"Flower"

Every Monday night, we have Family Night in our house. It's usually completely chaotic and ends in something being spilled, someone needing a band-aid, and everyone giggling...at least a little bit. We try to make sure everyone has a role to play in the night, whether it be saying an opening prayer, sharing acts of kindness they'd seen over the week, being in charge of snack or the activity, or writing down all of the week's events. Usually, I'd say it goes over Liam's head, but he seems really pleased with the fact that we're all together working on something.

On Saturday, Aiden went with his friend to an outdoor event teaching about nature preservation and the wetlands. In addition to a tick he brought home in his hair (gotta' love a free souvenir, right?), he also brought home a tree seedling. He can tell you all about the thing, but I can't remember for the life of me. With my luck, it's a sequoia tree and will take over the yard in just a few months or something. We decided that we would plant the tree tonight as a family.

We collected the tools we'd need, reigned everyone in to circle around the chosen spot, and started digging. Everyone got a turn to dig. CJ spent most of his time throwing things at people or turning hoses on, but everyone else stayed pretty much on task. Liam stood by and watched patiently and then was delighted when it was his turn to throw a few shovel's full of soil into the hole with the seedling. Aiden was pretty pleased that he got to throw some dog poop in as fertilizer. It was Molly's poop, so we figured that was her little way of contributing to our tree.

On the way back in, Liam took particular interest in the tulips and daffodils which are in full bloom along the front walkway. He'd touch each one, and then jump back a little at the way it felt on his little hands. Then, he'd reach over and touch it again with a bit more confidence. Each time, he'd look to me to tell him what it was. Since he pulled the tubing out of both earmolds, he was stuck depending on sign language. I showed him the sign for flower, and he was so proud. Within seconds he'd figured it out. He would carefully stroke each flower and then look up at me with a huge grin while he signed "flower".

It's funny how such a simple thing can have such a profound impact, isn't it? As happy as he was to touch and feel the flowers, I think he got more joy from the fact that he could communicate it to me. The pride in his eyes as he "told" me what each one was was certainly worth the time we'd spent stopping to smell...er, I mean touch, the flowers.