Blessed with a visit of my four year old granddaughter, Nadia, we set out to have a day of play! What fun!
We began the morning with a little breakfast and then quickly went to the corner table so that she could paint her beautiful creations! My, the wonder of her paintings so capture my heart! Being a four year old, the attention does not stay long on one activity. Dripping watercolor from her fingers, she delightfully requested, “Nanny, can we go outside?” Within seconds we were out the door to experience the sunshine of our Wisconsin weather. We had been at 40 degrees the day before, and now we were at 70! The unpredictable change was so very welcomed! Within that short frame of time, the daffodils planted last Fall were blooming! These caught the eye of Nadia, who immediately spoke, “Oh, Nanny, can I have some flowers for Mama?” Of course we cut a few, carried them into the house, found a vase, and placed them on the kitchen table, until later that day when Mama would return to retrieve her little darling.
From the flower arrangement, we moved again to the outside world and Nadia received her requested swing on the playset. After three or four of these delights in the air, she firmly spoke to me, “Nanny, this is enough swinging. Let us water the trees we planted yesterday!” Nadia organizes the events quite well…and I give her the freedom to tell me what her heart desires –the fault of every grandmother. So away we went to water the fir trees that she and Ayden helped plant the day before. A neighbor had brought them over to me as a gift, and we could not delay in planting them. Late, the previous afternoon, Ayden, who is six, placed his little hands firmly on the shovel and dug away. He was so energetic and one could see the proud sense of accomplishment on his face as he dug into Mother Earth to give her a tree. Today, we needed to follow up and give them their necessary daily drink as all young saplings need. Nadia ran to turn the hose on and returned with anxiousness to give the trees their drink. When that was accomplished we began to rake the mounds of earth that we had not yet smoothed from the day before. As we were raking, we came upon an earthworm!
Nadia exclaimed, “Oh, Starflower! You came back to me!”
Not wanting to dampen her playful spirit of recalling her Earthworm friend from last summer at her home fifteen underground miles away, I said, “Yes, it seems she has crawled a long distance to be with you!”
Nadia was speechless but for the love on her face for this sweetly, squirming earthworm in her hand! She spoke ever so softly to this little creature, “Oh, Starflower, you are so soft and you do not even bite me!”
To which I replied, “Yes, he is so cute!”
And, in turn, to which Nadia responded: “Nanny, she is a girl!”
“Opps! I didn’t know!” I exclaimed.
Immediately Nadia requested, “Nanny, where are her brothers and sisters, and Mama and Nanny, and Grandpa and Daddy?”
“Well, I guess we will need to look for them,” I replied, as I carefully raked the ground, scanning for more of the family, with Nadia peering closely at the brown earth.
“There is one! It is Starmoon!” she excitedly exclaimed. I was amazed at her ability to come up with these original names of her friends so quickly and to be able to distinguish them one from the other — truly a childhood expertise!
We proceeded to discover eight members of the family: “Starflower, the girl and the first friend; Starmoon, Starflower’s brother; Starshine, Mama Earthworm; Starlight, Nanny; Star Sun, Grandpa; Star Rainbow, the father. ” Who would have thought earthworms could have such scintillating names!
I found a plastic bucket in the storage shed, and we added a little earth and water, and then the Earthworm Family. Nadia was so happy with her new pets! What a delightful day! Nadia is such a gentle soul with so much love in her heart–even for the Earthworm!
Related articles
- Why Do Earthworms Surface After Rain? (livescience.com)
- Soil Testing: Earthworm Test (davesjourneyandadventure.wordpress.com)
- Methylation of Mercury in Earthworms and the Effect of Mercury on the Associated Bacterial Communities (plosone.org)
- Top 5 Most Invaluable Animals (naturebox.org.uk)
- Earthworms (nataliatree.wordpress.com)
Footprints of Thoughts 
What a sweet story, Jane! And your granddaughter seems adorable!
Hugz!
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Yes…Nadia and her brother are just PURE JOY in my life! Thank you for visiting my blog, Patty, and for your kind comment!
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Yes, she is a sweetheart!
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She’s so cute, loving life so much! This is a little lady destined for great things. 🙂
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Yes, Andy, she is! Nadia comes out with so many beautiful words! and she and her brother, Ayden, are so artistic! They literally dive into the watercolors with their fingers to paint! Marvelous! Coming attraction!
