Fiona's adventure with flowers.

Today on our way home from daycare I stopped at our local hardware store with the girls. I was looking for a little rake for Fiona because she loves to rake leaves but my rake is much too big for her. Of course once we were in there we also picked up some Patchmaster (best product name ever!). And Fiona asks if she can wear my "garden mittens" every day, so once we saw some little Dora gardening gloves we had to get those. Then she spotted the seeds and I thought it would be fun for her to plant some and watch them grow. Then we needed a pot to put them in. And soil for the pot. And sidewalk chalk. Anyway, loaded down with outdoor goodies we headed home.

Adele was tired so she took a nap and Fiona and I got to work with planting some flowers.

She told me on the way home that they were her flowers and she would do it herself, and she wasn't kidding. First I told her we had to put some stones in the bottom of the pot to help the water drain. She hurled a little stone in there like it was a meteor and I asked her to put them in gently so the pot didn't break. The second one was hurled in. Reminded her to be gentle. The third. "Fiona, I said GENTLY. The pot could break if you throw them in like that". Hurled the fourth. (Gritting my teeth) "Fionaaaaaaaa! GENTLY!!!" Fiona: "oh, gently? Ok Mummy". Places the fifth stone in more delicately than I could have believed. So the first four were some kind of test of my patience. Toddlers.

After that she had to scoop some of the potting soil into the pot. Getting over enthusiastic she dug up a big scoop from one of the bare patches in the lawn (hence the patchmaster) while I was trying to get the bag of soil open, but I convinced her the special soil was better for flowers. If grass and weeds won't grow on the patches, what chance would flowers have?

I told her to be careful because the flower soil was special (i.e. not free!) but who am I kidding? A significant portion was spread merrily across the path by the time she was done.

Then came the seeds. She was really excited to add the seeds because it brought her one step closer to flower planting nirvana... watering!

Then finally the dirt was there, the seeds were in, some more dirt was in... it was time to water!! Fiona loves watering my plants, and was really excited to water her very own flower pot.

Then what do you do after a long afternoon's work? Eat two bananas of course!

I really hope these seeds grow into something, it would be so fun for Fiona to watch them grow. Historically my yard has been a place where green things go to die, but maybe Fiona's excitement about watering will help these little things survive. Or send them to a soggy grave. Either way, we had fun trying!