Excuses to Play

Yesterday the kids and I had an impromptu dance party at 7:30am.  Donovan wanted to hear the original version of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” (thanks to the Chipmunk movie).  So I downloaded it to my phone and we all danced and sang until it was time for him to leave for school.  It got me thinking about all the fun things I get to do as an adult that my former childless self didn’t do. This is a list of things that if I didn’t have these three little personalities following me around all day, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy. My Booboos give me an excuse to:

Play with toys

My first Christmas with my husband and stepson was full of boring boy toys, I would walk down the girl toy aisles of Wal-Mart and Toys’r Us and wish that I had a girl to buy Barbie’s and princess toys for.  Now I have two little girls and their girly pink toys have overrun their brother’s Star Wars and Spiderman collections.  (queue evil laugh)

Wear tutus all the time

All three of my kids love to dress up, so we have a pretty good stash of superhero costumes and tutus for all occasions.

Watching cartoons

I watched cartoons until I was 18.  Then I got too busy with very-important-adult-business and didn't have time for “childish things”.  In fact I thought that since I was an adult I would start watching Sex and the City, which didn't last long.  Now that I have kids I can watch as many cartoons as I want, and I have an excuse why I can't watch Sex and the City.

Eating fish sticks

I would normally never eat fish sticks on my own (even thought I like them).  They just seem like kids food.  With the kids around I get to sneak bites of all kinds of things that I wouldn’t normally eat like pizza, cupcakes, mac and cheese, gold fish crackers, and hotdogs.  We don’t eat these things often but if I didn’t have kids I would never eat these kid foods.

Sing nursery rhymes at the grocery store.

I’m pretty sure that there aren’t very many adults walking around singing baby songs, but today I was serenaded by Zoe’s version of Old McDonald at the Grocery store…non stop…for 30 minutes.  It was perhaps the cutest thing ever, and I think it made some of the other WinCo patrons happy. I started to notice people walking by us quietly chuckling to themselves. Either they were laughing at Zoe or I had a sock stuck to my back.

Taking naps

This is the most rare picture I have of my girls both asleep on the couch..at the same time!!!!

I wish this one was a regular occurrence in my house but when my girls do take naps, I try to catch some Z’s with them.  The best nap is when we are cuddling on the couch and all fall asleep together.

Jumping in jump houses

I love jump houses, but I usually get sideways looks when I crawl into one alone.  Not anymore, I have three little reasons to act like a kid.  Bonus, jump houses are great exercise.

Getting excited to meet characters at Disneyland

These Princess' are actually my friends dressed up for Halloween

HA, who am I kidding, my kids do not like characters, this one is all me. When I was 23 I went to Disneyland with my mom and almost had a heart attack when I met Sleeping Beauty, so I really do use my kids as an excuse to take pictures with my favorite Princesses.

Dance in my PJ’s to Justin Bieber at any time of the day

I don’t think that I need to explain how awesomely fun this is. Its great exercise and you can’t be anything but happy while you’re dancing!

It’s good to remember these things won’t last forever, someday they will be adults and they won’t want to play with me anymore, I have to enjoy all of this fun while I can.  I’m just not sure what I’m going to do when I don’t have kids in my house anymore to give me an excuse to play.

Happy Playing