Enlightening.

       I love conversations with my three and four year old on the way home (most days).  Today's topic was flowers.  A friend of ours is in the hospital and I picked up some crazy daises from the store to bring on our visit tonight.  Giving flowers is one of the girls' favorite things to do, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to show them how flowers "eat".  I told them I wanted them to help me put the flower in a vase with "food" and water.   Our conversation went something like this...

How do flowers eat food? Can we eat flower food?
No, flower food is yucky.
But bees eat flower food.
They eat food FROM the flower.  It's called pollen.
HOLLAND?!
No baby, P O L L E N.
If you touch bees they will sting you.
Yes, they will.  Don't touch them.
Butterflies eat flower food too!
That's right! It's called nectar.
HECTAR!?
No, N E C T A R.  Like NECKlace. *pointing to my neck.*
Oh. (Like they were very disappointed it was so simple.)
Bee's eat honey!
No, they make honey, but they don't eat honey
Why are the cars all making smoke?
That's steam not smoke.
What is steam?
It's when cold air mixes with hot air and makes a tiny cloud
A tiny cloud that makes big clouds?
Yes.
What's in the tiny clouds?
Little bitty bits of water.
Like big rain clouds with big rain?
Yes, just little bitty.
Can we touch steam?
No, it's hot.  It will burn you.
That's why clouds get mad and storm, when they get burnt by steam.
Something like that, yes.




They sure know how to make me smile.