Groceries on my head

My son Boden, 2.5, was helping me put away groceries the other day (a really great distraction from hitting his sister with plastic dinosaurs) and he reminded me how important it is to have fun. I know I sometimes get bogged down in the basics that need to get done - feed everyone, change diapers, brush teeth, comb hair and oh yeah, nurse, nurse and then nurse some more. But as Bode tried to balance the granola bar box on his head before he put it away I realized I should do that more often, or at least try it because I really don't recall the last time I tried balancing groceries on my head before putting them away. And it could be really great.

Think Thankful at Ning

I just started a Ning social network thinkthankful.ning.com
I originally had a vision for thinkthankful.com where there was a social networking forum just for people sharing what they were thankful for in their lives. I didn't really have the faintest idea of how to make that happen but I kept thinking "Oh wouldn't that be great where just pure positive energy and appreciation was flowing through online posts. Big things, little things, pictures, videos, whatever. All about appreciating." Well now there is and it was really pretty easy though the site is still in its infancy. I have a lot to learn about it but I'm excited for this challenge.
So come and join Ning and the Think Thankful community!

Art class update

So Iris finished up her week of art classes this week and she loved it! In fact today when I thought she was giving me a hug when I dropped her off she was actually pushing me out the door.
Sometimes as a parent you second guess yourself, especially when you see other kids doing things that your kids aren't quite ready for yet. Keith and I always *try* to be supportive of our kids own timetables. We were both unsure if Iris would even finish one of these classes and had decided that the worst that could happen would be losing $70. That's definitely not a good enough reason to get all worried about what would happen. So we let it go and she enjoyed them more than we had even hoped. Now she's asking when summer is over, so that she can take another set of art classes.
One interesting thing Iris said struck me about taking art classes - she said it was hard to do her own thing sometimes because she would look at what other people were doing and she thought that was interesting and she wanted to try to copy them. I guess that is the big dilemma about art classes: does it really bring about your creativity to design something when there are some set parameters first or do those parameters just kind of stretch your creativity in a direction you might not have gone without some kind of constraints?

Crying baby

We don't let our babies cry much, in fact as little as humanly possible. Gus is 3 months and growing so fast and the other day he started crying because her heard his big brother Boden crying. His eyes were sad and he had that trembling lower lip before he let out a big wail. I did have that fleeting thought, oh jeez - just what I need two crying instead of one; but then I realized how absolutely great it was! Gus is already so attached and connected to his siblings that he literally already knows their feelings. It is just so true that children can sense the feelings of those around them from the very beginning. I am so much more aware of that this time around and it is even more motivation to keep myself in a good place.