Recently my brother visited from Seattle and we were discussing our earliest memories. One of the earliest memories I have is sitting out on the deck off the side of our house on Burnett with a metal cake pan filled with two ingredients: corn starch and water. Basic really... who knew two basic ingredients could make such a wonderful substance. I was amazed at how something could feel so solid and then in a second be running through my fingers like water. We would
play over and over again until my brother and I were covered in dried goo and our pan became empty. My mom allowed us to explore our surroundings and gave us plenty of supplies to discover new things. We were lucky and many of my favorite childhood memories are basic simple things that we were allowed the chance to discover.
Fast-forward to today. I now have 3 beautiful children Kailer, Adalyn, and Maddox. Kailer has been our guardian angel since December 7, 2005, Adalyn is 2 1/2, and Maddox is 10 months old. Last week Adalyn was so sick she had to be hospitalized. They thought they would need to remove her appendix, but it ended up just being a viral infection. Then this week I came down with a respiratory infection and have been locked inside for most of the week. During this "down time" I have done a lot of thinking.
Am I providing my children with enough discovery moments for them to have fond memories of their childhood? They are growing so fast and I don't want to miss it... it feels like the daily grind can get in the way of basic daily fun with my kids. Here is my my attempt to return to childhood ideals for my children and record the fun in the process.
Goal 1: Spend more time outside!!! Playing outside almost seems to be a lost art form!?! When we were little we would wake up, go outside and come home when it was time to eat!
Goal 2: More messy, yet FUN activities! Some of my most memorable moments in childhood were the times I got down right dirty and was given the chance to explore!
Goal 3: BAKE! I want my house to smell yummy! I do have another motive though... Maddox was diagnosed as peanut allergic 4 months ago and I want to bake his birthday cake so he can have the experience of fingers smashing into gooey icing! Two months left and I need to figure out what flavors of cupcakes we will be having at his Elmo/Sesame Street 1st Birthday Party!
Goal 4: Document as many memories as I possibly can! Starting with these gems:
Tonight Adalyn was sitting in her rocking chair reading to herself. Pretty soon she was reading
Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle out loud. I couldn't help but be amazed by her. At 2 1/2 she remembered the entire story word for word... she was evening singing the book as she read it, which is exactly how I read it to her. This is not the first time she has been able to "read" a story to herself word for word, but it made my heart swell to hear her reading it like I do. I am so glad she is such a avid reader at this age. My wish for her is that she loves books just as much in 10-20-30 years! I am always on the look out for an amazing new children's story since a typical night consists of reading 10-20 books!
Last night Adalyn climbed into bed with us around 3am. She woke me up and said "Mommy are you still owie?" as she pointed to my chest. When I said "Yes" she immediately said "I kiss and make it all better, ok?" and then kissed the middle of my chest. She is an amazingly sweet,caring little girl and I love that about her!
Maddox is so laid back! He is now saying Bye-Bye while he waves and can say "Mama" when he really wants me. He is also signing "more". He can do an incredibly fast army crawl, so much so that he has little interest in getting on his knees to crawl! Maddox also has this amazing brown hair that sticks straight up... I absolutely love it!
The weekend is coming and I hope to tackle a few projects and play with my kids! Just hoping my healing lungs will allow me to keep up with them!
