One evening, Lori and I took the girls over to my sister Chris' house. For some reason, there are hundreds of baby toads living around her house. Emma and Olivia were on a mission to find as many toads as they could. It was slow-going for a while until Lori climbed down in one of the window wells. When she emerged, she had a bucket full of baby toads and two little girls were very happy! I'm always surprised when Emma plays with little critters like worms, lizards, snails, and baby toads. I half-expect her to be kind of girly, but nope, she loves to get her hands dirty! Then again, I don't think she really understood that the baby toads were peeing on her. She thought they were just wet from the pond and I didn't have the heart to tell her she was getting peed on! We washed her hands well before lunch!!
After collecting several baby toads, we stored them in a bucket overnight. The next morning, we went on a short walk to a neighborhood river. The girls took turns releasing the baby toads into the wild. Livi commented on how one of them wasn't swimming away. Guess he didn't make it through the night. He's pictured on the left side of the photo. Bummer.
On our way back from the river, Lori and I were talking about the differences in the personalities of our girls. Olivia was running about twenty feet ahead of us, full speed, excited for whatever was next. Emma was lagging twenty feet behind, picking flowers, observing snails crossing the sidewalk, oblivious to whatever was next. "Slow down Livi!" "Hurry up Emma!" Extrovert vs. Introvert. So many thoughts ran through my mind. Emma's always been my flower-picker. Every time we go for a walk, she notices the pretty flowers, including the dandelions, and her instinct is to pick them, smell them, and then give them to someone to make them happy. One day I was out for a walk and realized how seldom I notice the beauty of nature around me. Emma wasn't with me and I saw tiny white flowers growing in a ditch. I smiled and thought to myself, Emma would have begged me to pick those pretty flowers! I love that about her and I'm reminded to stop a little more often and smell the flowers.
