Anxious To Grow Up

Playing detective.

Now you see me . . .

. . . now you don't.

One of the long-held, parent/child traditions is for children to play dress up with mommy and daddy’s clothes and accessories. Something about clothes that are ten times too big is enchanting to children. Maybe it’s because children are so anxious to grow up that they can’t wait to start wearing adult clothing items. At least they’re at an age where I don’t have to seriously worry about their desire to wear clothes that are too adult for them. For now, I’m more than happy to extend this tradition and put oversized clothing items on my children.

As of now, they’re mostly into hats and jewelry. Shoes, the ultimate adult accessory for children, are of the highest interest to my children, but those are a little dangerous because shoes are still so big that they run the risk of falling over if they try to take two steps in them. My children love shoes so much that my wife suggested we buy stock in a shoe company. Not too sure about that idea.

Jackets, shirts, scarves, and ties, have not caught on yet. But I’m sure they will.

Longing To Go Outside

Pressing hands to the window, we long to go outside. To feel the sun on our skin, the wind in our hair, to breathe some fresh air. Daddy says we can’t, because we’re sick, it’s too cold, we’ll get worse, we’re not ourselves. So instead, we press our hands to the glass, longing to go outside. Prisoners to our illness’ symptoms; runny noses, coughs, fever and stomach aches. Burning with yearning to be emancipated from our tyrant father, who keeps us locked up for the sake of our health. Would we rather tempt fate and suffer the consequences? Absolutely. But we are powerless. So instead, we press our hands to the glass, longing to go outside. Drivers, pedestrians, workers, birds, all as free as the outdoors, incite excitement . . . and envy. If we press our faces, not just our hands, we can feel the cool vibrations of wind knocking on the window; teasing, taunting. Perhaps a pitiful glance might persuade the tyrant to release us, if only we do it together. One, two, three . . . and . . . hold it . . . darn. He’s as cold as he claims outside to be. So instead, we’ll press our hands to the glass, longing to go outside.

Pros And Cons Of Tiny Shopping Carts

Pros

1. Your little ones push the cart for you.

2. Tiny carts discourage you from buying things you don’t really need.

3. It’s fun for your kids. They get to role-play and most kids love to be involved. If you keep a list and have them help you find the items on your list, it becomes a game and it’s easier to avoid unwanted distractions as they walk through the store.

4. They’re cute.

Cons

1. You risk having your child throw everything at their eye level in the cart. If you actually let your child do this and then leave the cart for someone else to take care of, then you yourself are a con.

2. The imminent threat of a tiny cart crashing into a display.

3. They’re tiny. They don’t fit much in them.

4. Since they’re operated by children, they can slow you down.

There are probably a great deal more pros and cons to these tiny shopping carts that seem to be increasing in popularity, but I generalized some of these to be simple. If you have experience with these and would like to share your own pros and cons in the comments, then by all means, do so. I’m still a little up in the air about these tiny contraptions.

Week 9

It’s likely to be a rough week as G has croup and C is likely going to get it too. This past winter in general just seems like a terrible one for the health of our family. We’ve been hit with more disease in the past three months than the past three years previous to that.

Anyway, we’re still alive and here are some pictures to prove it.

Truckin' as usual.

. . .

Elmo!

Resting . . .

Face attack!

 

Flossing . . .

The self service attempt didn't work out as well.

Pretend Nap Time

Pretend naps can last as long as twenty minutes, as I discovered today.

If someone else understands this, please let me know. My children like to play pretend sleep. They grab pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals, lay them in random places, and pretend to take a nap. PRETEND to take a nap.

They’re not as peaceful as real naps. Otherwise, they’d be no big deal.

I get the appeal of pretending to do stuff. Kids usually pretend to do stuff they see adults doing, but either aren’t fully, or in any other way, capable of doing themselves in the real world; driving, cooking, constructing buildings, etc. Pretend play is great for using the imagination, role-playing, and practicing for things they will do later in life.

But pretending to take a nap? Napping, which they are fully capable of doing at virtually any time they wish. This doesn’t make sense. I’m ok with this for now, because they still take real naps. But if they continue to pretend nap and then rebel against real ones . . . well, I don’t know what will happen, but it won’t be a happy day for anyone.

Leading The Way

Ok, I’ll admit these aren’t very good, but I was in the mood to write a haiku conversation between me and C. Even though she can’t say more than six or seven words, I like to imagine I can read her mind, and express that through poetry.

come this way daddy.

I will lead you around, while

holding your finger.

I’m so proud of you

holding my hand so well, dear.

Your smile gives me joy

Praise For Printers

Since moving eight months ago, we haven’t had room to keep our gigantic printer near our computer. I mean, look at it. It’s as big as a desk. So it’s been in storage, unless called upon in the rare occurrence that we need to print something.

Yes, I'm actually showing you a picture of our gigantic printer. How exciting for you.

Today was one such occasion, and it must have been the first time G’s ever seen it in action because while helping me carry it upstairs, he asked me what it was. The great thing about talking to a two year old is that when you explain something, it’s usually repeated back to you as a question. For example,

G: “What’s that daddy?

Me: “This is a printer.”

G: “It’s a printer?”

Me: “Yes.

