ajpassey - Because Babies Grow Up

Adventure Outside the Checklist by Alisha Gaddis

March 10, 2015 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

We’re planning a family trip to NYC for Spring Break. As I’m pouring over travel guides, maps, and museum reviews, I remembered this gem first published in Growing Up Magazine last year. Thanks to the lovely Alisha Gaddis of Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band, I’m excited to bring you her epic adventure taking their daughter to NYC for the first time. Also, Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band has a campaign on Indiegogo right now where you can help fund their next album, Adelante! They are the real deal when it comes to artists who give everything to their craft. Please, check out their campaign and consider how you’d love to help them get this album into your hands.

Adventure Outside the Checklist

Guest post from Alisha Gaddis, comedienne, singer, creative extraordinaire

I am a planner. I love charts and lists, spreadsheets and itineraries. My planning obsession works fabulously in my favor, due to the fact that my husband and I run our own business, Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band, we get the opportunity to travel the country creating music and performing for families. You need a lot of checklists to make our tours go smoothly!

When it comes to our own little family, I plan trips months and YEARS in advance. Since we get the opportunity to do a lot of joyous activities for our jobs- we try to take special time trips that don’t include any business and focus on reconnecting and celebrating!

Such is the case with our recent Big Apple extravaganza. I lived and went to college in New York City for quite some time before moving to Los Angeles, and NYC will always hold my heart. Nothing quite beats the hustle and bustle. The pulse of the city, the magic of the lights, the feeling that you could be lost and found at the same moment. Nothing beats New York.

I had been hyping NYC up to my stepdaughter since she was 5 years old. We promised her we would take her there on her 10^th birthday- not before, not after. In kid language- 5 years is torture.

But all this time caused her to burst at the seams with excitement and anticipation with the build up. In the years leading up to this particular trip, she collected maps, memorabilia and we googled pictures online together. Every time my husband and I traveled there to perform (about 3-4 times per year), we left her begrudgingly at home- promising a magical adventure in the Empire State…eventually. This may sound odd or harsh, but one of the aspects I believe most in about parenting- is the perpetuation of hope, delayed gratification, and above all else- MAGIC!!

Was the nearly five year wait brutal? Yes. Did it sometimes seem ridiculous? Yes. Did we continue to take her other places including: Paris, London and more in the meantime? Yes. But did NYC become a goal, a dream and something for her to yearn for? YES!

Was it all worth it? ABSOLUTELY!!

The day she woke up for our mecca- she sprang out of bed like Christmas morning with a caffeine injection! We could not get there soon enough.

We only had three days for our adventure and the giant stormageddon that rocked the east coast threatened to shut down our plans! But it didn’t. I still don’t know how- but we made it, and from the moment she saw the twinkling lights of the skyline coming across the bridge to Manhattan- I knew she was hooked!

My itinerary of extravagant delight was ready (I had 5 years to plan after all) and included: go to the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day, visit the Statue of Liberty, ice skate in Central Park, feast on her first slice of NY pizza, razzle dazzle backstage at a hit Broadway show to meet the cast and crew, journey to the Metropolitan Museum of art for a massive dose of cultural delight, hail a taxi, ride a subway, gobble up a black & white cookie from a proper bakery, wave to Radio City Music Hall, visit NYU’s campus, and more.

And guess what- we did it all!

She enjoyed and relished in each moment. We all did.

But like always, the things that weren’t on my epic adventure checklist were also fabulous, perhaps even more so! Isn’t that how life is? No matter how much we plan- it is always the moments that sneak in from the side, the glimpses of life, the bursts of joy that truly make up the journey.

Whilst fulfilling our to-do list of tourism gone wild- we stumbled upon a man playing a grand piano. In the snow. In the middle of Central Park. Stunning, haunting and profound. My stepdaughter got to see snow fall from the sky for the first time, squealing with excitement each time she caught a flake with her tongue. We raided FAO Schwartz with dear friends of ours, and our children played for hours amongst the giant stuffed animals and the piano for ‘BIG.’ Their excitement and shiny eyes made everything perfect. We all held hands and had snowballs fights. We took a break in a café that served tableside smores and dried our wet socks. We laughed and got fresh bread from the café under the apartment our best friends so kindly let us stay in. We made memories and had communal dinners and enjoyed each other completely.

Those were the moments.

Were my plans a success? YES.

