"I Hate You!"

I knew the day would come.....just not at the tender age of just barely four!  Okay, the story.  It all started this morning when Peyton found a Caterpillar.  Well, a dead Caterpillar.  Now I am not one of those Moms that freak out with things like that.  I thought it looked cool, even though it was obviously DEAD.  But my little man was proud of his discovery and held on to it all day long!!  Even gave it a name......"Wormy".   Well Wormy made its appearance many times today.  Several times it made me jump because Peyton decides to sit Wormy next to me.  Ha!  Close to the end of the day...when Wormy pretty much made its way around my house, I asked Peyton if he could just throw Wormy over the balcony because at this point Wormy was starting to look kind of bad.  Peyton walked to the balcony and started talking to Wormy.  Now I couldn't hear exactly what he said but when Peyton threw the dead Caterpillar overboard and turned, I knew immediately I made a mistake.  He wasn't ready to give up his Wormy and he was quite upset.  He stomped off and..... yes.... said to me "I hate you Mommy!!"   It took a minute or two for that little statement to sink in.  Things were going through my mind like...where did he hear about hate?  It could have been from friends, school or even Sponge Bob for all I know, but boy, did that statement stop me in my tracks.  And even though I truly knew that my four year old son DID NOT hate me by any means, it was still hard to hear.  After it sunk in I went looking for him and found him under the table crying.  I mean crying with tears and snot.  I asked him what was wrong and he says...

"I hate you. Just go away!" 

"Why do you hate me?"

"Because you made me throw away Wormie." 

"Honey, Wormie is no longer alive and he is starting to look yucky.  It's time to let him go."

"No, I want to keep Wormie forever!." 

"Honey, it's not nice to tell your Mommy that you hate her.  Do you even know what hate means?"

"That I am mad at you!".  Well, I can accept that!  Ha!!

So next thing I knew,  I am on my hands and knees in the grass looking for a dead worm to calm my devastated son down.   After finally finding it (and boy was I glad that I did from fearing of squeeshing it), we put it in his bug house and he is still holding on to it.  I decided that after all this.....Wormie is picture worthy!  HA!  Boys with their bugs and dirty finger nails!  Gotta love them!!  Later his interest switched to a frog which I am pretty sure he had no problem letting go when it was time.  I don't understand what it is with that worm.  I guess I will never know!!  But what I do know is that I hope to never hear the words "I hate you!" for very long time.