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I hope you’ll post some of their work for us 😀
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Love the story Jane; it captivated me all along!!
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Glad you liked it, Mich! Where would I be without my darling granddaughter to inspire me and give me so much joy!
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What a beautiful soul 🙂
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Yes, Nadia is such a sweet, gentle, sensitive soul…she inspires me so much…it truly is HER STORY! andy, CONGRATULATIONS to you, Celestine, for the occasion of your Haikus being published! HOW WONDERFUL for YOU! and for us all to see you succeed with publication of your creative work!
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Beautiful story Nanny…..
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Kamlesh, my dear grandson, thank you! I must write to you soon! and I promise to do so today! Forgive my busy life!
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Lovely story.. 🙂
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thank you, Gerry! By the way, keep writing–I love your blog!
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Nadis is so lucky to have you for her Nanny. Plus you can write about her adventures in such a charming way. Keep us informed about the earthworms and their life.
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I am lucky to have her! However, thank you…guess we are blessed to have each other! Yes, I will do my best!
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I love Nadia’s story, and your sensitivity in recording it for us.
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thank you…and thanks for your encouragement to record and post it!
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The creativity in the young is amazing. She seems to have a love for nature and your affection and devotion for her is evident in each sentence.
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Yes…such gentleness…such innocense! thank you for your very kind words! I am blessed with beautiful grandchildren from their beautiful Mother!
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What a Wonderful day. The kind of day for making memories. That’s what I told my oldest granddaughter when she was young and we had a day together. Your story captures Nadia’s Joy and delight in life and nature and your joy in her. Hope you will be sharing more.
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Lovely post .Both of you are lucky to have each other:)
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Yes, we are! Lots of love crystals floating between us and hopefully to the earthworms! lol
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ha ha ha ..
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Yes, Nadia laughed also! I so wish I could figure out how to download my camera’s photos on to this computer…I have a delightful photo of Nadia holding the family of earthworms in her hand!
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I am waiting to see that pic:)
The photo is there for you to enjoy!
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An earth girl after my own heart! Bring her here to explore our tadpoles, frogs & fish at the pond –she’d love it! Great story, Jane! ❤
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Thank you, Janet! Yes, maybe one Summer day, Annie will take a drive with me and her children to visit you! We will need some distraction after Lara leaves for Togo, to calm our hearts!
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What wonderful memories you are creating for your grandchildren. This is a terrific story and certainly deserves a place in a magazine. It’s well written, flows beautifully and delightful to read. Have you submitted your writing for publication? This really is a special story.
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Well, thank you so much for your generous words! No, I have never submitted anything anywhere…I only began this blog Oct.14, 2011 in an effort to free my depression and get myself out of the mental drowning I was experiencing. It was quite difficult to move from teaching for 36 years to NOT! I miss the students so much! Good people have come into my life…I made tremendous efforts to go out of myself to meet others…it was very difficult…but I am glad I did it. Love from others really motivated me and has given me new life! We all really need each other — my friends have had such a positive impact on me– I have been blessed and I try very hard to post positive things now…they were not so much so at the beginning. Anyway, I would not even know where to begin sending this! Thank you, all the same, Sheri!
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This is the second earthworm story I encountered today. Just love it and the names she gave name. Nadia is a brilliant girl and for that, I give you a start. Excellent!
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She is so adorable! Some kids get scared of earthworms but Nadia just loves them and even gave them names. A really beautiful story..
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Thank you for visiting my blog and for you lovely comments! Yes, Nadia is so sensitive and true to her heart…She gives me so much love and hope for the future! I love your poetic remark: “…she just loves them”……..YOU are so correct, Nelson! Nelson, I just went to your Gravatar in an effort to follow your blog — you may or may not want to ADD a LINK to your blog on your Gravatar…so we can follow you! Otherwise, I do not know where you are in blogosphere! I have a posting on my blog on how to do this: Link your WORDPRESS blog manually to Gravatar or We Won’t Find YOU! May 5, 2013.
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She is indeed special, I guess all kids are. I have niece and nephews that just gave me pure joy and love. Anyway, thanks for your blog post. It helps me a lot on adding my link in Gravatar.. 🙂
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Wonderful for you!
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