Dead As A Pepper

I must first explain the summer we had last year with Alexa and bugs. She had an intense fear of bugs. She would run screaming around the yard, and it came to the point that she was afraid to go outside alone all together. After much coaxing and telling her she was safe, she stepped on a bee and got stung in the foot, and an ant was crawling all over her one night in her bed, and she freaked out. (This led to a couple week battle of her not even wanting to go to bed at all, and one night stood next to her dresser and fell asleep standing up). And yes, she got her fear of bugs from me. Sorry.

So, I was hopeful this spring and summer would be different. So far it's been great. She's braver than last year, in fact she will go right up to a bug and "observe" it. She still ran away from a bee the other day, but that was the right decision.

Right now, we have an influx of ants in the house. She has confidently observed them, and told them the other day "welcome to our home ants!" I found myself proud of her acceptance of the creatures, however I had no choice but to step on them. She has now started stepping on them herself. Yesterday, she stepped on one and then bent down to look at the results. "It's dead mommy. Yup, it's as dead as a pepper. No, I mean it's as dead as a camera."

I have been trying to figure out what all of that means. I can figure out the camera thing - the batteries are always dying, so she's heard me say, "the camera is dead". But dead as a pepper? I had to laugh to myself, and take the following pictures. After she stepped on the ant, she went and gathered up a bunch of toilet paper and covered the corpse up. Not sure what that is all about either. All I know is that somehow this indicates that she is SO me.