Conversation With Nate...

***I just found this post and realized I never published it.  It's from the early Spring***

The boys have been on tulip patrol ever since the snow melted.  They watched as the plants started to come up and kept me posted daily on how tall they were getting.  When they started to see the stems of the tulips, they got so excited.  They'd come in telling me the count of tulips and tell me of their progress.  A few days ago, three of them bloomed on the corner of the house.  They ran in to tell me that we had two yellow tulips and one red one.  They excitedly told anyone, who came near our house, that we had three tulips that had bloomed.
Yesterday, Nate came running into the house to tell me that the tulips were gone.  I was really bummed because I love tulips and I didn't even get to appreciate them before some darn deer chewed them up...she probably didn't even taste them in her hurry to get them down her gullet.
Anyway, here's the conversation with Nate about the tulips...

Nate:  Some robber came and got our tulips!  Why would a robber want our tulips?!

Me:  A robber got them? (I was a little distracted, so although I was listening, I didn't tell him right away that it was probably deer, as I continued doing dishes).

Nate: Yes!  Maybe not a robber because they usually like to take things like kids and money.  I bet it was a girl.  Girls like flowers.  Maybe a girl took the tulips because she thought they were so pretty.

Me: (I was finally paying attention because his comment about robbers taking kids and money made me focus.)  I don't think it was a robber, or a girl.  I think it was just some blasted deer.

Nate: (not paying attention to me) I bet it was Buddy! (the neighbor's dog) We showed him the tulips yesterday and he was eating grass.  I bet he munched them.

Me: (laughing).  It wasn't Buddy.  He wouldn't have eaten tulips.  It was just a deer.

Nate:  Yeah, those flowers are probably bigger than Buddy's mouth.

Then he was off and running to a new scene.
I love that he is so interested in the tulips, but just yesterday, he acted like a human weed eater and karate chopped and broke down every single lily leaf to the three big lily plants in the front garden bed.  He didn't know that they were flowers.  I was really sad.  Those lily plants look nice and green and pretty all summer long, even if they don't have blooms, they are pretty.  He felt terrible when he discovered his wrong.  He clung to me as he cried tears of regret and remorse.  It was a good learning experience for both of us.  I was glad that, although I could have acted better, I really didn't fly off the handle and become a raving lunatic over it.  Seeing how distraught he was after talking to him, I really was glad I hadn't said more to him.
He learned that everything in the flower beds is off limits to him.  Since then, he has taken to karate chopping the neighbor house's weeds.  Since no one lives there, I figured that's ok.