G: “What you use it for?”

Me: “You use it to print out stuff you’ve typed on the computer.”

G: “You use it to type the computer?”

Me: “No, it prints what you type on the computer.”

G: “You type on the computer?”

Me: “Yes, and this prints it on paper.”

G: “It prints on the paper?”

Me: “Yes.”

G: “Yes?”

Me: “Here, I’ll just show you.”

Naturally, after setting it up, I showed him what it did.

The excitement was truly building up in him while it made noise warming up.

My kids aren’t all that into technology, I’ve said that before, but when they bear witness to its marvels, they still get a kick out of it.

How many others would get that happy watching a printer in action?

We take for granted that technology is just out there and always changing. Is anyone ever truly amazed by the newest technological advancements anymore? I doubt we’re as amazed as we used to be. I remember the days before printers when I had to physically write out all of my homework. It took hours sometimes. Now, my hand isn’t tough enough to handle writing for more than fifteen minutes without getting excruciatingly cramped.

One of my last semesters in college required me to write about 100 pages worth of papers and creative projects divided amongst four classes in the last three weeks of the semester. I complained endlessly to myself about what a burden it was to have so much to type. Well, at least I didn’t have to write it out. I just realized that while typing this post. I didn’t have to physically write all those papers. That would have been impossible.

This must be why penmanship in younger generations is severely diminished. We have computers and printers to thank for that. Seems like a fair trade, though. Legible writing, cramped hand muscles, and time in exchange for the convenience, speed, and ease of typing. Much more fair than tweeting and texting in exchange for the ability to use complete sentences, or even complete words. Just something to think about.

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Girls

A few weeks ago, I mentioned how proud I was of my son for picking up a cute blond at the park with his truck. Well, today we ran into her again. And again, she wanted him to pick her up.

He’s got the shy guy routine down pat because that little girl just can’t resist him, even though he refuses to speak to her. Or, she may just want him for his ride, but I think everyone can live with that. He seemed more than happy to use his truck to impress her. Unfortunately, that sometimes comes at the expense of his sister who was enjoying a pleasant ride through the park until G decided to stop for Blondie to catch up with him.

Blondie chased G down on her scooter and then tried to beckon him to chase her into the woods.

As she stopped to get his attention, he decided to try and impress her with his blue bucket full of rocks, dead leaves, and a broken lawn ornament from Christmas.

The treasures of a two year old.

Blondie gladly accepted a bundle of dead leaves and a rock. She took the bundle of dead leaves home with her actually, as if he’d given her a bouquet of flowers. My son the ladies man. As I said, sometimes little sis gets left by the wayside . . .

C, waiting patiently for her brother's return.

 

 

Sick Babies And Constellation Turtles . . . What A Day!

For the second week in a row, I have a sick child on my hands; only this week it’s C. As peaceful as it may seem to have your child sleep virtually all day, it’s actually scary. I haven’t been sick enough to sleep that much during the day in a really long time, so it freaked me out a bit.

Don’t feel too bad for her though, she still got to play dress up and put on some shoes!

Hey, what do you know, shoes can make a girl feel better!

Since C went to bed early with a high temperature, G had all the fun to himself. What fun do I speak of? What could be more fun than a turtle that lights up the constellations on the ceiling?

A seemingly ordinary looking turtle . . .

. . . turns any space into a raving night club.

Well, a lot of things are more fun, but the turtle was still pretty fun. Wandering from room to room, shining a sparkly turtle at everything is fun for any kid. If you don’t have one of these, I highly recommend them because they are pretty cool.

Invisibility Cloaks And Using Imagination

What is it about childhood that spurs the desire to hide? I used to love hiding when I was a kid. Under my bed, in the closet, under a blanket, or my favorite and most disgusting hiding place, the laundry hamper. I could always win at hide-and-seek if there were enough dirty clothes in the hamper to cover myself with. Granted, it’s a lot easier when you’re a child because lets face it, it’s easier to fit into a hamper when you’re six than when you’re twenty-six.

The most impressive kind of hiding to me, though, is the invisibility cloak hiding. You know what I’m talking about; the blatant kind of hiding that only the imagination of a child allows for. One second they’re standing right in front of you, and then the next, they’re covered head to toe under a blanket or towel and they become invisible.

Invisibility cloaks come in all kinds of colors these days, not just transparent.

Oh no, half a face!

How great is it to have an imagination where you cover yourself with something, and believe that no one can see you as long as you stay fully covered. I wish my imagination were still that far fetched. I mean, I could imagine myself under an invisibility cloak, but a child’s imagination is at work twenty-four seven.

Until well into his sixties and his knees no longer allowed it, my dad would hide behind the couch in the living room when my mom would come home and she would just shake her head and chuckle at his silliness. Once we get to a certain age, this kind of behavior is deemed silly or not befitting of more mature individuals, but I think wild imaginations should be encouraged at all ages. If it weren’t for wild imaginations, we might not have some of the greatest literature ever written, or innovative technology, or art or anything else that requires creativity.

Oops. I'm on the wrong side of the invisibility cloak. I can still see her.

So let’s all let our imaginations run wild for as long as they can. Once we lose our imagination, it’s kind of difficult to get it back.