Botanical Boy

I was shouting across the street to my 3 year old today to come home and get his shoes on.  He always sneaks out with no shoes, and I guess it doesn't phase him even though we have a harsh desert ground with rocks and stickery weeds.  He was trying to tell me that he found something, so I asked him what it was.  "It's a squash plant Mommy."  I was skeptical of his conclusion since he was standing in tall dried brush in our dry desert.  I crossed the street to see what he had found, and sure enough, right up against someone's fence a pumpkin plant had two vines extending beyond the perimeter of their garden under the fence where he could see them.  It had a few female flowers in bloom, the premature fruit bulging at the base, and that is how I could tell it was pumpkin.  I was so proud of my boy for identifying correctly a plant that didn't even have an obvious ripened fruit on it.  Most people don't recognize differences in garden vegetable plants unless there happens to be a label on it.  But my boy knew from experience that this was a squash plant.  I am a proud mommy!