A Different Kind of Helpful
She looked like a spring-themed Target ad come to life. Alexis stood in the yard wearing her bright pink gardening gloves while she dug at the dirt with her bear-adorned garden rake. She was surrounded by every garden tool imaginable, most of them cuted-up and mini-sized for small hands. Behind her the tulips smiled and the hyacinths filled the air with their honey-sweet scent.
"I want to help!" Alexis said.
"Help" is a very relative term, so I asked her to pull out the sod that I had loosened. She heaved and she pulled and eventually a clump of grass came loose. She struggled to pick it up and place it in the wheelbarrow, but was victorious in the end.
She beamed as she declared, "I did it!"
She turned to find her next project just as the group of girls began to walk past our house. They giggled as they mocked someone or other, exactly as you'd expect when you come across five or six teen girls spending time together. I hope it's not an inevitable state of being, but I suspect it is. Or, at least, it's a phase that can't be ignored.
Alexis paid no attention to the girls who made me cringe as I thought of the future. She was busy moving mulch from one place to another. "Momma, I covered the tree roots!" she reported.
As the girls walked away, I glanced down at my little "helper." It's not really all that helpful when she works in the yard with me, but it sure is fantastic. The days when she willingly works by my side are probably numbered, but I'm going to make sure every last one of them counts.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Reader Comments (3)
Wow, she is growing up so fast, what a beautiful picture;) We really need to make some plans soon;)
My two year old daughter wants to help me all of the time, especially "folding" the laundry. Could I get the job finished without her help, sure. However, I would never pass up her help. I will miss when she doesn't want to help me anymore.
Well said.