Daylily do's

Has it been three months?  In fact is has.  I have been doing plenty of gardening and my fair share of nannying during my unintended absence.  Really, I have.  Today, however, I learned something very important that I couldn't resist sharing.

The wee ones and I were outside playing before lunch, you know, before it was so unbearably hot and we were so unbearably crabby to be outside.  Little Miss decided to help the daylily out and do a little deadheading.  The kids have always had a fascination with flowers, especially removing them from their natural location on the plant, but regardless, a fascination.  For the most part little Miss was actually doing a good job deadheading, pulling off spent flowers and throwing them in the driveway.  Little Mister was running around cleaning his car with a special car cleaning potion I whipped up in the kitchen sink (strangely has the same composition as water!) but stopped to see what we were looking at over by the daylily.  I showed him that we can pull out the old, dried up flower stems and this was the most magical discovery!

Suddenly we had wood to build a jail (for me, naturally), drum sticks, things to be sprayed by our special car cleaner, and weapons to jab each other with (joy).  For the remainder of our play time, before we were all so hungry we couldn't stand it, those 'things' entertained all three of us.

For kids who live where nature consists of a daylily in the front yard, playtime can still be fun and exciting.  Daylilies can be an adventure!  Finding out that plants serve a dual purpose when you're three is an amazing discovery and one not to be taken lightly.  Our pile of 'things' will probably dissipate and not be there the next time I come back, but the curiosity will still be there.  Knowing I can be there to egg on that curiosity will leave me fulfilled and will leave them with tools for future exploration.