I Think He's Growing Up

Weston and I headed for the garden this morning to do some damage control. Either a cat or a peacock sat in my grow boxes and messed up my carefully planted rows of green beans, parsley, lavender and zinnia. We needed to replant those areas.  Weston knows that each morning he is to be available for family time in the yard, either for planting, weeding, harvesting, mowing, or as the occasion warrants, replanting.

Today he was having fun toying with me. I was trying to water the newly planted areas and he kept turning the spray on and off, on and off, thinking that it was pretty hilarious. When we finished our work he said, "I just realized that things go a lot better when I cooperate."

Yup. He said that. Really.

He followed up with, "Yeah, I think that when I don't fight you on everything, we have a lot more fun, don't we?"

I acknowledged that I certainly have a lot more fun when he cooperates.  He said, "When we do things together and I cooperate, then you don't have to yell at me and I'm a lot happier. You seem a lot happier too."  I considered grabbing my video camera and asking him to carefully repeat everything he just said so that I could YouTube it for future reference.

Part of our work today involved mixing soil in our wheelbarrow. Around supper time Computer Geek asked me if I knew the whereabouts of Weston. I said, "There's a wheelbarrow full of dirt in the back yard. He's a boy. My guess is that he's playing in the dirt.

Computer Geek went outside and sure enough found the boy driving his cars through the mounds. He said, "Your mom said I might find you playing in the dirt."

Weston replied, "I'm not playing. I'm designing."

That's right. Playing is for kids. Designing is for teenagers who have discovered that life is more pleasant when they cooperate.