The Need to Know

One of the best things about living in Northern Virginia is the amazing foliage. Spring and fall are my favorite - so many blossoms and flowers, then so many different colors of leaves. One of the first colors in spring are these bright yellow bushes. They appear even before the cherry blossoms and daffodils.

Calvin has been asking for a couple weeks, every time we are in the car or taking a walk, "What are those bushes called, Mom? They're yellow - my favorite color! What's their name?" I've told him that I didn't know so many times, that I'd have to ask someone who knows. And I keep forgetting to find out, even though I know he seriously needs to know as much as he needs to breathe.

Yesterday we were on a little drive to see the cherry blossoms and I heard Calvin tell Henry, "There's one of those bright yellow bushes..." Then he piped up, "Oh, yeah! Mom! I've been meaning to tell you -" (OK, age five going on forty...) "Those bushes are called 'percynthia.' Mrs. O'Malley told me."

They're really "forsythia." But far be it from me to tell him the correct pronunciation - I need to know a little more than him for just a while longer.

And I probably need to tell his preschool teacher to quit tellin' him stuff.