Day #30: How Max Fell in Love with Flowers
Right after school closed but before the world completely shut down, I took the kids on a road trip to see the daffodils. About an hour or so north of us is a big agricultural area where they grow all kinds of things but one tradition the flower growers have is to do a tulip festival in the spring. It was too early for tulips at that time but the daffodils come first so we drove up there to see them. It was a weekday and most of the world was still in school at that point so we didn't have any trouble finding a place where we could walk through the fields and still be far enough away from everyone to be following the rules.
James, of course, was enamored by the mud. I'm not sure how much he even knew the flowers were there. Part of the joy of the tulip festival is kind of like the joy of the pumpkin patch...even the most manicured easiest to walk through flower fields are gonna have plenty of mud. James was in mud heaven. We drove home with him in the booster seat with no pants on because Mama of course forgot that you need extra pants. We do this most years...why do I forget this?
Max tolerated the mud for awhile but was pretty over it pretty quickly, needing to be carried over the muddier parts. Max has a strong attachment to his shoes, I think that was part of it. But he was completely fascinated by the flowers. I love daffodils. They lack the drama of tulip fields, where there can be rows of different colors, but that beautiful bright yellow with the wide open blossoms...there's something about a daffodil. Max immediately found a word for flowers "fuh-vah!" and wanted to point out every single one.
Toddlers have zero attention span so I wasn't expecting his flower fascination to last, but not long after our trip to the daffodils I took him for a walk in the park, just him because we were on our way home from the pediatrician and the last of his baby shots (a bittersweet moment if ever there was one.) It isn't often that we get to go walking just us these days so we got to go Max speed and he got to do his thing, which meant every few steps he got to point out the flowers...little daisies and dandelions and stuff, signs that spring is coming. Not long after, I picked up a bouquet of fresh daffodils to put on the dining room table, figuring if we were going to be trapped inside this much we ought to have some. Waking up every morning and having there be fresh flowers at breakfast?! It was Max heaven. He was so sad the day the daffodils went to daffodil heaven. There are tulips now, and they aren't long for this world either.
Fast forward to today. Not only is all of "inside" (James is constantly asking to go to "an inside place") closed, but so is a lot of outside. We had to drop off something on a friend's porch, so we were out and in search of a trail or a something. Our first choice was closed, even though the city's website has promised parks remain open with playgrounds and bathrooms and stuff closed. So I drove the kids to a little park that is primarily famous for its rhodedendrons. I knew they wouldn't be in bloom but I thought if the park were open we could probably find some different kinds of flowers and go on a flower walk.
Letting the kids out in the park was like releasing caged animals. They didn't even go for the roped off playground...I can at least explain to James that we have to stay off those but I was expecting to have to redirect Max. I didn't. A big open field with daisies growing in it? He was in heaven. They found a little side trail into "the woods"...a tiny tree covered fort of an area and James got to climb a tree and they got to pick up sticks. And the cherry blossoms were in bloom! Walking under those flowered trees and hearing Max giggle...it was amazing.
I didn't know until this started how much my success as a mom was based on taking the kids on adventures. Bored? Let's go on a road trip and find a new library! See a trail we've not been on? Let's go for a walk! Need a change in routine? We can find a new park! My facebook memory today was from 2 years ago, a ferry road trip we took. For my kids who are used to this kind of life being confined to our yard and our neighborhood is hard. Are we grateful for our neighborhood and big yard? Absolutely. Does James whine and fuss when we do the same thing every day? Yep.
Daddy, meanwhile, took the day off work (did they laugh at you, I asked him, and ask where you were going?) and walked the length of the abandoned railroad tracks, about 6 miles, to clear his head. It is a walk just too long to do with kiddos so he did it on his own. And we all feel about a thousand percent better after our little adventures. It doesn't take much.
I've been thinking a lot about what I want James to remember about this time. He's an anxious kid generally but he's been handling this well....I think it's because while he is aware people are getting sick we are trying to keep the heavy stuff away from him...he doesn't know about the death toll or anything like that. I want him to remember that we pitched tents in the living room and read books, that we had movie morning, that we painted with shaving cream and blew bubbles outside and ran through the woods all day and played in the dirt.
What do I want to remember, though? I want to remember how strong Grandpa has been. I want to remember takeout date nights at our dining room table with the last of the root beer store root beer. And I want to remember that pandemic 2020 was when Max fell in love with flowers. Because the nice thing about flowers in the spring? Wherever you go...wherever you walk...you find them.
