Sowing the Seeds...

A couple of Saturdays ago, while I was shivering the flu out of my system in bed, Ethan spent some time with our neighbors, planting seeds in little dixie cups. He returned home proudly carrying his dixie cup in front of him, chattering about how soon it was going to sprout and make a watermelon. Oh, the miracle of life! I could see the gleam in his eye as he thought of the juicy deliciousness that was going to spring forth from this teeny tiny cup...someday. We set the dixie cup on the front porch, and waved goodbye and said "hello" to it every time we passed for several days, checking for signs of watermelony goodness.

But then, there was the gardener. Our gardener, not knowing what was in dixie cup, took it for trash and---are you ready for this?---threw out the watermelon seeds. Oh my. This produced a fall-down-on-the-ground weepfest the likes of which I can't recall ever having seen before. Not a tantrum. Just utter sadness and loss and tears. "But I miss my seeeeeeeds," Ethan wailed. My heart just broke. Over seeds, people. We are a mushy, fragile bunch around here these days.

So today, the first day of pure sun and 70's in our 'hood, I whipped out the jogging stroller and we trekked to Target (oh, Target, your less than a mile proximity to my home makes my heart sing. Yeah, that's what I said) to get seeds, potting soil and Dixie cups. Hells if I was going to let that gardener take away my child's dream of being a watermelon farmer, y'all!

After we gathered our supplies (and stopped at our neighborhood's rip-off of PinkBerry for a fro-yo on the way home), we set up shop on the back porch and agricultural mayhem ensued. Well, sort of.

Organic potting soil, dixie cups and three kinds of seeds.

Cucumbers, beans & watermelon. By Burpee. Love that name. Burpee. Makes me giggle. Because I'm a 12 year old boy, apparently.

Ethan chose to plant the cucumbers first because he is averaging about one whole cucumber a day right now in his eating habits. Give this child a cucumber and a cup of ranch dressing, and he will eat all day.

"Gently" patting the seeds down. Or, more likely mashing them into oblivion, ensuring that they never see the light of day.

I am king of the cucumber seeds!!! By the way, the "I dig dirt" shirt he's wearing is a total coincidence.

bean seeds in my little bean's hand

contemplating the beanness of the seeds.

probably sharing some really fascinating 'bean' facts with me.

I labeled them

and here is where I probably drowned them.