Wordless Wednesday: Imagination, Terry Cloth Style

Did you ever use your bath towels for dress up when you were a child?  In our house my sister and I did quite often as kids.  Any time we had the pool or the sprinkler out we would use our towels for more than just something to dry off with.  We pretended we were characters from “Clash of the Titans” and wore our towels as togas, among other things. That’s right, imagination was never in short supply at our house.

So how thrilled was I when my kids asked me to help them become superheroes while out playing in the pool and sprinkler last summer? All it took was a couple of towels and clothespins and the transformation was complete.

IMG_0533As you can see, the day was saved!  No kryptonite was going to bring this superhero down.

IMG_0532Of course, our other superhero decided that a cape was nice, but she would rather don a lovely strapless purple princess gown instead. Who knew that terry cloth was the new satin?

Wordless Wednesday: Wonder

IMG_0460This is still one of my all time favorite pictures of my daughter. She ran outside, checking for rain, still in her princess dress.  I just think it captures all the wonder and imagination of a child.

May Secret Subject Swap: My Life Without Kids

secretWelcome to Take One of May’s Secret Subject Swaps. This week, 12 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My prompt is this:  Imagine yourself with no children, where would you be and what would you be doing? If you have no children, imagine yourself with children, how do you think life would be different?

It was submitted by: http://aworkingmomswhoas.blogspot.com/

If I had no children:

IMG_2307-001Eating would be much different.  I could eat grown up foods when I wanted, and no one would complain about it.  Or wear it.

I'm visiting today but no car rides with weird children...I would travel, and no one would be fighting in the backseat or complaining about the destination.  Or wearing Wal-Mart bags on their heads.

IMG_1591 (2)I would be fabulously in shape, since I would be able to work out and do things like take walks, take long bike rides, and do yoga without anyone protesting.

.My house would be clean.
(Though I must say my house, however messy that it is, doesn’t look like a drunken Barbie orgy took place. Oh poor Flynn Ryder-it must hurt to be passed out in that pose…)

IMG_1185I would sleep, perchance to dream and not be awakened by a little one at 6 am on a Saturday “Mommy you need to GET UP!”  (Some people are just too perky that early…)

But I would NOT have:

Bloggers in my Top 20 could receive this beautiful handmade, um, thing.  She says its a weapon...Original artwork for free.  Like this, um thing.

IMG_0460The experience of seeing the world as a child sees it.

IMG_0876Free comedic entertainment (I think he’s trying to read someone’s shirt while running those bases).

IMG_1225Infinite love.

The truth is, although there are times when I would like to just be able to have a day away, I was a very boring person before my kids came along.  I really don’t want to imagine a life without them.

This post is written for all the Moms out there.  Happy Mother’s Day ladies!

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

http://www.BakingInATornado.com

http://chewylicious.wordpress.com/

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/

http://followmehome.shellybean.com

http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/

http://aworkingmomswhoas.blogspot.com/

https://sadderbutwiser.wordpress.com/

http://menopausalmother.blogspot.com/

dates2diapers2.blogspot.com

www.akashicwindow.blogspot.com

http://theycallmemummy.com

www.eviljoyspeaks.wordpress.com

Post Apocalyptic Hello Kitty and Grandpa Snake… Adventures in Imagination

Imagination is a very powerful thing.  My daughter has no shortage of imagination.  That’s why I’m almost a little worried.

Lately she has been begging me to play with her.  Pet Shop.  Barbies.  Hello Kitty.  But it’s not necessarily how you’d think she’d play.

The world of Hello Kitty, complete with weapons, torture, and a giant chicken.

Take Hello Kitty.  Princess Imagination has several of the Hello Kitty lego sets.  These Hello Kitties are not your run of the mill kitties.  They apparently exist in a post-apocalyptic society.  I noticed the kitties had assorted weapons-guns, swords, and axes.  “What are the weapons for?”  I innocently asked.  “They have to protect themselves against the bad guys.”  “Who are the bad guys?”  “The ones who try to steal their candy.”  Those are desperate measures, kitties.  I never realized how violent those cute little things could be.  I’ve noticed some lego guys without arms hanging out there too.  Not sure if they tried to steal candy, or if it’s some form of mutation from the fallout.  Speaking of mutation, there’s also a giant chicken.  Most recently she added the Death Star.  She said its the garage.  Makes you wonder what others say when they approach the Hello Kitty residence.  “That’s not a moon, that’s a space station.  No wait, it’s just a garage.”

I should have known the situation here when she announced all her Hello Kitties were in her room having a battle.

Oh the Barbies have to be the most fun.  Because we girls can do anything, right Barbie?  She has all of my old

Grandpa Snake is caught in many compromising positions.

Barbies.  I not only had the regular buxom blondes but also the Heart Family parents, kids, and grandparents.  Her favorite Barbie is the Heart Family Grandpa.  She latched on to him right away.  He was the first one she named.  “He’s Grandpa Snake.”  Grandpa Snake keeps some pretty interesting company, after all there is a LOT of nudity going on at this Barbie house (note the picture).  When the Barbies take a trip anywhere in their purple Volkswagon Beetle, she makes sure they take the toilet with them.  It’s in the trunk, because you just never know when you’ll have to really go!  A lot of Barbies seem to go missing their heads, which makes me think that they only think they are the only one.  I haven’t found a headless body laying next to a sword yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

I can only surmise what happened here… Barbie got the baby all ready to go out, then decide to take one quick naked roll around the house. Was knocked unconscious in a freak naked rollerskating accident…

I can’t really say anything… she is the daughter of a strange person with a rather big imagination.  Stay tuned for more adventures…

Enter The Princess…

I’d like to think that though she likes the princess thing that maybe she doesn’t buy into the whole someday my prince will come thing. Self saving princesses… handsome but idiot princes, like in this awesome Sesame Street episode.

