A few weeks ago, my youngest and I planted some tomato, pepper, broccoli and cabbage seeds. I thought he would help for a little while but then his five year old mind would wander and he’d be off on a dinosaur adventure somewhere. Have I mentioned that he loves dinosaurs? And by loves, I mean LOVES them and is totally obsessed with them!
On a side note, last summer he and I spent a few weeks spending ALL day, EVERY day on a dinosaur unit (have I mentioned that we homeschool?). Well, I learned more about those prehistoric creatures than I ever wanted to. We colored pictures, read books, created a huge time line on the wall, made fossils, built a diorama, and took fields trips. And the day after our dinosaur museum finale (complete with neighbors coming by for a tour), he asked me when we could do it all over again. Yep, he’s slightly obsessed.
But I digress. Back to planting seeds! To my surprise, he helped me plant the entire time. And by helped, I mean I handed them the seeds and he put them in the little peat pellets all by himself. We had a good time and I was really pleased with how gentle and caring he was when planting.
Fast forward to this weekend. Our little plants were growing really well. I’ve chosen to skip the grow lights this year and just placed them in front of south facing windows. I have the tomatoes and peppers in a little greenhouse kind of thing that is covered with plastic to hold the heat in. It is in front of the windows in the room with the woodstove. They are staying nice and warm and sunny and are loving it. Because the broccoli and cabbage need cooler temperatures, I put them in a different room. Our living room always stays a little colder so I set them uncovered on a ledge in front of the window. They seem to be thriving as well.
Well, this weekend the kids decided to build a fort in the living room and then spend the night in it. The next morning as we are cleaning it all up, Josh says, “What happened to your seedlings?” I look over and about half of my broccoli seedlings are laying limp and broken. My heart dropped! My seedlings! So I say (maybe somewhat dramatically – hey, it’s who I am!), “Oh no! I don’t know what happened!” So I scan the room of children, perhaps giving them the stink eye, and ask sternly, “Does anyone know what happened?”
Well, at that, my poor little baby just broke out in tears. And when I say “broke out in tears” that is exactly what I mean. He went from fine to heart-wrenching sobbing in a second flat. He then wailed, “I did it! I hit them with my pillow! But it was an accident!”
Well, how can you be mad at that? I mean, in the past when he breaks something he’s all “yep, I broke it” and moves on. But I think that because he knew how hard we had worked on it together, it made a bigger impression on him. So I took my sad little boy in my arms and explained that it was okay, accidents happen and we can plant more seeds. A big hug and a few kisses later and he calmed down.
Seedlings come and seedlings go but a mother’s love is always there, right?