Were my plans just the jumping off point for living our best lives? ABSOLUTELY!

And we must be NUTS….We have now promised her a trip to China for her 13^th birthday! Better get to planning!

{You guys ARE nuts, Alisha! Good luck getting to China.}

Don’t forget to check out the Indiegogo campaign to get Adelante!, the next album from Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band, in production and into your family’s musical library.

Christmas Poems for Kids

December 11, 2014 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

We are now in full Christmas festivities around here. Our bedtime songs are all Christmas ones and most of the books we’re reading are Christmas or winter themed. I love this time of year because despite the crafts we do all year long, we seem extra crafty in December. Over the top of all these activities, are the rhymes and fingerplays about Santa, reindeer, Christmas trees and snowmen that make us giggle and collapse in snuggles on the couch. Seriously, it’s the best!

Christmas Poems for Kids

Here Is The Chimney

Reindeer Pokey

5 Little Christmas Trees

Christmas Bells

5 Little Snowmen {free printable}

Find even more Christmas poems for kids on Laptime Songs.

Poems and Early Literacy

Learning nursery rhymes at a young age has proven to benefit those children as readers at 8 years of age. For a full review of the literature on this, visit Mel’s Desk and follow through all the comments. Great information there!

Here’s my take on it: Nursery rhymes expose young children to the structure and sounds of language. The more exposure they receive, the stronger the foundation they build. When their language foundation is strong, especially in the sounds of language, they can transition from spoken to written language more easily. These benefits, while valuable, are also long term and will take years to see the fruits of your labors.

For more immediate gratification, here are some fruits you can see almost right away when children are exposed to nursery rhymes, and I would extend that to rhymes, songs and fingerplays in general. Repeating rhymes builds the early literacy skill of phonological awareness. Helping children hear the individual sounds of language and how those sounds work together to form words builds vocabulary and grammatical patterns. Nursery rhymes are perfect for helping little ones get a sense for the feel and rhythm of the language. They also begin to recognize rhyming schemes that show them how sounds are used in the language. Setting words to music is another way to slow down the language and help little ones hear the individual sounds that make up words.

Ready for all that awesomeness to unfold for your little one? Start right now by sharing these Christmas poems for kids from Laptime Songs.

Two Turtle Doves Craft and Ornament

December 2, 2014 by ajpassey 9 Comments

I’m joining up with a few other bloggers to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas. Yesterday we kicked off with a fun Partridge in a Pear Tree ornament and snack from Silly Sparkles. Today I’m sharing a cute Two Turtle Doves craft and ornament. Tomorrow you can head to Learning and Exploring Through Play for a fun project with 3 French Hens.

Two Turtle Doves Craft

Inspired by these sweet birds that popped up in my Pinterest feed, we set out to make two turtle doves out of simple shapes. After studying a google search of turtle doves, we decided to go with white and brown for our colors and to create a fanned tail. Since turtle dove bodies appear to be rather long, we added a circle head to the original bird. We used cookie cutters to make our circles and triangle that we cut out of the paper. We dabbed the cutters on an ink pad then pressed the cutters to the paper to leave the shape that we used as a guide for cutting.

Cut out of white paper:

two large circles

four small circles

Cut out of brown paper:

two medium circles

two triangles

hole punch four circles

Cut out of orange paper:

two triangles

Assemble Your Two Turtle Doves

To assemble the body: Fold each of the large white circles in half. Do the same with the medium brown circles. Using a glue stick, attach the brown circle to the large white circle placing the fold in the brown on the fold in the white. Fold the brown triangle in half and glue to the underside of the white circle, again placing the folds inside each other.

To assemble the head: Fold the bird in half along the fold. Apply glue to one small white circle and place at the tip of the bird opposite the tail. Place the orange triangle for the beak on the glue side of the small white circle. Apply glue to one side of the other small white circle and place on the small white circle attached to the body. The beak and the tip of the body should be sandwiched between the two small white circles. Glue hole-punched brown circles, one on each side of the head, for eyes.

Repeat again for the second turtle dove. My older girls were able to stamp the cookie cutters on to the paper and cut out their shapes without my help, just my supervision. For my younger ones, I would prep this activity by cutting all the pieces ahead of time and then beginning this activity from the assembly directions.

These two turtle doves are just darling! Since the bottom edge of the body isn’t glued together, they can rest on a flat surface. We found that our turtle doves rocked with the beak dipping down to the table. We imagined the two turtle doves were pecking for seeds. By giving the tail a slight push, we enjoyed watching our turtle doves rock back and forth for quite some time.

