I got to hang out with some tikes today
We were working in the yard of a Habitat family
The mother came out to say hello,
With her tiny two year old daughter, Ashol
Her and Mom are dressed up real fancy
And I ask her where she’s going
She answers me in her mumbling two year old language
And her mom tells me
They’re going to something at Brother’s school tonight
Mom has an accent
They’re from Sudan
I think she’s pretty
I like her smile
I like her even more when she brings us water and “pop”
A short while later, the five year old brother, Anai, joins us 
While Ashol decides to run away,
And laugh as her mother chases her down the sidewalk;
Anai stands around with a curious gleem in his eyes,
He obviously wants to help
We’re shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow,
To fill in holes around the yard
We ask him if he’d like to join us
And he informs us that he will be back,
With some gloves from the bathroom
He walks out a minute later, wearing purple latex gloves
Most likely used to clean the toilet
They’re too big on him
It’s cute
As we shovel, he grabs small handfuls
And drops what is left of the dirt into the wheelbarrow;
Most of it falls through his fingers to the ground
Brittany, and I begin filling holes
Anai is excited to be helping
And doesn’t listen to what we were doing;
So he continues scooping dirt from the ground
To try and fill the wheelbarrow some more
His hands are too small to undo any of our work
So Brit and I just share an ‘aw, ain’t he cute?’ look
I find a worm in the pile and pick it up for him
He holds it a second,
But when I ask him if he wants to put it in the lawn
He tells me he’s scared
So we ask Brittany to place the worm nicely in it’s new home
I pretend to be the worm and thank Brit and Anai for helping me
Anai laughs a ‘silly adults can’t fool me’ laugh
We tell him he’s a great gardener
Anai smiles
I think he knows this already;
I think he knows kids are great at everything
His mother looks out the window
And tells him to let us work;
To come back inside
I’m sad, but I don’t want to tell her he’s fine helping us
He’s sad too
He hangs his head and keeps picking up dirt
I want to laugh at his attempts to ignore her
She laughs; and says he’s stubborn
He eventually begins to waddle inside
And we give him a couple hi-fives to cheer him up
We thank him
Mom reminds him to say you’re welcome
We remind him that he’s a great gardener