My son thinks I'm a cold-blooded killer

We had a minor incident where my son saw me clap-kill a fruit fly in our kitchen and since that clearly murderous moment, he's been eyeing my behaviors around animals very closely. I've been on my best behavior and have only been killing fruit flies after he goes to bed or is at preschool. As far as he's concerned, it was just an isolated incident for which I have already profusely apologized.

Yesterday, I was helping his sister wash her hands in the sink and Little Buddha (I'm just going to refer to him as that because it's so much more appropriate than his name at the moment) was chatting with me about something - probably Mutant Mania or something. I saw a little gnat lazily wander by the stream of water flowing in the sink and I couldn't help myself. I splashed the gnat and helped the water wash the poor guy down the sink. Was it a heartless act? Probably but I really thought Little Buddha's attention was somewhere else.

Nope.

Little Buddha: Why did you just do that, Mama?!? Why did you get that bug wet? It wasn't hurting anyone! It can't swim in the sink. It's not supposed to be in the sink!

Me: What? Was that a bug? [Incredulous look] I thought that was just a black spot on the sink. I didn't know it was a little bug.

Foolishly I thought I could back out of this with a little fib. Nope.

LB: It wasn't a black spot though, it was a fly. Why did you do that?

Me: I'm sorry, Little Buddha. I didn't realize it was a fly. I won't ever get a fly wet again.

We carry on and unfortunately, my lax attitude towards cleaning is about to bite me in the rumpa. I have been really busy working every day from the minute I drop the kids off at preschool until the second I pick them up. I've been focused on everything else and have totally let housekeeping, laundry, grocery shopping, you name it, slide past me.

There just so happens to be a dead fly in the middle of the hardwood floor of the living room. I swear, it wasn't there earlier! He literally showed up dead on my doorstep. We both discover the carcass at the same time. Little Buddha happens upon the quite large and very much dead house fly and turns on me with so much hurt in his eyes.

LB: YOU KILLED ANOTHER FLY! How could you do this? You made a promise!

Me: Little Buddha! I swear, I did NOT kill that fly. He died completely on his own. He died a perfectly natural death. It was just his time to die.

LB: How did he die then? [indignant stance] I don't see flies just dropping out of the air. Did you do this? [He claps his hands loudly in my usual fruit fly killing manner]

Me: No, I did not clap him.

LB: What about this? [He slaps his palm onto the hardwood floor]. Did you squish him?!

Me: No, I swear. I did not kill that fly.

At this point, Little Buddha is so adamant in his demonstrations of possible fly-killing methods that I'm trying really hard not to laugh. His shrill little boy voice and hand slapping is just too comical. You know when the corners of your mouth are dying to go into FULL SMILE and you have to fight it? It totally makes you look like you're lying. My mouth was betraying my true innocence.

Me: OK, Little Buddha. You were right. I didn't think that fly was a black spot on the sink. I did wash him down and kill him because I thought you weren't watching. I'm sorry for that but I swear - I had nothing to do with this fly's death. I would admit it if I did.

LB: OK. I guess so.

Me: Can we put the fly in the garden? He deserves a burial.

LB: That way he knows where he is?

Me: What do you mean by that? You mean, so he is where he should be?

LB: Yeah. [He cradles the dead fly in his hands, walks it outside and throws it into the garden.] There little fly. Now you know where you are.

These flies need to a) stop being a nuisance and b) stop spontaneously dying on my doorstep and making me look bad.

UPDATED: Calvin's first school picture

When Calvin's forskola said that they were having picture day on Wednesday, I remembered my own first school picture -- me with a red tear-stained face in front of a backdrop of evergreen trees.  I honest-to-goodness remember the day (probably because I cried and because I was 5), but I remember what had happened.  We were all standing in line, waiting to take our pictures and the girl ahead of me started to freak out because of the bright flash-pop from the camera whenever a picture was taken.  She started crying and even though I wasn't scared, it was infectious and I couldn't stop crying myself.  I wasn't scared of the camera but it was just enough that other kids were frightened so I figured they knew something I didn't.

Fortunately when I dropped Calvin off for his picture, I noticed that they had the kids playing in a room separate from the professional photographer.  The kids would play and then would go in, one at a time, to get their pictures taken.  They were standing, posing, laughing and having fun.  I left Calvin crossing my fingers that he wouldn't be too nervous.

We just received the pictures in the mail today and while he is not smiling, he is a super cutey-pie-pants with no tears!  No crying! It was great.  He looks a little bored, if not in the middle of doing something with his hands.  Maybe the itsy-bitsy spider?  I'll never know.  Best of all, we received these pictures for free/our taxes already paid for them and instructions on how to pay for them.  Perfect!

UPDATE:

So above I mentioned that the pictures were free.  I mean, who gives the product to the customer and then says, "Here's what you owe us and we know that you'll pay it."  Well, the Swedish school picture people do.  I mean, my friends at Lifetouch, is that a model that would work in the US?  Usually you have to put in your order and pay upfront, then the product is delivered.  Right?  Or at least, they send a watermarked proof copy and you can choose to buy based on the quality of the picture.  I guess Swedish parents don't really like this model since you have to return the pictures you don't want to buy so you feel obligated to buy them all -- it's just easier that way.  Fortunately for us, we love the pictures and were going to buy them anyway. (I'm pretty sure the grandparents wouldn't want us returning these pictures!) Bankgiro is processed and paid for!

Practicing our animal noises

Whenever Calvin sees an animal, he doesn't say, "sheep" or "cow," instead he either baaaas or moooos at them.  He has associated animals with their noises for a while now (3 months?) but it is always fun to have him "perform" for our friends and family when we Skype.  We try hard to add new animals to the mix and keep it interesting.  Sometimes we play the animal noise game too often and when you ask him a question, he just gives you this look like, "Uhh, Mom, I've done that one already."  So it has been on our to-do list to get a video to capture his animal noises.  Most of our video attempts have resulted in distractions and feature him saying one or two animals before running off to play with his ball. I lucked out yesterday when I picked him up from dagis and he was in a chatty mood.  He even added two new animals that he has never done before -- horse and bird.  We are always amazed at the amount of information he absorbs.

So, here is a little video of Calvin and his animal noises (says his uber proud momma):