A taste of the outdoors

Lucy: "Here Mom, this is for you."

Me: "Oh thanks Lucy. It's a beautiful rock."

Lucy: "No. It's a licked rock."

Me: "Um...thanks.

And you are right, licking rocks does make them pretty and shiny.

I'm going to go with the "dirt strengthens your immune system" theory (also comes in handy when finding Henry drinking from the water table out of a mud-encrusted cup).

Portrait of two growing immune systems