Today I'm grateful for flowers, Max, naps, walks, takeout, my husband, allergy medicine, this blog, my dad, clean sheets, good books, all of our health, and another day on this funky beautiful blue planet.
James, of course, was enamored by the mud. I'm not sure how much he even knew the flowers were there. Part of the joy of the tulip festival is kind of like the joy of the pumpkin patch...even the most manicured easiest to walk through flower fields are gonna have plenty of mud. James was in mud heaven. We drove home with him in the booster seat with no pants on because Mama of course forgot that you need extra pants. We do this most years...why do I forget this?
Max tolerated the mud for awhile but was pretty over it pretty quickly, needing to be carried over the muddier parts. Max has a strong attachment to his shoes, I think that was part of it. But he was completely fascinated by the flowers. I love daffodils. They lack the drama of tulip fields, where there can be rows of different colors, but that beautiful bright yellow with the wide open blossoms...there's something about a daffodil. Max immediately found a word for flowers "fuh-vah!" and wanted to point out every single one.
Toddlers have zero attention span so I wasn't expecting his flower fascination to last, but not long after our trip to the daffodils I took him for a walk in the park, just him because we were on our way home from the pediatrician and the last of his baby shots (a bittersweet moment if ever there was one.) It isn't often that we get to go walking just us these days so we got to go Max speed and he got to do his thing, which meant every few steps he got to point out the flowers...little daisies and dandelions and stuff, signs that spring is coming. Not long after, I picked up a bouquet of fresh daffodils to put on the dining room table, figuring if we were going to be trapped inside this much we ought to have some. Waking up every morning and having there be fresh flowers at breakfast?! It was Max heaven. He was so sad the day the daffodils went to daffodil heaven. There are tulips now, and they aren't long for this world either.
Fast forward to today. Not only is all of "inside" (James is constantly asking to go to "an inside place") closed, but so is a lot of outside. We had to drop off something on a friend's porch, so we were out and in search of a trail or a something. Our first choice was closed, even though the city's website has promised parks remain open with playgrounds and bathrooms and stuff closed. So I drove the kids to a little park that is primarily famous for its rhodedendrons. I knew they wouldn't be in bloom but I thought if the park were open we could probably find some different kinds of flowers and go on a flower walk.
Letting the kids out in the park was like releasing caged animals. They didn't even go for the roped off playground...I can at least explain to James that we have to stay off those but I was expecting to have to redirect Max. I didn't. A big open field with daisies growing in it? He was in heaven. They found a little side trail into "the woods"...a tiny tree covered fort of an area and James got to climb a tree and they got to pick up sticks. And the cherry blossoms were in bloom! Walking under those flowered trees and hearing Max giggle...it was amazing.
I didn't know until this started how much my success as a mom was based on taking the kids on adventures. Bored? Let's go on a road trip and find a new library! See a trail we've not been on? Let's go for a walk! Need a change in routine? We can find a new park! My facebook memory today was from 2 years ago, a ferry road trip we took. For my kids who are used to this kind of life being confined to our yard and our neighborhood is hard. Are we grateful for our neighborhood and big yard? Absolutely. Does James whine and fuss when we do the same thing every day? Yep.
Daddy, meanwhile, took the day off work (did they laugh at you, I asked him, and ask where you were going?) and walked the length of the abandoned railroad tracks, about 6 miles, to clear his head. It is a walk just too long to do with kiddos so he did it on his own. And we all feel about a thousand percent better after our little adventures. It doesn't take much.
I've been thinking a lot about what I want James to remember about this time. He's an anxious kid generally but he's been handling this well....I think it's because while he is aware people are getting sick we are trying to keep the heavy stuff away from him...he doesn't know about the death toll or anything like that. I want him to remember that we pitched tents in the living room and read books, that we had movie morning, that we painted with shaving cream and blew bubbles outside and ran through the woods all day and played in the dirt.
What do I want to remember, though? I want to remember how strong Grandpa has been. I want to remember takeout date nights at our dining room table with the last of the root beer store root beer. And I want to remember that pandemic 2020 was when Max fell in love with flowers. Because the nice thing about flowers in the spring? Wherever you go...wherever you walk...you find them.
Today I'm grateful for flowers, Max, naps, walks, takeout, my husband, allergy medicine, this blog, my dad, clean sheets, good books, all of our health, and another day on this funky beautiful blue planet.
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