Saturday, August 9, 2008

The great outdoors

I never knew it was going to be so hard supporting outdoor time with my kids. As a child myself, I was always outside. My mother wouldn't have it any other way. And although I want Claire to play outside as much as possible I can't very well let her play outside on her own yet. That means that I must go out too, and although I love being outside more than almost anything, it's just been way to hot to be out long. I do my best to run to the park or sit in the backyard, but in 95 degree weather I don't last long. My poor son is too young to be put down and walk around, so inevitably our sweat mingles as we stick to each other.

I guess I have to admit that I look forward to the days when I can tell Claire, "Go outside, it's too nice a day to be sitting in here!" Then I wonder if in today's world that even happens anymore. More and more I see mothers "babysitting" their children's every move. With all the concern of "stranger danger" and the over population of concrete and fast cars where are the children supposed to have their woodsy exploration and water bug captures?

It's possible that we may just need to support more travel to places less developed. It's a shame the world is such a small place that their are so few large lands for our children to roam without worry.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The perfect mom

Inevitably with the birth of a second child time is more at a premium than ever before. Because of this, my sons baby book has been lying nearly blank on the shelf for months. Over this past weekend I took the initiative to order all the photos needed to start things off and when they came in today I got started right away.

I opened up the front cover and immediately started taping, pasting and writing. Sam's over six months old now so I had over half of the pages to populate with witty answers and adorable baby pics. Hmmmm... what were my thoughts right before he was born? When exactly did he start solids? I was totally sucked in.

Sammy was less impressed and wiggled on the floor complaining to be picked up.

...first slept through the night...lol... first trip in the car...

Sam was still struggling for my attention, but I was so engrossed.

"Just a minute Sammy, I'm almost there." Minutes pass.

It occured to me right then that although I thought I was being the perfect mom by creating priceless memories for my son to later cherish I should probably just pick him up and put the damn book down.