Sometime around the second year of the Professor’s life I thought that maybe, just maybe it might be fun to have two kids.  What was I thinking???

A friend of mine’s husband works counseling children for a living.  He is quick to point out that only children are the ones who are the most messed up.  My apologies to only children out there that read my blog-if you’re reading my blog then you are just fine.  A little warped but just fine.  😉

So we decided to have a second child.  Once again on the first try we got it.  Looking at this track record it’s probably a REALLY good thing I’m on birth control.  My husband must have sniper sperm.

This one was a girl.  I should have realized something was different, because I was sick from the moment of conception on.  Days of contractions, then they broke my water and she was mad and came out immediately afterwards, angry.  This one didn’t sleep all the time.  This one wanted to be held at all times.  This one didn’t like to sleep, and she didn’t like to be in bed alone (which my husband has pointed out several times could be a big problem when she gets older.  I’ve told him I really don’t want to hear that right now.)  Not only that, but from day one she has voiced her opinion, loudly.  Yes, she has lungs.  AND personality.  LOTS of personality.

The first child was so logical about the world.  This one was everyone but.  We started out with Spock, we now add Eviela Knievel.  She never stopped moving in the womb, and hasn’t really stopped since-and now I know what she was doing in there the whole time.  This now four year old runs, jumps, tumbles, dances from the time she gets up until it’s time for bed, except when she’s cuddling with Mommy.  She’s never been afraid of anything logical like heights.  She jumps off of everything-the headboard of her bed has been used quite often for a diving board.  She dangles across the stairway railing on the WRONG side, hanging in midair and rolling her eyes at me when I tell her not to.  She climbs up slides and goes back down them backwards.  Yesterday my husband caught her riding her bouncy ball on the trampoline.  It’s a good thing she’s so athletic-she’d sure fall a lot more than she does if she wasn’t.  Thank goodness for that, she screams enough as it is.

She’d like to rule the world someday.  Right now she practices on her older brother.  I’ve lost count of how many times the Professor has been in trouble for something that he claims “SHE MADE ME DO IT!”  Not only does she try to command people, she also commands attention.  Apparently we never ever pay attention to her.  On top of that, she loves to argue.  Look out future debate teams.

We’ve never bought into the whole princess thing.  Yet somehow we managed to have a girl who loves all things princess.  We regularly point out to her that she is NOT a princess.  I don’t think she believes us (I guess there’s a silver lining in that-that makes me the queen.)  She also enjoys things that are not so girly.  She loves the Avengers-she actually saw it in the theater with us and almost behaved.  She loves her Daddy simply for the fact that he will roughhouse with her.  She will play with her brother’s Star Wars and Superhero action figures, but most of the time just prefers to do art and play Princess My Little Ponies as long as her Mommy will do it with her.

I’m quite a bit nervous about when she starts school.  She reads some.  She wants to work on the same stuff her brother does, but she wants to do it on HER terms.  “Mommy, TEACH ME TOO!”  At the moment she’s bored to death of being at home, but happy that she’s home with Mommy because every day is a girl’s day.  I’ve made a big basket of art projects to keep her occupied, but she wants to do them ALL.  Not so sure how long all of that is going to last.  Today I managed to stretch out one project into at least 45 minutes.  She wanted to make “animals” out of sparkly pom poms and craft sticks.  We made a worm.  She couldn’t wait for it to dry.  I taped two toilet paper tubes together for her to make a “worm house”, complete with windows, blanket, and worm food.  Unfortunately, since she was so impatient her little worm lost part of its body.  I glued the worm back together and warned her that she had to leave it alone until it was dry.  Ten minutes later she was trying to play with it.  Poor little worm.

Her imagination is so great.  That is one thing that her brother has a hard time with.  She is always making up things and playing.  He has a hard time with anything that’s not fact or based upon something else.  If they play something that has to do with a TV show, he will demand that they play it exactly to script.  She will make it up as she goes along.  The scientist and the artist.

We often call her Princess, but not like you’d think.  Oh no, we don’t do that.  If we refer to her as Princess, it’s more like this:  Princess Tantrum, Princess Pouty, Princess Poopypants, Princess Buttcheeks (we seem to not be able to keep our pants up, no matter how much they are adjusted-she seems to have a permanent buttcrack), Her Royal Tiredness, and so on and so on.  This is because there are no princesses, at least in our house.

People wonder why I’m exhausted-the reign of her royalness is tiring.  She loves her Mommy-she commands attention all day and all evening, and sometimes into the night.  Remember, this one doesn’t like to sleep.  She also wants to be near me at all times.  Anytime anyone else tries to sit next to me she must intervene and stop that nonsense.  The brother, the dog, the cat, any cousins that come to visit.  Jealousy runs wild in this one.  It’s good that I am so loved.

I’m done having kids.  Partly because I’m too old to be having more, partly because after her I don’t need any more, and we just don’t have the room.  I have a boy and a girl, so that’s ok.  I’m lucky that I was blessed with two very different personalities.  And also that she was not twins.

Could totally happen…