Would Katrina recover from this devastation?
We were able to get her calmed down a bit and Grandpa and Nana told her
they would look for more worms for her at their house.
Katrina consoled herself with this thought:
Maybe Lily Ann wanted to find her husband so that she could be with him and their new baby.
The rest of the evening she was quite tranquil, reminiscing about the good ol' days with Lily Ann.
Saturday morning rolled around and no one brought up Lily Ann.
Finally in the afternoon I decided it was time to empty Hillshire Farms and wash out the residence.
Katrina followed me to the sandbox and insisted on checking once more for Lily Ann.
I went back inside, telling her over my shoulder that I really doubted she would find her.
Katrina: MOM! MOM! MOM! I found Lily Ann's baby!
Me: What? Her baby?
Katrina came running onto the deck, stopping at the patio door, waiting for
permission to enter with this new worm in her hands.
I granted her permission and she showed me this tiny, little, bloody worm.
It was Lily Ann's baby.
Well, I am not sure it was, but boy I am still wondering.
We found a different container, this time an empty parmesan cheese tub,
poked holes in the top and put Alea (fitting name for a daughter a Lily Ann, right?) inside.
Poor Alea did not last very long.
She was obviously not ready for the trauma from the sandbox to the Frigo tub.
This morning when we came downstairs, Alea was dead, gone.
As Katrina ate her Cheerios they became quite salty as she filled her bowl with tears.
She has the most tender heart ever.
So, now we are pursusing a worm family.
Our logic is this:
If we find an entire family, they will not be so interested in escaping because they are all together.
Makes sense, right?