Monday, December 15, 2008

Simple Gifts

I was just thinking the other day about the little pleasures of parenthood that I didn't even think about experiencing before I had kids. Here are a few:
  • Teaching your kids how to make a paper airplane.
  • Watching your child's face light up when he sucks on the end of a honeysuckle blossom.
  • Making them the weird and wonderful concoction that is French toast.
  • Discovering the joy of Christmas TV specials. Somehow, Charlie Brown & Co. never get old.
  • Reading all the little "books" your kiddo makes.
  • Having a good excuse to try Dilly bars again.
  • Making chicken nuggets (GF, of course) for dinner.
  • Being able to snack on Goldfish.
  • The smell of baby lotion and kid shampoo.
  • Reading through the Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte's Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Hans Christian Andersen again.
  • Coloring and talking with your kid.
  • Playing with Playdoh.
  • Rediscovering the joys of hot chocolate with swirly whipped cream on top.
  • Introducing the kids to great, timeless kid-fare movies like Star Wars, Hook, and someday soon, National Treasure and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Watching a speckled slug leave a silver trail on a wheelbarrow.
  • Fun with burr oak acorns and horse apples.
  • Pressing leaves and flowers.
  • Teaching your kids to make snickerdoodles and pancakes.
  • Going to the zoo.
  • Staying in a hotel (an wonderous adventure unto itself with children).
  • Teaching your kids to chew gum (don't swallow it!)
  • Fun songs you forgot about from your childhood--16 Tons of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts, The Yodeling Song, Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, Eeny Meeny Miney Mo, etc. I don't know if I got all those titles right...
  • Finding the utter fun in listening to the Proclaimers' song "I would walk 500 miles".
  • Discovering it is "crunchy outside" when it snows.
  • Teaching your kids how to properly roll a snowball for a snowman.
  • The joy of icicles.
  • Snow ice cream.
  • Walking with your kids on a Sunday afternoon.
  • Listening to them sing Christian songs around the house.
  • Finding the laughs in bathroom humor again.

I'm sure I'll think of more in the days ahead, and I'll try to write them down.

No comments: