Slipping through my fingers

This week I've had a lot on my mind in the department of raising children (well, obviously, that is always all I have on my mind, really). Specifically, they are growing up before my very eyes and I'm constantly feeling like I need to try harder to maximize every single moment. Every time they go to bed I think, "GAH! I didn't take a single picture of them! I should have caught Troy's self-named "pizza dance" on video!" and other little regrets about capturing each moment forever. Meanwhile, when they are awake, I am steadily berating myself for all the wasted time (I really have to work hard to organize myself and make good use of my time. Otherwise, I have no idea what I do all day.)

For instance: today we were snowed in and basically spent the day at home. This afternoon right before dinner, the kids decided they wanted to play outside. So they bundled themselves up (I told them to do it themselves, because when it is nearly April I am mentally all done with winter and frankly just can't take another snow day!) and trooped outside with their sleds and snow shovel. I told them I'd get dinner on the table while they played. But I had a few minutes, so distractedly I found myself leisurely perusing Facebook. Then a little voice in my head snapped, "Krista! What do you think you are doing? You send those children out to play in the snow where they are having a fabulous time, and you are sitting here by yourself on Facebook??? Get off your lazy little bottom and get outside and play with them!" It was one of those moments where I felt guilty for not having thought of that myself - that my first reflex is always to seek some quiet "me"-time. So I tromped outside and had a wonderful time running that sled down the hill a couple times (just a couple - because darn it, it was COLD!) with little frosty bundled kids on my lap. Kate told me that she had written "I love Connor" in the snow. I said, "Where?" and she said, "Oh, you just ran over it with the sled."

Kate and Brooke's clothing choices explain how confused we all are about what season it is.

Tonight I was getting the kids ready for bed, and Troy came in the bathroom making a really high pitched "WHOOO!" noise to himself. Then he said proudly, "Mommy, I whistled!" He kept saying, "WHOOO!!! WHOOOO!!!" while I laughed really hard (to myself, to be polite), and he thoughtfully added, "I'm like a train!" You had to be there but it was so hilarious.

Sometimes I look back at the speeding years, like when I look at Kate and she is this kid, a BIG kid with opinions and tastes and a little independence, not the tiny little baby I cried on the couch with when we first moved to Maryland because I had no idea what the heck I was doing, and I just can't figure out how it all goes speeding by while I feel exactly the same. Then I look ahead to the teenage years (heaven help me, by the way) when I'll scarcely recognize these tiny little pig-tailed girls and train-whistling boy who all think they are secretly fairies, and I know I'll just kick myself for letting a single minute pass me by. I'll think, "I should have taken more pictures," or "I should have taken them to more fun places," or "I should have read more stories and colored more coloring books and baked more cookies." But then I remember that I DO do all of those things! So why doesn't it seem like there are enough of them? Maybe the answer is just to fill my house with babies from here until forever. I will always have a two-year-old in the house at all times if I can help it. We'll see how that works out for me.

Meanwhile, this past week while Kate was on spring break (or as she aptly called it, second winter break. Stupid relentless snowstorms), we took a day to visit the Crown Center in downtown KC. Oh, and I invited the little girl I babysit three afternoons a week (since I wasn't sure we'd be home early enough, and I was right) - plus I wanted to see how many kids I could wrangle without losing anyone. I was feeling daring.

We went to Hallmark's Kaleidoscope, which is a little art place where they send all the scraps and leftovers from the card factory and from the stores and let kids make all kinds of art projects. I had gone last year with Kate's kindergarten class, but it was different to see the rest of the place when I wasn't a parent volunteer. Um, I may or may not have taken a million pictures. Sorry. It's all in the name of documentation, right? These are moments lost to history...

Next we visited one of the rotating play exhibits the Crown Center does - this one was called "Funville", and it was a little mini-city. I couldn't get enough of this place. It was so adorable - I had dreams of building one in my basement. So creative!

One of my favorites was definitely the science lab. (I took plenty of pictures for Travis.) It was so clever!

The kids had visited his lab in MD a couple times, so I think this was fun for them.

 

  

 HA HA! Visions of things to come? Especially with Kate at the wheel!

 Kate as a lifeguard - Mom is so proud!

One last note - we were video chatting with my mom today, and the topic of granola bars came up (because we were eating them), and she asked if we ever made our own, like she used to when I was little. I said I wanted her recipe, and Kate said, "You can tell it to us, and we'll write it down!" So that's what we did. My mom read the recipe while Kate took notes. (She has had a lot of practice since her class had recently compiled a cookbook, and they have been working on writing recipes for weeks.) I thought her finished recipe card was so cute, especially with the little drawing of the granola bar at the bottom. It's quite true that no one likes to make a recipe without a picture of the finished product.

And last but not least, no matter how old he gets, this is how I will always always remember Troy: