What’s a Sunflower?

“Mommy, they aren’t growing.” Jules Brown yanked on her mom’s dress and stuck her lower lip out as far as it would go. “Why aren’t they growing?”

Her mom knelt down and hugged Jules. “Honey, plants don’t grow overnight. They need time and water and lots and lots of sunlight. You have to be patient, okay?”

Jules crossed her arms. “I don’t wanna be patient! I want my sunflower plant now.” She stamped her foot to prove her point.

“I know, Jules. But, hey, while we wait, why don’t we look at some fun facts about your sunflowers? That way, you’ll know all about them before they grow. Doesn’t that sound fun?” As Jules agreed, her mom pulled a book towards them and they sat on the couch to learn about the sunflower.

“Look, Jules, here’s a fact. This plant can grow to be eighteen feet tall. That’s like three Daddies stacked on top of each other.”

“Wow! And Daddy’s tall.” Jules looked up at the ceiling. “So that’s really tall. Do you think my sunflowers will grow eighteen feet?”

“Maybe.” Mom pointed to another fact in the book. “They usually only take ninety to a hundred days to grow, so it shouldn’t be long and you’ll have your plants. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” Jules clapped her hands. “How long is a hundred days?”

“Well, around three months. You can wait three months, can’t you?” Mom poked Jules in the stomach and laughed. Jules nodded and Mom turned the page to find another cool piece of information. “And look at this picture. This sunflower has one stem and one head, which is what yours will have. But sunflowers in the wild have lots of heads that are really small. Cool, huh?”

“Yeah.” Jules stood and grabbed her mom’s hand. “Come on, Mommy, let’s go check the sunflowers. I bet maybe they’re growing now, right? Right?”

Mom closed the book and set it on the table. “It doesn’t hurt to look, but remember what the book said, Jules – ninety days.”

“I know. Ninety days. I can be patient, Mommy, I can. But let’s go check, just in case.” Jules dragged her mom out into the yard to look at the sunflowers. Nothing was growing yet but, in the next hundred days, Jules learned a lot about sunflowers…and a lot about patience.