A Conversation with Nicholas

I was barely out of bed this morning, when Nicholas bounced (think Tigger from Pooh) into my room.

“Mommy? Why don’t strawberries grow on trees?”

“Well,” I began, rubbing sleep out of my eyes. “Strawberries grow on plants instead of trees.”

“Oh, but how come strawberries don’t grow on trees?” The look on his face told me that, duh, he already knew that strawberries grew on plants, and my answer was not going to cut it.

Wake-up, think! I replied, “If strawberries grew on trees, you wouldn’t be able to reach them to pick them.”

“I could pick the ones at the bottom”, said my quick-thinking son. Did I mention that it wasn’t even 7:00 a.m. at this point? I started to make the bed, hoping it would change the subject. No luck.

“Mommy!! I could pick the ones at the bottom!!” Nicholas repeated. Did the child not realize that I hadn’t even had a cup of tea yet?

“That’s true, but you wouldn’t be able to reach the ones at the top.”

“Papa could reach them.” He has an answer for everything, that child.

“Yes, but strawberries grow on a plant low to the ground. So, you could pick more from a strawberry plant than a strawberry tree.”

Nicholas looked somewhat satisfied with this response. He paused, lulling me into a false sense of security, then continued:

“But, what if I picked ALL the strawberries?”

Alright kid, if you’re going to hit me with a pile of questions first thing in the morning, I’m going to hit you with a lesson…

“Well, if you picked ALL the strawberries, then there wouldn’t be any for anyone else. That wouldn’t be very kind. You need to share the strawberries”. (Super Moral Mommy strikes again!).

Nicholas looked at me for a moment, ‘O.k. I’m going downstairs to see Papa now.” And out he bounced.

Questions answered and a lesson learned. Not a bad start to the morning. Now for a cup (or several) of tea.

xo Naomi

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