The Dandelion

Ok, moms.  Can anyone relate to this??  This happened July 2 of this year.

Today must be one of the hottest days of 2014 to date.  I was sweaty and sticky as I loaded Sophia in the van to go to the grocery store.  I had one thing in mind: Get in AC!
     That's when Tyler caught my attention by saying, "Look, Mommy, this is for you!"
     He said it sweetly enough and was holding a dandelion in my direction.  It must have been the 269th dandelion he gave me this year and at the moment with sweat getting ready to trickle down my back and with the house all locked up, I didn't want a dandelion.
     "Oh, thank you!" I said, desperately hoping he'd leave it at that.
     He didn't. 
     "Where should I put it for you?"
     "I'm not sure.  The house is all locked up.  Why don't you just lay it down for me?"
     He looked at the little flower clenched in his fist.  The thing had to already be losing ground in this heat.  "But it will die if I just put it down."
     He climbed into his car seat, still holding the flower.  "Where should I put it?"
     "You will have to bring me a flower sometime when I'm in the house, ok?"  I was starting to feel impatient.  I didn't have time to deal with a partially wilted dandelion.  I took the flower from him and carefully laid it in the gravel.  "Here.  I"ll put it here and you can find me another one when we get home."  I strapped him in while he craned his neck to see the flower.
     "But I got that one for you."
     I should have followed my instincts immediately and went through the bother of unlocking the house, digging out the little bud vase I always use for dandelions, and put the thing in water, but I was in a hurry to get into AC and didn't.  Backing the van up, I saw a yellow flower laying in the gravel.  And driving down the road a minute later, all I could see was a  yellow flower laying in the gravel.  I adjusted the rear view mirror until I could see my little man sitting quietly in his seat, looking out the side window with his big ol' squishy cheeks jiggling as we went over a bump. It was then I realized that it hadn't been a flower I had rejected, but my son. 
     He didn't ask any questions when I turned the van around.  Not until we were almost home anyway.  "Did we get the wrong road, Mommy?"
     "No, we didn't.  Tyler, Mommy wants to get that flower you gave me and put it in water really quickly, okay?  It was very sweet and kind of you to give mommy a flower and I want to take good care of it.  
     I pulled into the drive, snatched the flower up, and got it in water, praying it would at least survive until we got home from town.  
     In the parking space at the grocery store, I opened his door and instead of giving him a hand to help him leapfrog out, I blocked his path and caught him in a bear hug.  We stood there hugging for a while with me telling him how special he is to me.  He was so sweet and said, "I love you, Mommy."  I could have cried.
     I hope in the future he'll give me another chance of treasuring the flower regardless of the moment because this is one lesson I think I've learned really, really good the first time around.

Originally posted at Hello, Darling.  :)  Isn't this an interesting world?  I submitted an edited version of this story to a MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) magazine/blog and it is being posted on their blog today which means what you just read is considered a reprint.