Uli loves digging in the garden! It’s not because she shares my passion for growing things. It’s because she has a borderline obsession with worms and bugs lately.
Me: “Do you want to plant some flowers?”
Uli: “I digging for worms!” very proudly and enthusiastically.
She might as well not even heard me…
The strangest part is I kept asking. As if just changing the timing or tone would make the flowers more appealing. I gave her a corner of the garden all her own. And it’s looking like nothing will be planted there. Deeply troubled our two year old’s lack of interest in flowers, I mentioned this instance to her dad.
Me: “Flowers are merely there to bring bugs to her”
Jeff: “She’s just an explorer. She likes finding flowers. She’s like me and doesn’t have the patience to watch things grow.”
Me: “So, the flowers I bought are already old news. She’s on to new discoveries…”
The fact that my husband had to spell this out for me. Shows just how differently we see the world. I like to see the potential in things. Jeff and Uli see things for what they are at the time. If it’s not doing something exciting. Why bother? Let’s do something fun!
And then we did. I let go of my flower obsession. So, I could fully appreciate that “empty” patch of dirt in the garden.
“A CATTAPILLA!!”
“Oh sweetie, I think that’s just a… Oh wait. It is a CATERPILLAR!!! Should we put it in your bug jar!?”
“Yeah!”
The afternoon went on a lot like this. By the end of the day we had one caterpillar, three worms “a mommy, a daddy, an a baby worm”, and one ant in our jar. Now I can’t wait to see if the caterpillar turns into a moth. Uli’s super proud of her discovery! She keeps happily peeking in the jar. They even “slept” in her room last night.
I’m still learning how rewarding it is to listen my daughter. Exploring with her makes the world feel new.
Unexpectedly, that same afternoon…
… She walked over to the other side of the garden. And discovered a radish.
