Musings of a Mom

Little kids like to be a part of things. If you tell a joke to a child, they’ll try to join the fun by making up their own jokes. If an older sibling is playing a game, the younger child will want to join in too. If you’re cleaning the house, your child will want to help. (Enjoy this phase as it doesn’t last long enough.)Last week our family was enjoying some of our Easter rituals. At one point the kids were “practicing” hunting for eggs when Jack asked when Easter would be. I explained how many days away it was but Jack still has trouble with the concept of time, so I eventually said, “It’s this week.”

A few minutes after I answered Jack, he said, “Mom, this week is Easter Week, then it’ll be Star Wars week, then Make-a-Cozy-place-in-your-bed week, then Workout week and that lasts ten weeks, then it’ll be playing week and after that I don’t know what week it is.

I didn’t realize I’d created a week but Jack certainly had a plan for us moving forward.  Luckily, kids also have a short attention span so he hasn’t held me to this schedule.  However, knowing Jack, he’s likely to remember right around Workout week and I’m not sure I’m ready for that.

While Jack was playing soccer the other day, I was busy talking with one of the other moms. Yes, I have a tendency to chat while I’m watching my kids, don’t you?

So while the mom and I were talking, her 2 ½ year-old son was eating raisins. Every so often he would hand her the box so she could tear a bit off. She would then hand it back to him and he would resume eating. This pattern was repeated several times until suddenly he looked at the box she’d given him and said, “No!  Fix, please!” She told him she couldn’t and he then asked for scissors. I obviously looked puzzled because she explained that he likes to have the box torn as he eats so that he can better reach the raisins.  Unfortunately, she didn’t tear the box evenly so he was asking if she had scissors to correct her mistake. At this point, the boy looked at me and asked, “Have scissors?”  I told him I didn’t. As moms, she and I obviously should have been equipped to handle a situation like this and he was disappointed that we weren’t.

My hubby likes symmetry too so I relayed the story to him saying, “I met you at 2 ½ years old today.” He agreed with the boy wholeheartedly but said he doesn’t think he was into symmetry at 2 ½. Right, like hubby would remember.

As the little boy grows his need for symmetry will probably drive his parents crazy. Once he’s an adult though, that attention to detail will serve him well.

Last night Hubby and I took the kids to see the Easter Bunny. Jack and Jill were excited and were very cooperative in dressing nicely for the pictures they would be taking. We got to the mall and they were thrilled to see there were no other kids waiting in line to visit with the Easter bunny. They would get plenty of time to visit.

Once they sat down with E. Bunny the kids were suddenly at a loss for words. Since E. Bunny can’t speak, it was up to me to break the ice. I said, “Why don’t you tell Mr. Bunny how you’ve been?” Jill took a clue from the big whiskered one and kept her mouth shut.  Jack, on the other hand, felt a need to be truthful without sounding bad so he ventured to say, “I’ve been medium.” E. Bunny made a gesture that showed he was questioning the comment, but Jack just repeated, “I’ve been medium.” 

Hubby stepped into the act and said, “I hear that Santa and the Easter Bunny talk to each other and compare notes.” E. Bunny gave thumbs up to Hubby and so I pushed a bit and said, “Yeah, I hear they’re good friends.” This is where things get interesting. Now, I’m not trying to start any rumors, but the Easter Bunny indicated that he and Santa are doing so-so in the friend department. I had it on good authority that they were pretty close so I don’t know if they had a recent falling out or what.

Anyway, we managed to get a picture. Jill refused to show her teeth and Jack seemed determined to show every tooth in his mouth. The Easter Bunny kind of had a blank look. He must have been running over his to-do list in his mind.

Now all we have to do is find the Santa and Easter pictures from the last couple of years, trim them and dole them out to family who have been complaining about us never sending pictures. They might actually get the pictures this year.