one small circle of life with snacks

I was outside on Brrrrrr-Tuesday, which actually felt very much like winter, hello, it's April here, huddling in my biggest son's oversized padded shirt and following the nature-lover around the yard, watching him explore the environment. It was so enjoyable, except if it were warm and well, just warm, it would have been more enjoyable. At one point he was on his bike, and we were meandering down the driveway, and I was being the follower. Only I kept finding myself in the leader position, because he stopped so often to observe and comment that my follow-the-leader plan wasn't really working out. We talked about cracks and ice heaves and jackhammers and the pipes and nework of interesting things underground. Since it felt chillier to stand still than to move, I said "c'mon, buddy, what're you doing back there?" To which he responded "I'm putting this little worm in a safer place so he won't get runned over so much." I thought that was a noble cause, so I jogged on my feet back and forth and waited for the little rescuer to catch up. Then we moved on to hitting baseballs off the tee, and when the supply of balls was spent, he started walking along the front beds, observing important things like yellow garden hose and downspouts. Just before the front steps, he stopped in front of this bush:

And in his cutest little manly-voice he asked "Hey mom, what's this, a pretzel tree?"

Oh, and in my head I'm just squeemishly in love with the little person that he is, knowing exactly why I didn't stop at just five kids. But without skipping a beat, I answer "No, it's called a forsythia bush. But the buds haven't come out yet."

And he says "Why? Do they eat it?" And I ask "Who?" And he says "The bugs."

Clever lad. What bugs wouldn't love snacking on a handy pretzel bush?

And then we're parking his bike in the garage and it occurs to me to ask about the fate of the worm he rescued while I was fending off frostbite. "Hey Pal," I said, "where did you put that worm you were saving?" And he points to the hole (where there used to be a screw and a nut) in the cross bar of his bike, and says "He's in there."