Treasure

One of the best parts of my day is searching for treasure with Colton on the way to school.  It keeps me grounded and is the ultimate highlight of his day.   A win for all!  We find all kinds of things- diaper fluff, chewed lollipop sticks, hairballs- I never knew until looking through the eyes of a four year old boy, the many marvels that surround us at any given moment.  

His favorite treasure, of course, is sticks.  We look every day for the best stick to bring to his school for his stick collation.  We keep it tucked in between the school building and a playhouse.  Thus far, no one has touched it.  All the teachers know it is there and they love seeing what sticks he brings in.

This morning, he hit the jackpot.  As we passed by a gigantic tree, the awe in his voice made me stop.  "Mommy."  He whispered."  "Wook at that tree."  Yeah, still no L's.  "I reawwy, reawwy need that stick."  There it was, at the bottom of the tree, a fallen branch.  I laughed, told him it was not a stick, but rather basically a tree and said there was no way we could carry that to school.  He said, "Weww.  What if I put it between my wegs and you hewp me?"  Sure enough, we got that stick up and walking, a half mile, to school.  It was a great day as we got honks, waves, laughter and neighbors smiling as they yelled out the window, "You just made my day!"  It made ours, too :).  In case you can't tell, that "stick" goes over my shoulder and curves around out of the picture shot and extends another good five feet.  It also has an additional thirty branches sticking off of it.  God I love that boy.