Turn Two Turtle Doves into an Ornament

Since turtle doves represent love and devotion, we created a heart shaped pocket for them. Again, we used a cookie cutter to make the shape and cut out the heart from thick scrapbook paper. Then I hole punched up the sides and sewed the yarn through tying it in a bow at the bottom. Now the two turtle doves have a lovely home on our Christmas tree.

Happy Holiday season! What fun memories are you making with your family this year?

This post is part of a festive blog hop series for the ’12 Days of Christmas’ – a lovely collection of craft ideas hosted by Silly Sparkles!

Click on the image above to follow each of the 12 Days of Christmas craft ideas!

Taking part in this blog hop are:

Silly Sparkles – A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Because Babies Grow Up – 2 Turtle Doves

Building Blocks and Acorns – 3 French Hens

Messy Little Monster – 4 Calling Birds

Multicrafting Mummy – 5 Golden Rings

Swords and Snoodles – 6 Geese a Laying

Craft Ideas for Kids – 7 Swans a Swimming

Three Foot Cooks – 8 Maids a Milking

Making Memories in the Chaos – 9 Ladies Dancing

Adventures of Adam – 10 Lords a Leaping

Play Explore Learn – 11 Pipers Piping

Learning and Exploring Through Play – 12 Drummers Drumming

Snowman Crafts and Activities

December 1, 2014 by ajpassey 1 Comment

Today I’m over at ALLterNATIVE Learning sharing some snowman crafts and activities. There’s even a free printable for snowman finger puppets to use with a cute snowman poem. Read about all the snowman fun here.

Welcome ALLterNATIVE Learning readers!

I’m so excited to have you stop by today and check out Because Babies Grow Up. My babies have been growing up on this blog for about 5 years so the archives are a treasure of fun activities, crafts, play ideas that have been a big hit with our crew.

If you love to craft with your little one, this Twinkle Twinkle Little Star craft for preschoolers has been a big with with our kids when they were preschoolers. Another favorite with our kids was when we tried to guess what babies were thinking with this fun craft inspired by the song Mama Dada Blues.

If you’re after ways to make reading fun, check out our Three Little Pigs Store or our I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly activity. For more information on early literacy skills and how to help your little one develop them, check out this series on Emergent Literacy. (It starts at skill #1 and links to all of them within the post.)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t invite you to enjoy some awesome music that is perfect for kids with a sound you’ll love as well. This genre of music, called Kindie, is growing quickly as more musicians are making quality music for the whole family to enjoy together that draws on experiences and topics of interest to children. Some of our favorites are Bari Koral, Recess Monkey, and the Okee Dokee Brothers.

Thanks for visiting! Hope you enjoy your stay. You can keep up with Because Babies Grow Up on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.

I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment letting me know what you loved about your visit today.

Thanksgiving Poems, Books, and a Craft

November 21, 2014 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving is right around the corner! I love taking the month of November to enjoy fall, family, and food. We’re so lucky this year to be close enough to a few of Brent’s siblings that we are able to all get together for Thanksgiving. Since our kids will have a cousin and some other friends to play with, I thought I’d organize a little activity to help them get in the mood for their turkey dinner. I’ve collected some Thanksgiving poems as well as a couple books and a craft to keep them busy while they wait for dinner to begin.

When we lived in Utah I volunteered at the Orem Library as a story time teller for the youngest age group. Since it was for babies and young toddlers, it was called laptime. I loved learning how to incorporate rhymes, books and songs into a 20 minute experience that brought the joy of language and reading to little ones and their caregivers. I still use these skills when I plan playdates or community programs, or holiday gatherings. That’s why there’s a mix of Thanksgiving poems, songs, books and a hands-on craft in our Thanksgiving plans. Combining all of them together builds on the learning for each child as it’s easier to make connections from new information to already known stuff.

Our (hopefully) 20 Minute Plan

Start with the hands-on craft. Starting with the Feather Letter Turkey from Jodie at Growing Book by Book, the kids have something active to do while they transition into learning the Thanksgiving poems and songs. There are lots of ways to start a story time, but I’m choosing the craft this time because I think it will be something fun for them to use while we sing the Thanksgiving songs and learn the Thanksgiving poems.

