Things that make you go, hmmm...

Remember that song from the 80's?  "Things that make you go, hmmmm ~ things that make you go hmmm, hmmm."  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  (Can you tell I love my 80's references?)

How often do you walk into the room, that your children are playing in, or have just vacated, and thought - what the heck were they doing in here?

Case in point. - I just went upstairs to turn off the classical station that Caleb sleeps listening to at night and discovered his plastic hamper on its side, with an afghan in it.  The average person may assume he took all of his clothes out to look for his favorite shirt.  Not my son.  He was complaining at bedtime last night that he wanted to sleep in his sister, Madelyn's, room.  I said not tonight, because it is a school night, but you can "camp out" in her room with your sleeping bag all next week because it is Fall Break and you are both out of school.  *Insert crying and wailing and "I hate my room" rants.*  Fairly typical for a tired, cranky boy.

 I walked outside to this discovery last month

Well, my assumption is that Caleb took matters into his own hands and decided to make an "igloo tunnel" out of his bright red, insect, plastic fabric, 3 ft tall hamper.  My guess is he dumped all of dirty clothes on his real bed, grabbed his pillow & afghan and curled up for the night in a hamper that he has been using since he was born.  Niiiccceee.  Sounds delightful & comfy right?

Everyone has had those moments.  Right?  I LOVE those moments.  When your child's sense of wonder and imagination can not be contained to their parent's "strict & silly" daily routines.  I love that they see the delight in doing things slightly out of the box.

Like Madelyn wearing her totally rad (again the 80's) Hello Kitty bowler hat to school today.  Even though she knows she can't wear it in the classroom.  But, it makes an Awesome statement on the way in and out of school.  (As evidenced by her school's PE teacher shouting out "nice hat Madelyn" as he was directing car line this morning).  :)

The bowler hat modeled by Papa

Or Leah, putting together her own outfit ensemble and calling out "I'm ready for ewe to see me now Mommy!"  She, like her brother, marches to her own drum.  It can be more frustrating to try to change your child into something they are not, then just go with the flow and ride along with them.  Not that I would let them do anything dangerous.  Say, like letting them attempt to do a real life Frogger video game in downtown traffic.  *You get the idea.*

This is my Absolute favorite part about being Caleb, Madelyn & Leah's Mommy.  All of the fun, spontaneous things that fall in between the "planned learning & fun" of school, extracurricular activities, play dates and parties.  This is the stuff I hope they remember.  Cooking and baking with Mommy, snuggling on the couch and reading books waaayyy too late at night, building forts out of sheets in the living room on a rainy day, wrestling on the floor with Daddy and receiving endless piggy back rides from him.

It's all this "little" stuff that makes the "big" stuff (trips to Disney, blowout birthday parties) seem a little trivial in the end. 

Here's to enjoying the little things in life..... (As Leah would say - "Cheers!")  Thank you once again, Mom & Dad, for teaching my 2 year old that term, complete with the clinking sippy cups.  ;)