Let’s talk motherhood for a moment. I’m 3 years into this game and my world constantly changes. It’s not my day job or our diy home or the too-busy-of-a-schedule that we keep that keeps me on my toes. It’s being a mother that, on most days, I find most challenging and most exhausting.
It’s for all of the right reasons. It’s because it’s something that I’m rather new at. Everything is novel, every stage of development is mystifying and rewarding. Going about all of the phases a second time with Taylor feels much more manageable. But having two brings the novelty back!
I am, admittedly, not very great at imaginary play, which is very much a part of the stage of development we are in at this moment. I become too distracted by everything else I feel I should be doing. And I get bored. (Shhhhh… don’t tell anyone.) Because I like to live life on caffeine and at a very fast pace and cooking pretend soup or running a pretend school lesson for the 50th time in an hour is the opposite of that.
I feel the joy that Liv emanates when I become a part of her world though and that makes me warm and fuzzy inside, so I give in.
My ideal play time with the girls? Trips to explore, discover or create. It could be walking to our local park while examining the rocks, pinecones and flowers along the way, or the zoo where we talk about why flamingos are pink and monkeys live in trees (we have passes which makes it easy to ‘drop in’) or the Children’s Art Museum where ‘create’ is at the very core.
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More on motherhood that I’m reveling in at the moment…
6 words to say to your child
How one dad took his son’s pretend play to the next level (wow)
Developing a family culture (still trying to put into words what our family’s ‘charism’ is)
I think about being a working mom and I think about THIS book (weird, I know, but one of my favorites)
And because pretend play is really so great for developing the imagination, body and brain, here are 5 tricks to help embrace it
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What types of activities do you enjoy when it comes to your kids and play? Dressing up? Pirates and princesses? Long walks, art projects or science experiments? I’m always looking for new ideas.
PS more on motherhood on the blog here, and more random thoughts here.
PPS reader Sylvia created a beautiful gender reveal celebration for the newest member of her family based off of ours for T. She caught the highlights on camera in this sweet video, check it out.
I totally get what you’re saying. Parenthood is definitely the most challenging…yet the most rewarding thing in my life. Sometimes I find myself getting tired of the same game over and over again, but then one of the girls will do something that just totally cracks me up and it’s worth it.
Yes, those are totally the moments :)
For about a year now we’ve been doing theme weeks, mostly to Disney movies, where we plan meals around the movies (fish sticks for The Little Mermaid, apple snacks for Snow White, etc) and we make up games, act out scenes, sing at the top of our lungs….This week, for the 900th time, is Frozen. I use Pinterest for printables – you can find anything on there! Sundays are the big night where we watch the movie to kick off the week, and we decorate the dining room and have a big celebration. Next week I’m pushing for Pete’s Dragon – I just scored a huge bag of dinosaurs at a yard sale over the weekend, and I’m dreaming of creative ways to use them! (Most days we just do one thing based on the movie – sometimes it’s all I can handle….cough*Frozen*cough)
Amazing, you are such an awesome mom. I love your ideas!