Introduce the Thanksgiving poems and songs. While I’m crafting with my kids, (or cooking with them, or folding laundry with them) I often sing whatever song I know that our craft brings to mind. I find my kids are really willing to join in with me in reciting poems or singing songs during craft time. So while the kids are cutting feathers and coloring their turkey, I’m going to introduce the songs and poems. Here are the five I’m using next week.

Thanksgiving Poems and Songs

Mr. Turkey (sung to Are You Sleeping)

If You’re Thankful and You Know It (play on If You’re Happy and You Know It)

Hello, Mr. Turkey (also sung to If You’re Happy and You Know It)

Thanksgiving Day (4 line poem)

Turkey Poem (4 line poem)

Once everyone has their turkey finished, we will recite and sing the Thanksgiving poems and songs. Kids love repetition! Especially if they like something, they want to do it again and again. They are hardwired this way to facilitate learning. Once we’ve gone through all the poems and songs, I usually ask which is the favorite and we’ll do that one again. If there are multiple favorites, then we’ll do each one. I know it sounds like a lot, but it takes about a minute to recite the Thanksgiving poems and only a couple minutes for the longest song.

Once the wiggles are out, we’ll cozy up with our turkeys and read two books. Both of these books have great rhythm and rhyming so make for fun read alouds. We’ve had Gobble-Gobble Crash for a few years and have loved it. Though this year Scott is particularly fond of it. He requests it at lunch time frequently. Thanks for Thanksgiving is new to us this year and and I’m excited to add it to our collection of Fall/Thanksgiving books that I look forward to pulling out each year.

And that’s it! I’ll leave the kids with the books and their turkeys and run off to help with anything else that needs doing.

In keeping with the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m so thankful for the time I was able to volunteer at the Orem Library. It changed my life and has continued to shape who I am and how I spend my time with my kids. I’m also very thankful that we have four kids who ALL love books. Sammi has started to disappear and I’ll find her in her room totally engrossed in a book. I love that!

What are you thankful for this year?

10 Bedtime Poems from Mother Goose Treasury

November 18, 2014 by ajpassey 5 Comments

It’s the end of a busy day full of playing and yet, your little one seems more wound up and full of energy than should be possible. The crazy activity of little ones at bedtime is mind boggling. I call it tired energy! It seems that when little ones get tired, they are less able to regulate their behaviors and control their impulses. As their tiredness increases, their behavior seems to spiral out of control.

I’ve heard countless stories of parents abandoning bedtime plans because their child doesn’t appear tired and so they let them play in an effort to wear the child out to be ready for bedtime. But it could take hours for the child to behave in a way that looks tired to an adult. So, the second I see tired energy taking over, we double our bedtime efforts. Part of our bedtime routine is reading books and singing songs. The books are usually read just before getting into bed with songs finishing up our bedtime routine. These two activities, books and songs, are the perfect way for our kids to settle down and drift off to sleep.

Some nights it feels like we’ll never get to that point, though, with all the tired energy creating chaos as we move from bath to pajamas to teeth brushing. On nights like this, I reach into my bag of tricks and pull out these bedtime poems. I’ll choose whichever comes to mind or seems to relate to what we’ve done during the day. Instead of nagging to please come back to the bathroom with that tooth brush! I’ll just recite a poem. The rhyming and the rhythm of bedtime poems naturally draws children’s attention in. Some nights I just repeat the same rhyme a few times adding in tickles or silly faces. Other nights we’ll run through all the poems I can think of.

Let’s build your arsenal of bedtime poems to help you fight the tired energy. These 10 bedtime poems are a great start. They are found in the Mother Goose Treasury. Often, after we’re done and ready to read, we’ll find the poems we recited together in the book and read it one more time. The illustrations are so beautiful in the Mother Goose Treasury published by Parragon. It’s a great way to transition into the reading portion of our bedtime routine.

10 Bedtime Poems

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Star Light, Star Bright

Go To Bed Late

Bedtime

Wee Willie Winkie

Just click on each title to find the full lyrics in case you need a little reminder. Also, to help with remembering the lyrics in the heat of battle (agains the tired energy) I created this printable with the words to 6 of these bedtime poems. Just print it out and cut it up. You can keep them in the bathroom, on the dresser in your kids room, or where ever the tired energy seems to interrupt your bedtime routine.

