The Endless Snot-Filled Winter

WILL THIS WINTER EVER END??!

 
I can tell it's been a rough winter. If I didn't know it myself, Facebook would've tipped me off. My newsfeed generally consists of:

 
a) screenshots of the weather network to show how "nope, nope, nope" cold it is out there
b) updates about friends' kids' illnesses. Antibiotics! Another trip to the ER! More puking!


With all the rashes and ear infections and flus flying around, I think I was able to keep all of two social engagements with the kids the whole month of January. In our case, I'm not sure if it was many colds, or one big long one, but there were runny noses and crabbiness aplenty.  Poor little tykes.


Of course, one would think we could take advantage of these cold, sick days indoors by wrapping up in a blanket together on the couch all cozy-like and reading our favourite books. And we do, for about 15 minutes. Then the rest of the day looks more like this:

(Big Bro likes to wear his sledding helmet around the house. May as well, since at this rate we won't get out to do any sledding)


Of course, I got sick too. Quelle surprise, considering I've got kids barking and sneezing directly on my eyeballs. No amount of handwashing's going to help with that. Thankfully, I have a very considerate son who saw my suffering and attempted to make me feel better. He came to me with the Neti Pot and offered me some tea. Ew. No thanks. Appreciate the sentiment though.


Anyway. I don't have much else to say on the subject. I just needed  to have a bit of a rant, because it's only January and it's already been the longest, coldest, shackwackiest winter of all time.

Getting Back into Kid Mode

Not long ago, someone posted a meme on Facebook with a picture of an awesome couch cushion fort, with the caption "Building Forts: Admit it-you miss doing it". It made me think of how, when you have kids, you can get back into doing all these cool kid things, all while maintaining some sort of dignity, because you're doing it for them, after all.


Christmas recently passed, and it was the first Christmas in which Big Bro "got" it; the whole Santa, presents, countdown to Christmas morning thing. I just may have been more excited than him, but the whole season had a renewed energy to it, and it reminded me of how cool it is to have kids in your life. You can get back to "kid mode", in case you lost it along the way.


For instance, how fun is it to go to the local heritage village museum where they have miniature ride-on steam trains, and be able to walk right up and ask for a ride? I might've lined up for a ride if I was kidless (as I'm sure many do already), but I unfortunately learned to be embarrassed doing goofy stuff in public once I hit Junior High, so I know I'd be laughing nervously and playing it up so that everyone knew I was being IRONIC by being excited about riding a little train.


Now, though, I have a young son-- HE loves trains! Well! Must put my needs aside and take the little lad for a train ride. But of course I'll need to accompany him. Yes, I know, how noble of me. And, while we're at it, let's treat the dear to a second lap around the track so Dad can have a turn he can really soak in the experience.

We were in Kingston over the summer at a hotel with a water slide. Big Bro is still too small for them just yet, so I felt a little embarrassed going alone while he stayed and watched in the little pool. A little embarrassed, I said; not enough to not go several times. But I'll feel so much less like I need to avoid eye contact with the teenage lifeguard once I'm accompanying the kids.


Then there's the local enormous play gym we frequent. 3 storeys of padded climbing and sliding mayhem. It's not for everyone, I admit (even me, I avoid it like the plague on ped. days). In one area, though, there's a slide so long, you can't see the bottom from the top. Accompanying Big Bro on his sliding adventures, I ended up crashing into him as he waited for me at the bottom. Good thing it was just him. I can see the headlines now: "WOMAN IN MID-THIRTIES PLOWS INTO INNOCENT CHILDREN WHILE SLIDING"... but wait! I'm a parent! I was just accompanying my kid! The "weeeee" was for his benefit!


Go-karts. Reading in a circus tent in the living room with a flashlight. Tobogganing. Couch cushion forts! And then there are the kids' cool new Christmas presents that we got to try out. I've caught Hubs a few times enthusiastically in the zone making a block tower with Big Bro... only Big Bro was long gone.

Not all kid stuff is fun to us adults, of course-- but the stuff that is, we can now do it with heads held high, because we're doing it for the kids. Or at least that's what it looks like, which is good enough for me.