Little Boys and Dandelions

The best thing about dandelions is that little boys don't know they're "weeds" and they pick them to bring to their moms.

My little one was late coming home from the bus the other day and I was getting upset, worrying that something had happened to him. I looked out the window one last time to see if I could see him and there he was, frolicking up the driveway with something suspiciously yellow in his hands.

When he walked in the door, he came up to me with a huge grin on his face and his hands behind his back. He said, "Close your eyes, mom." So I closed my eyes and waited patiently to hear him say, "Okay, open them!" When I opened my eyes, he was holding a fistfull of bright yellow dandelions. His small, eight-year-old fist could barely grip all of the flowers he had brought to me. He was so proud of himself for bring all of the blooms all the way up our driveway without damaging them, and was so pleased that I was so pleased. We put them in a cup with some water and watched them for a while.

They've since died--we all know how long dandelion blooms last, even when they stay in the ground--but he keeps bringing fresh ones to replace them.