Last week Vanessa was motivated to garden. I asked her to change from her church clothes and she came back out in her bibs and wearing a headband to hold back her hair while working. She wanted to hear each step and for me to step back to let her do them. Sometimes she asked me to demonstrate things like pressing the soil around the fragile plant. She's proud of her work.
We've had a jar out for several weeks that Vanessa has used to hold her pet. She had a pretend pet spider and was thoughtful enough to use a perfect fitting ball to close off the opening of the jar -- you know, in case the pretend spider tried to climb out. Anyway, once Vanessa lost interest in her pet, and because the jar was out, it was repeatedly chosen to hold other creatures for short observations.
Zane is enjoying a walking stick. He watched him for a while -- the creature was quite active and very interested in Zane. It's a good thing we had the jar because a game of Check Out This Fork began. And then he tried to pour water on the poor guy. Zane eventually decided a gentle touch was the most friendly.
And then after an evening rain, late last week, this friendly toad hopped right up to Zane in the garden. He basically hopped into my hand when I bent down to pick him up. We watched and stared at him for a bit and then we decided to take him back outside where Zane could hold him in his hand. Once outside, Zane wouldn't have it. But Vanessa did. And she was tickled by the love she was getting from an amphibian.