Bedtime Poems Free Printable

Instructions: Print this sheet of bedtime poem cards on sturdy paper. Cut out the cards. Laminate if desired. Keep cards in the bathroom or on your little one’s dresser. Choose a poem to focus on each night or each week. Recite the poem during your bedtime routine to help your little one stay focused on getting ready for bed.

Don’t forget to follow up your poem by finding it in Mother Goose Treasury. This helps your little one learn so much about books and develops early literacy skills that will help them as the become readers.

Read and Do: I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

November 12, 2014 by ajpassey 1 Comment

Kids love exploring the impossible. As they develop their understanding of how the world works, they find humor in stories and songs that break the rules. Our three year old giggled endlessly the first time we read the book I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. With each new animal he sputtered out, “No! She can’t” between fits of laughter.

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, published by the Secret Mountain, has beautiful illustrations that captivated Scott from the beginning. This boy has claimed ownership of this book and is very particular about if and when anyone else can read it. The book comes with a CD containing 12 songs, the first of which is I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. There are 16 pages of the book devoted to illustrating this song. The other 11 songs are included after, each with a 2 page spread of the lyrics and accompanying illustrations. Scott will sit for the entire length of this album and follow along in the book. His favorite of the additional songs is “Sailing Over the Sea” or as he calls it, “The Pirate Song.” My favorite is “Heel, Toe, and Away We Go” about traveling to different places in the world. I always love a good traveling song!

Read and Do: I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

To enjoy the silliness of this story, here’s a fun activity where you or your little one can turn into the old lady and (pretend) eat all those animals! The kids all laughed so hard when I came out in the silver wig and apron. We sang the song together so kids could remember which animal came next. It also allowed us to pause for a little acting when needed. But you could also do it while listening to Thomas Hellman and Emilie Clepper sing it.

I collected a (butter)fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, goat, cow and horse from our collection of stuffed animals and figurines. I spread them out on the table in a random order to further require the kids to remember which came next. After we had all taken turns and it was time to clean up, I put all the animals in a basket with the book that received a lot of play the remainder of the week.

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is available on Amazon and in iBooks. The iBooks version has the option to be narrated and includes 2 songs. Scott loved flipping through the book on the iPad. Though he very much loves the hard copy.

Learning with I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Kids need to hear the same thing again, and again, and again. It’s a necessary part of their learning process. As adults we often tire more quickly of a particular song (Let It Go, anyone?) or a particular book (Good Night Moon, right?) but for our children, these repeated exposures are slowly and firmly building a framework for understanding language, emotions, information, relationships, LIFE! Listening, singing, and reading I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly over and over is engaging for you little one as they see different patterns with each exposure.

Math: Each creature she eats gets progressively larger. Sizes small, medium and large are great preschool math concepts. Comparing them to each other teaches spatial awareness in an abstract way, for example, by asking which is bigger, the spider or the horse.

Science: Animals are a great science topic for little ones. Learning about different animals, how they live, what they do and eat, and then learning about their relationships with each other. Dogs chase cats and cats chase birds which eat insects.

Language Arts: There is great vocabulary in I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Words like absurd and wriggle are fun words to know. As kids are singing this song, they have multiple chances to practice simple words as they are first learning to talk. One kindergarten readiness skill is for children to be able to tell a story in the correct order. Since the chorus of I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly repeats adding one new action each time, this is great practice for remembering the order of actions in a story.

I hope you and your little one have as much fun with this activity as we have had! I’d love to see you or your child dressed up as the old lady. You can tag me on Instagram @becausebabiesgrowup or share it on my Facebook page Because Babies Grow Up. And as always, I’d love to hear from you so please leave a comment with your thoughts!

Animal Tales from Key Wilde and Mr Clarke

November 3, 2014 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

Released last month, Animal Tales has been a super hit with our clan. Key Wilde and Mr Clarke weave facts, storytelling and music into a beautiful listening experience. Animal Tales was part of our Road Trip Soundtrack to Hershey last month and we loved singing along to Bear Song and Alligator Get-Together.

Today, Key Wilde and Mr Clarke are debuting a new music video from Animal Tales.

Armando Armadillo is the story of a hardworking family man just trying to get home safely to his wife and three sets of gender-identical quadruplets. The video is reminiscent of the Brady Bunch and the computer game Frogger. Man, I loved playing Frogger. Check out Armando’s road crossing skills now!

