It is HOT here right now.
This morning we made some of these and we went outside and had a blast playing with them!
Truth be told, Katrina got all dressed in her swimsuit but once she got outside, she wasn't interested in being hit by the sponges. Soon, Talia came to the door & asked me to join her outside. I thought about how I wouldn't be able to get photos of the fun. Then I quickly decided that wasn't the most important thing. I grabbed my flip flops and a moment later I was being hit left & right by water and Katrina changed her mind about being involved ;)
The squealing was loud and frequent, and at one point Talia exclaimed, "I didn't know Moms could scream!" haha :) Well, I'm glad she knows now.
If you're looking for a cheap ($1) and easy way to keep cool and have fun, grab yourself some dollar store sponges, cut them each into 3 strips, and tie them together with string or a rubber band, and you're good to go! (Photos are at the tutorial at HowDoesShe, link at the top of this post)
I can look back on my growing up years and clearly remember certain moments that made an impact on me. Moments when a parent made a choice to do something unexpected or unusual. Moments that showed me that I was important to them, that I mattered more than a lot of other things, to them.
I hope to create moments like these for my girls as well.
This week I had an opportunity to do that, and I'm so happy that I took it!
Wednesday was the second to last day of school. Ken had been gone overnight on Tuesday and called me from his lab about rearranging our schedule for that day. I spent longer on the phone with him than I realized, then went to eat breakfast with the girls. I looked up at the clock and realized that we had 3 minutes until we needed to leave for Talia's bus. Since I usually don't have a car, if she misses the bus, she misses school. So we went into speed mode and tried to get her ready so she wouldn't miss school.
I went crazy getting her lunch ready, she ran upstairs & got ready fast, I whipped Katrina’s clothes on her, whipped my clothes on, signed the report card, shoved everything in Talia’s backpack, realized she needed her hair done, so as we’re walk/running to the bus, I’m trying to pull the tiny elastic out of her hair from yesterday (which unfortunately hurt her) and brush her hair (now she’s semi-in tears & I’m apologizing profusely as we stand by the park & watch the bus pull up).
I feel terrible that she's so sad, we start running but Katrina’s not caught up. As we near the road, I call to Katrina, ask her to wait at the sidewalk and I run, holding Talia’s hand, to the bus. (Meanwhile another mom tells the bus driver we're coming & he waits). As we run, Talia sadly says she doesn’t want to go today but I feel like she will be sad if she doesn't go & it’ll be too late if she doesn’t get on that bus- so I encourage her, try to cheer her up, give her a kiss & she gets on the bus. I stand by her window blowing kisses & saying I love you with sign language, waving profusely at her sad face as she does the same.
I felt SO BAD!!! Then I ran back to Katrina who was standing sadly at the edge of the road, on the sidewalk, and sadly told me she didn’t get to say goodbye to Talia. I picked her up & comforted her during the walk through the park (not just because she didn't get to say goodbye to Talia, but because I feel bad that I left her on the sidewalk alone while I ran away with Talia!).
I set her down to walk and as we round the corner back to our house it hits me- We HAD THE CAR ALL ALONG! I totally could have gotten her ready at a good pace, had a family prayer, even read scriptures, had her happy & ready for school, and then driven her to school! I am so sad this didn’t occur to me earlier! I was thinking that if she missed the bus she would miss the day & there was nothing I could do about it.
So, I called my mom (to debrief haha ;) and made a plan to make it all better. I called the school to tell them I would be picking Talia up that morning for an "appointment". I picked her up, we drove to Wendy's and had a Frosty together while we talked, I apologized for the crazy morning, and then we took her back to school happy.
Talia & I (Photo by Verity Doktor Photography)
I'm sometimes intimidated by the school... I have to put it into perspective and remind myself that I'm her mother and if I want to take her out for an hour, it's okay! I think I'll get over this in time, but for now I'm still coming to terms with it. Am I the only one who feels or has felt this way?
Anyway, I'm so glad I did it.
It was a fun memory for the 3 of us, and it felt to me like a parenting moment that mattered.
(and let's be honest, the report cards were already in- she wasn't missing anything important!)
