Childhood

I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever been on facebook has seen one of those posts that starts with "you know you grew up in the 60/70/80/90's if..." Then it is always filled with childhood nostalgia. The comments are then always filled with people talking down on "parents today" and the way we are raising our young. 

Without fail, one of the things on the list will talk of the lack of seatbelts...like it was a good thing. And someone will always comment that they survived. This one always makes my eyes roll straight out of my head because, well, seatbelts save lives. And just because you survived doesn't mean that there weren't plenty of others that didn't. I still remember being in maybe third grade and a good friend was in a bad car accident. Only two people were wearing seatbelts in their van on the way to school. Two died. My friend was severely injured. Like I said, seatbelts save lives folks. 

Another thing that always makes the list is drinking out of a hose. First, I never realized this was a rite of passage in childhood. I don't necessarily remember doing it. But given that a good amount of my childhood was spent in my backyard, I am sure I did. But honestly, who are the people these days not letting their kids drink from hoses?! There will always be people on the fringe that disagree with things, yet I still don't think many find this controversial. My kids drink pool water, for goodness sake. And the youngest will drop to the ground and lick dropped food and drink off of it. Obviously a hose is the least of my worries. Like literally the least. 

So there you have it. Seatbelts are a necessity. They save lives and aren't something to joke about. But drinking out of garden hoses, have at it. Just remember, I don't think many really care about that one. So yeah. 

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Where does the time go?

It's funny how things change and you don't even notice it. I can't tell you the last time I gave Callum a sink bath. He used to have them on the daily. Our kitchen sink practically begs for a child to be bathed in it and Callum always happily obliged. Well, obviously he has gotten older and bigger. And at some point, I guess the sink baths just stopped.

The other day, while I was making dinner, Callum was under my feet constantly, making it difficult to cook, so I decided to plop him in the sink for a bath. It had been so long that at first he resisted. Well, as soon as he saw the bubbles and water flowing, there was no more resisting and he plopped right in for a grand ole time.

But it caught me off guard, that whole things changing and not even realizing it. Kind of like me not remembering the last time Connor slept in our bed with us. Or not remembering the last time I just hung out with a friend I was once attached at the hip to. Things change. I guess that's just how life is.

Then I read this caption on instagram, "if childhood weren't so temporary, I wonder if it would be as precious." Well isn't that the freaking truth?! I think back to my own childhood and probably idealize some of the things because they can no longer happen, so I am certain I do it with my own children's childhoods!

I don't have a wrap this up in a pretty bow way of ending this post. Obviously I am over here getting emotional over sink baths. Sink baths! So how much can you really expect from me?! Now I'm off to look at my children as tiny babies and cry a bit...

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A Lemonade Stand

The kids had a lemonade stand on Saturday. Isla actually wanted to have a fruit stand, but settled for lemonade instead. With a projected high of 111, it was the obvious day to have a lemonade stand...NOT. But it all worked out. Ian and Isla made lemonade from the lemon juice I had squeezed from the lemons from my parents tree. Isla made the sign as well. Now that I think about it, Connor really just contributed the tip jar. Our neighbors came out and supported the kids in full force. Their tip jar was overflowing, in a ridiculous way. In fact, the kids are a little mad at me that I have yet to take them to the store to spend that money that is burning a hole in their pockets. The kids even managed to get a couple cars to stop by waving a sign around at the road. And, in what only can be described as a miracle, the kids actually kept their lemonade stand open for an hour and a half...really throwing in the towel because their friends arrived to support them and they wanted to play with them instead. 

^^ One of their customers...which I assume was their favorite customer, haha!

These are the types of things I love about childhood. And these are the types of memories I hope my kids remember from their childhood. The simple, fun ones. The ones that didn't cost much money. The things we said yes to.

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Sensory Play

Who needs those fancy sensory play boxes from pinterest when you've got a newspaper around?! I mean seriously, who has time for that? I have some very dear friends that are all over that type of thing. And I am over here, scratching my head, wondering why I would spend the money, then have to store all that crap when my kid is just as happy throwing around a newspaper and wiping pureed food all over his high chair tray. I honestly do throw Callum a section of the newspaper to play with when I want to get some things done. It entertains him so long. And it makes him so excited. And he doesn't put that much in his mouth…I think.

All these sensory play things make me think about how much pressure is on parents today to make sure our children have the perfect childhoods. Because they won't make it through college if they aren't exposed to enough sensory play as youngins ;) I'm pretty granola and simple about parenting. I way limit screen time. I am super into reading together. I love us all building legos together. And I absolutely love it when the kids get immersed in imaginative play for hours. Though sensory play boxes seem right up my alley, I also don't like to over think (or over spend) it too much.

