We've developed this habit that we'll get to the bus stop, say hi to all the other parents and younger siblings, and then wander another block up so he can see the flowers. He sticks his face right in there and snuffles them like a puppy, and touches all the petals, and sometimes picks one or two. And then we wander back and he picks up interesting rocks to throw at the shrubs or to line up in neat little lines while we wait.
This time, while we were there, he found an acorn. A big fat one (not the one above, but one like it!), more than an inch long. He loved it, and carried it around while we waited. I've never seen acorns so big--Florida acorns are all tiny and hard and round, and even the bigger ones are sort of lean and narrow, but this one was like the iconic acorn, fat and stout and big. I bet it had lots of acorn meat in it.
A1 came and he sort of hugs everyone and then sees what the baby is carrying in his sticky little hands. He found the acorn and asked what it was, which was startling; I forget that five isn't that much older than two, really, and things are still new to him, too. I explained how it's a tree-seed, that there was a little baby sprout in there that would come out and grow into a little tree.
A1 declared "We need to plant this."
So we went home, and as soon as he'd put up his school stuff and gotten a drink of water, we found some sturdy sticks and dug a hole in the ground, and planted it. He watered it from his own prized Avengers cup--and he's not one for sharing, so that's even bigger a deal than you know--and covered it back up.
Every say since then, he comes home from school and goes to that corner of the yard behind the basketball hoop to check on it, and waters it with his own water if it looks dry.
I think if ever an acorn had a chance to be a tree, it's that one.
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