Nature child

I really wish I had photos to back me up on this, but you're just going to have to take my word for it. Sam is a total nature child ... a flower-picking, dirt-eating, tree-hugging nature child. And I mean all of those things quite literally. In the past two weeks, Sam has decided that being inside is the worst kind of torture. He would prefer to be outside, even when it's 40F and raining. Luckily (for me, mostly), the weather has been getting nicer recently. A few days ago, the temperature approached 70F ... Sam and I spent two full hours (maybe more) exploring our yard. While I dead-headed as-yet unidentified bushes, he picked and systematically destroyed a good number of daffodils and grape hyacinths (really loved those). While I planted bulbs, he gloried in using a big kitchen spoon to dig in pots of dirt ... and then eat spoons full of the stuff. When I took away the spoon, he simply grabbed fists full of dirt and ate that! So I called a quit to gardening and we went for a walk. Sam got distracted by a pine tree. After fingering the bark and pulling on some branches, he laid his cheek against the trunk and gave the tree one of his nicest hugs, back patting included. He then noticed we had a yard full of these wonderful creatures and proceeded to hug two more pine trees. My son, the tree hugger!