So there you have it, my simple thoughts on sensory play and keeping it simple.

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Tulip Picking

It's weird to be in that stage where when you tell your kids you are going to go do something they remember doing it the YEAR before. To be precise, when I told the kids we were going to go pick tulips, Connor remembered playing in the mud last year. With there not having been rain in the past few weeks, I figured it would be totally dry when we got there. But, Connor instantly spotted a rather large mud puddle at the end of the parking lot…more of that later though.

We had the place to ourselves. Isla ran around the flower rows. Connor kept asking when he could play in the mud. I gave him a flower and he danced around for a while. Isla pointed to the flowers she wanted and I picked them. Finally after we were done and the flowers were loaded in the car (along with the camera…which I am sort of kicking myself about now) I let the kids go play in the mud.

They had lots of fun. They walked, they kicked the dirty mud water in the air, they ran. I told them five more minutes. Then three. Then Connor fell. But he recovered well and continued playing. I gave the one minute warning. Then Isla fell. Like bad. She was completely covered in mud. And she was crying because she wasn't happy about the mud. So, back to the car we went. I stripped her down and strapped her in her seat, then stripped Connor down. Connor wanted to know if the police would be mad that they were in the car without clothes on.

We got home and all was made better with baths. My flowers found their way to vases. One on the mantle, one on a table and one in Isla's room. I excitedly showed Isla the one in her room and she asked where the rest of HER flowers were. So I showed her. And she demanded that they all be placed in her room. Silly girl. They are still dispersed throughout the house. They are just too pretty to all be hiding in one room.

You can revisit our trip from last year here. One of the workers remembered us from last year. Made me laugh. I've always wanted to be a regular somewhere, well I guess I am a regular out on the farm! 

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This Went Down Yesterday

Sometimes a picture so amazing comes along that it doesn't require words. 

The thing is, this blog of mine is like my diary and I want to remember the mundane aspects of mine and children's lives. Because of that, here is the story. For some reason, every once in a while Connor doesn't want to pull up his pants and tells me to do it. Yesterday, while we were playing outside, he went in to use the bathroom. He then came back and stood in the doorway yelling for me to pull up his pants. You see, I have taught him he isn't allowed out of the house with his pants down. Yes, it has happened a time or two before. With his hands on his hips and the look he was giving me, I couldn't help but take a picture...then share it with the world. After I took the picture, I went and pulled up his pants. I don't mind because I realize he won't always be little and won't always want me to pull up his pants. 

A Little Visitor

Today while I was making dinner, I hear Connor yell from his train table "Mama, there is a turtle on my train". I went in there to find a ladybug on Connor's train. 

It was cute how enthralled with it he was. Yet at the same time, I am sure this little ladybug was scared for its life. You see, when it got off the train, Connor proceeded to chase it with the train. When it went off the track, his train followed. Of course, he would also pause to take close up looks for himself. Finally the little ladybug smartened up and flew away...of course, it is still trapped in our house somewhere! 

It was a pretty darn cute little scenario. And it warms my heart to be able to relive things like this through my kids eyes. Sure I do still get excited when I see a ladybug, but not that excited.

Flashback {one}

Last night, a random quote from a movie popped into my head:

I see pride. I see power. I see a badass mother who don't take no crap off nobody.

Then my mind was instantly filled with memories. Good memories all stemming from the movie Cool Runnings. Aww, Cool Runnings. We had it in VHS and watched it all the time. Speaking of VHS, remember actually having to rewind things? Craziness. But, back to Cool Runnings.

That movie inspired me and my brothers. For a little while, I knew I wanted to be a bobsledder. No joke. Maybe I felt like I could relate to the Jamaicans who had no snow to practice. I lived in Arizona. Glendale, Arizona. Snow was not right at my doorstep. So, my brothers and I practiced bobsledding using our wagon. We turned the handle around so the front person could steer. We practiced on our street. I even remember practicing while camping. We were legit. Legit while the movie inspired us. While the movie made us want to be destined for greatness. Greatness in bobsledding. Then we moved on to something else...Mighty Ducks probably came out about then and inspired us to be ice hockey players.

Oh the memories. I had such a good childhood. This memory makes me want to hunt down Cool Runnings and force my brothers to watch it with me on Thanksgiving. Then maybe we could pull out the wagon and do a little street bobsledding. Of course, we would have to find a VHS player first...that may be the hardest part of my whole plan.