Pages

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Deadly bouquets that live in your own front yard!

The other day, Sunshine, Monkey and the 2 little girls (N &M and their mom K)2 doors down, were outside playing.  At one point Monkey runs in saying, "Mommy!  I have a flower for you!"  I instantly think of my tulips that had just the beginnings of buds, picturing them being yanked from their stems.  "What flower?"  He comes into the room holding a dandelion and proudly announces, "It's a dandelion!  I picked it because I know they're your favorite."  Aaawww, how sweet, how could I think anything but?

Fifteen minutes later Sunshine comes in and announces, "Mommy, I have some bad news about Bug."

Bug was right in front of me so I wasn't too concerned.  "What's the bad news?"

"K says that dandelions are poisonous and we shouldn't touch them."

"You must have misunderstood her.  Dandelions are not poisonous.  People eat dandelions, they're not poisonous."

"K said they are.  She said don't touch them, they're poisonous."

"Well maybe they put fertilizer or some kind of chemicals on their lawn and now there poisons on the lawn and dandelions.  But dandelions aren't poisonous."

"I'll go tell her you said she was wrong."

And off she went before I could tell her to rephrase what she was about to blurt out.

A half hour later and it's time to come in for dinner.  We're about to sit down and Sunshine says to me, "Mommy, you were right.  K said they put stuff on their yard and we shouldn't pick their dandelions."

Monkey (who listens a lot more than he lets on) pipes in all happy to be part of the discussion, "I can touch the dandelions."

To which Sunshine responds, "Monkey, no you can't touch them!  K says they're poisonous and you could get sick!"

Monkey, quite confused now, "I touched them.  I'm not sick."

Sunshine grabs ahold of Monkey's wrist and starts dragging him.  She is frantically yelling, "Monkey, come on!  You have to go to wash your hands!"

Monkey calmly replies, "No, I don't."

Still frantic, she screams, "Monkey, if you don't wash your hands YOU COULD GET SICK AND DIE!"

Rather than freaking out at the concept of dying, he tells her he already picked a dandelion for me and yes he already gave it to me.

Poor Sunshine, she is practically in tears, "Mommy,  you have to throw that dandelion away!  Don't touch it though!  What if Bug or Lily ate it?!  I don't want any of you to die!"

What was discovered/learned from this event:
Don't touch other people's dandelions, trespassing won't be an issue for quite a while.
Yes, she really does love her brother.
I may have lost my 2 dandelion pickers for the summer.

Vicky

No comments:

Post a Comment