Rooting for the weaker man

Last fall during some of the post-summer sales, I scored some great little planters at Big Lots (one of my fav 'good, cheap finds' stores) but never got around to hanging them up.

Yesterday, inspired by the gorgeous sunshine and the desire to keep them out of the ongoing war-zone that is our garage, I decided it was time to hang them. Since I just happened to have two of them, I decided what better activity than to let Gray and Lincy each 'lay claim' to one, design their own flower-scheme and put there little toy garden tools to use by helping me plant them. :)

So...off to BiMart we went in hopes of finding some good little flowering plants, getting a little extra soil and a few dinner-makings. (Hey, I'm all about thinking ahead and utilizing every 'trip' to the Nth-degree. ;)

Fortunately, BiMart had quite a few choices in pretty little pot-perrenials (I DON'T DO ANNUALS) so we had no trouble scoring some great options.
After the quick 'mom talk' of stay by me, watch for people/cars in the parking lot, etc etc, I let them loose to take there allotted pick. Gray came back to the cart first, hands full of pretty purple, red, white and even grassy little plants--five, as I had limited. 'Lovely picks, son!', I exclaimed, gesturing to him to place them in the cart.
As he begun proudly loading them in, Lincy came running up behind him. 'Mama, I got mine, too!', announcing for the whole parking-lot to hear while loading them into the cart, nearly on top of his brother and almost faster than I could get a peak at them. (That's Lincoln for ya.)
In my OCD-driven fashion, I offered him help and as he just started to say 'No thank you, I can do it', one very little and very sad looking plant caught my attention and no sooner toppled out of his grasp and into the cart.
Picking up the poor excuse of a sale-item (thinking to myself how NOT worth $.99 this thing was) I look at Lincy and say 'Oh, honey...are you suuuuuuure you want this one?!' Walking over to the other healthy and happy little flowers I point out plant after plant....trying to entice him with 'neat colors', 'pretty smells', 'interesting leaves', and even stoop so low as to start trying to find things on the plants description that will make it unsuitable for our 'use', ha!
After a good 5 minutes of this, unmoved and unconvinced, Lincy walks over, points at the one pathetic little wilted flower that looks as though even one speed bump on the drive home may 'do it in', and says 'I like THIS one, mommy.'

Defeated (or won over, depending on how you choose to look at it), I let out a big sigh, kiss my young son on the top of his perfect, soft, big, round head, place the sad little plant in the cart next to all the other healthy green giants and proceed into the store with my little men to pay.

I'm not going to lie...that may of been the hardest $.99 I've EVER spent.
Even the cashier asked if we were sure we didn't want to trade it out, to which I responded, through closed teeth and a fake smile, 'No thank you, we're good.'

Our planting party began almost immediately after arriving home. Both boys were so utterly proud and excited to 'decorate' their planters. I explained to them that since there is one mommy and two of them with two planters, we'll take turns. We'd put our soil in both planters first, together, and then Gray could plant a plant in his, followed by Lincy planting a plant in his...so on and so forth...until we were done.

Gray was so filled with anticipation that he talked about which of his 'pretty flowers' he was going to put in first and why the entire time we worked on filling the planters with soil. Not more than two words of the sentence 'Ok, Gray, grab a plant' had left my lips when in Flash-fashion, Gray ran to the box and grabbed his prettiest & tallest purple flower. The whole time we potted it, he talked about how good it smelled and how big it would get...we both talked about how pretty the purple color is and will be.
All the while, Lincy sat quietly, patiently looking at his planter watching us but acting seemingly distracted. When it was his turn and I cued him to go grab his 'first choice', he looked at the box across the porch, looked at Gray's plant and then out of nowhere, reached behind him. Just as I began to say 'Lincy honey, over there *pointing at the box* he pulled out the 'runt'... aka, the near worthless and lifeless little thing he'd prompted me to purchase. Honestly, I'd nearly forgotten about it...but at some point, he had snatched it up out of the box, as if to say 'It's ok..I love you even if they don't, little plant.'

It never ceases to amaze me how children teach US...and how their lessons are especially deep and cutting to the spirit that is softened enough to recognize and receive the message.
With near tears in my eyes, I took that little plant and my sons hand *and heart* and began raving about anything I could... that one weak little flower-bloom that had, in fact, survived the ride home! The green still present on select leaves, and anything else I could point out about not what it is now but more importantly what it WILL be since it has found a new home and we will give it a place that it loves where it can grow and flourish. ;)

I LOVE to think about what this says about my little son's heart and sensitive spirit... my little bull-in-a-china-shop... but he's a bull with a heart of gold.

I'm also happy to report, as you can see on the pic below that this morning, when we checked on the little guy, he was perkier and looking happier already. Of course, the happy and proud on my son's face is what I care about even more... even if that little plant stays little forever...
my little guy is already making the right decision to, proudly, root for the weaker man.

His perky little plant, after just one night and morning...on the very right-hand-side of the planter by his hand. ;)