Childhood hobbies~priddymomma

Hey guys!  Hope you have had a lovely week.  My family had the opportunity to visit the State Fair on Monday.  Fair season is definitely one of my absolute favorite things about summer.  My husband and I met during high school marching band, and every time we visit the fair, it takes me back to a time when we were first falling in love... 

 

Our band uniforms were sexy.  You can say it.

Enough of that mushy stuff!  You didn’t come here for that, I’m sure.  You came instead to read about what hobbies I encourage in my kiddos!  (Sure you did.  No arguing.)

I home school my kids, and I don’t currently have them enrolled in anything like dance or karate (though I’d like to enroll them in both eventually). 

 

 

My son loves to read and learn facts.  One of his more recent interests centered around pumpkins.  I thought it was kind of strange and out of season, but go for it!  We ended up working together to plant a pumpkin patch, which is doing really well and should yield 24 or so pumpkins eventually.  He can tell you all about the life cycle of a pumpkin, and all without me teaching him a thing.  I love the library.  

My daughter is interested in bugs and being outside.  When she isn’t looking at plants and insects through a magnifying glass, she’s trying to convince me to take her outside so that she can do just that.  She’s very observant (and argumentative).  She also loves to draw. 

 

I believe that kids will pick up on what their parents really love to do as well as going on to develop their own interests.  Cheerio Champ has lately developed a keen interest in the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.  He can blame me for that, and my latest interest in “Jesus Christ Superstar”.  Both of my kids enjoy yoga (blame me) and tai chi (all hubby’s fault).  They have music and reading in their blood.

 

exercising with dad in our home gym

I guess to summarize:  I encourage my kids to follow their hearts.  That’s a great hobby/life goal.  If they get it into their heads they want to be acrobats, while I’ll probably have a heart attack, I will encourage their dream and do the best I can to support them as they pursue it. 

To be fair, they DO often fight over our hula hoop...

What hobbies do you encourage in your kids?  What hobbies have they picked up that they can blame you for?

See ya next week! 

10 Things I Will Miss - Leslie

I thought I was going to have a really hard time with this week's topic.  Silly me.  Well, it IS a hard time in that it makes me a nostalgic, blubbering mess, but that's beside the point.

So, I guess I will just jump right in.  Here are 10 things that A does that I will miss when she grows up.  There are the duh things that just about any mom will miss, so I tried to put in things that A does personally instead of those.  I may have cheated and added a couple, though.

1. Ask me to scratch her back as she falls asleep.

Fiance has always been huge on having his back scratched.  His grammy used to do it to him and it seems as though that has now passed on to A.  I could lie there all night scratching her back and she would be perfectly content.

2. Her making silly faces.

Now, I know anyone would like the silly faces made by their child.  It's in the fine print of the parent handbook, after all.  However, I especially like A's faces because they come so naturally to her.  She's not just scrunching her face up and calling it silly.  Well, not always at least.  She is able to cross one eye at a time, and it makes for the most hilarious silly faces.

3. The way she says in her little voice, "Mommy will you play with me?" and "I love you, mommy."

Yeah.  I know, I know.  Duh.  But that VOICE.

4. The funny things she says.

For example, when I was getting her to bed tonight she said, "Mommy, do you know what Chinese cats say?"  "Uh, no not exactly.  What do they say?"  "We are Siamese if you please!"  "Do you mean Siamese cats?"  "No!  Chinese cats!"  Maybe that's not as funny now that I have written it down, but again, that VOICE.

5. The dimples right below her eyes when she scrunches her little face up.

She has her grammy's dimples on the apples of her cheeks rather than ones you normally see right by the mouth.  I know those dimples will be there forever, but there is something inherently cute about the way they look on her face now, which is little and toddler-y.  That combination definitely won't be there forever.

6. The joy on her face when her daddy flies her around the living room or carries her on his shoulders.

She LOVES to be airborne for some reason.  It scares the crap out of me, but it also makes my heart swell when I see just how happy she is in that moment.  Is it possible to be happily terrified without being happy that you're terrified?  If so, I'm that.

7. Her perfectly imperfect drawings.

She draws just like you would expect a three-year-old to draw.  But I love it!

8. Reading with her before bed.

Now this one is one of those that will probably not go away.  However, I know I will miss the way it is now.  We co-sleep and there is something very comforting about reading a book with her and then cuddling up to go to sleep.  Not to mention that I love how my love for reading is rubbing off on her.

9. How unbelievably excited ice cream makes her.

I mean, unbelievably.  Most kids are happy about ice cream.  This kid, however, is more than that.  The other day I thought she was going to break her face with her huge smile.  Yes, that excited.

10. Doing impersonations of her loved ones.

This is one of the more recent things she does and is quickly becoming my favorite.  My nephew introduced her to that song What Does the Fox Say? and that evolved into everyone asking her things like, "What does mommy say?" and "What does Papaw say?"  My favorite is when we ask her what her aunt Gretchen says.  Her response is always, "*mimicks high pitched voice* I'm going to let A have my Nook to play on!"

So there you have it.  The 10 things I will miss when A gets older.  I dread her getting older, but I absolutely love to witness the person she is becoming.  I am so proud to be her mom.

I'm not crying, I promise!

As always, send any new suggestions to thecaseofthemissingcheerios@gmail.com or leave them in a comment.  See you next week!