Built into a corner

Made the best fort with Ben(4) today. It had walls made of cardboard and wooden blocks. He had been begging me to build that fort for a few days, and sadly I just today found the time. So we build this fort and when we are finished we realize we have built it so well all around us that we can't get out...not without knocking down some walls. At some point in the building, Ben even says to me, "mom, Charlie (22 mos) is being such a good boy, he is not even knocking down our fort!" I say, yes he is being a good boy!", and then proceed to accidentally knock down like a third of the fort. Ben is a fabulous sport about it and says, "well mom, you aren't a very good builder, but that's ok, it is fun to knock it down sometimes." And Ben continues to play, and I watch him and Charlie and begin to think. We build our lives around us with all these activities; practice times, meetings, sport games, parties. And it is fun to build up our lives this way. We like it, and we wouldn't want to not have fun things to do and places to go. Sometimes, though we feel a bit backed in, locked into a routine that is so constraining that we forget that it is ok every now and then to "knock down a few walls." No one gets hurt if once in a while, when you are feeling locked in you decide to "take a day off" and skip the speech therapy session and go to a park and get icecream instead! You can always build the walls back up later if you like. And in the mean time, though your kids may think you are a bit clumsy or scattered for knocking down the walls, they also may say, "its fun to knock it down sometimes!" also don't want to forget -Scotty (11) looked so grown up mowing the lawn today all by himself -Jack (9) came out of school and hugged me so hard I coughed because he can't contain his excitement for the upcoming Disney trip. I feel for his teachers this week. -I love how Ben says "Chawlie." ps. my blackberry is back from the dead!