To celebrate the release of Animal Tales and the music video for Armando Armadillo, Key Wilde and Mr Clarke are offering a free download of this song from their Soundcloud page. You can also stay up to date with this energetic duo on Facebook or their website.

My Unexpected Inspiration: Milton Hershey

October 28, 2014 by ajpassey 4 Comments

In a time long ago and a place not too far from our home lived a man who finally made it. Years of failed ventures and experience gained finally converged with a product idea that put a rural community in Pennsylvania on the national and international map.

Armed with a fourth grade education, Milton Hershey learned candy making during a four year apprenticeship in Lancaster, PA. At age 19 he moved to Philadelphia to open his first company, which went bankrupt in 6 years. After traveling and learning and looking for opportunities, Hershey started two more candy making companies which also failed.

Standing in the Hershey Story Museum and reading about these failed business ventures, I felt a kinship with Milton Hershey. In the last 10 years I have explored several opportunities that have been unsuccessful and costly. I’m so grateful for a loving and supportive husband who believes in me and walks this path with me. There are so many times when I feel defeated by not producing the outcome I envision. How? How do you overcome the guilt and discouragement of failing?

“What’s remarkable is not the number of times Hershey failed. It is the number of times he tried.”* Moving forward with a vision refined by experience and motivated by passion, that’s how to overcome failure. Want to know Milton Hershey’s secret to success? “The ambition to think big. A fearless inventiveness. And most unusual, the ability to nurture a creative climate, inspiring workers to innovate and experiment.”*

Many companies today are trying to figure out how to create a culture of creativity for their employees and here Milton Hershey was doing that over a century ago! Hershey didn’t just build a factory, he built a community. His grand vision for this community included cultural resources, parks and education for workers and their families. Instead of just providing housing for his employees, he encouraged people to buy their homes thus having a stake in nurturing the community. Most importantly, Milton Hershey wanted a place for families; a place where workers would want to raise their children.

Milton Hershey was a man who took BIG risks. He had several failed attempts to find just the right product to start his business. But when he landed on the perfect fit, milk chocolate in rural Pennsylvania, his vision accelerated the success and growth of the Hershey Chocolate Corporation.

I might still be in my floundering stages of finding the right fit for my creative ambitions and desire to give encouragement and beauty to the world around me. I might have days of discouragement where the day-to-day responsibilities of home, motherhood and marriage seem daunting and I wonder if I’ll ever move out of survival mode. I might even have days where the weight of my mistakes and failings leaves me hopeless that I’ll ever make my inward dreams an outward, concrete reality.

But today I feel inspired. I feel hopeful. I feel empowered. I feel ambitious!

How are you feeling today?

*These quotes come from The Hershey Story Museum’s exhibit on the history of Milton Hershey. When you stay at the Hershey Lodge, you receive complementary tickets to the Hershey Story Museum for each member of your group. Photo credit for Milton Hershey goes to Hershey Entertainment & Resorts.

To My Sweet Sammi

October 23, 2014 by ajpassey 1 Comment

Dear Sammi,

You are only eight, but today I wish you had a cell phone.

This has been a hard week of getting out the door and off to school. We’ve been later and slower than usual. The added stress of rushing has left us both a little frazzled, and it’s left me a bit grumpy.

You are so full of life! You have so much joy in waking up to a new day. You are excited to rush off to school, to friends, to learning, to your teacher. Part of me aches that you are gone so much of the day. You are rushing through childhood at breakneck speed and I just want to slow it all down. I want to savor the moments we have together in the morning.

Sammi (on right) with your little sister, Ellie

And yet, for the third morning this week, our last precious moments together were filled with grumpy misunderstandings. All I wanted was to get to you and hug and kiss you before you left. All you wanted was to get out the door to catch the bus. And yet, rushing to get your little sister’s back pack ready, and hoping the boys didn’t wake up got in the way of me connecting with you.

And so I wish you had a cell phone so I could send you a text. An apology. A reminder that I really do love you. 2:30 seems so far away to be able to hug you and make amends for this morning. By then this morning will be a faded memory, hardly even a thought. And yet, I’m worried that so many mornings, though consciously forgotten, will subconsciously affect our relationship. There just seems to be so much to do that sometimes what we really want gets crowded out by what others need.

So today, I’ll double up on making happy memories and focusing on connecting. Let’s make cookies and pumpkin muffins together. Deal? I hope so!

I love you everyday!

Love,
Mom