Dance

I am me. I am blunt. I can be intolerant. I love my children. I will do what needs to be done to make sure they know it. And when they are grown, I hope we all dance.

What are you singing?

I previously mentioned that Mina walks around singing Funkytown. I did not realize until this weekend that her version is this.
"Well I taco body taco body taco body taco body. Taco body taco body movin."

Once again, a child with her mother's keen ability to make up any lyrics that might elude her.

Jammin to the oldies

Mina walks around the house singing two songs that make me laugh. One is Mama Mia by Abba. The other is Funkytown by Lipps, Inc.

Observation

For those of you who do not play World of Warcraft this post might not make sense. Ari, John, and I went to a dungeon on Sunday. Ari brought her toon who is a death knight. Some death knights have a talent in which they can blow up mobs after you have killed them. Ari loves this skill. When you blow them up they just turn in to a pile of bones. So we had fought this big floating tentacled boss and she blew him up. And then she said, "You know for a big guy he has really small bones."

Can you color them all?

One day while searching for a coloring page of the Pokemon espeon I stumbled upon a treasure. For my two Pokemon trainers in training this is the mother lode.

One more from Meet The Robinson's

Keep Moving Forward

Meet the Robinson's

We have watched the movie Meet the Robinson's about a half dozen times in the last 2 days. If you happen to get a hold of the DVD I highly recommend watching the making of feature. The story of how the movie came to be is inspiring. And this song is beautiful.

Lucky

I tell the girls every day, "I am so lucky." and now Mina has started saying, "Mom, you are so lucky."

This one is for Trevelyn

This video brings together two of our friend Trevelyn's favorite things, dinosaurs and fart jokes.

Summer just got sweeter

When you live somewhere for a really long time you think you know your area. But, I can tell you, we are having some pleasant surprises lately. First, the realization that the Jordan River Parkway Trail is now accessible from my home by merely walking up a block and crossing a street. They just completed the section nearest our house and it is lovely running my friends. Next, that the Legacy Parkway Trail will be accessible from our house in the foreseeable future and it has at this moment 14 miles of car-less bike riding enjoyment. And, just to put icing on that already lovely (and proverbial) cake, Ari met a girl who lives down the street tonight and they became fast friends. On a trivial side note, Ari's new friend and I share a birthday- how cool is that? But wait, there is more, neighbor girl has a three year old sister. Can you even believe it? Summer is here and it is sweet. I am so pleased I may even have to start posting photos again.

Weight of the world...

Yesterday Ari and I had the most interesting conversation. It went something like this.

Ari: Mom, can I play out front?
Me: I would prefer you play in the back yard while I make food and then after we eat I will come out front with you.
Ari: Why are you the boss?
Me: Because I am the mom. Because some rules are about safety and because it is not okay for me to be inside trying to make food and at the same time worry about you and your sister's safety.

Sometimes I use these conversations to explain or even apologize about past decisions, especially if we have had to change something that was not working for our family. So I went on.

You know Ari, your dad and I made a bad decision. We were giving you too much freedom and too much responsibility. You are young and although you are smart and you are wise, we have been around longer. We now feel that there is such a thing as age appropriate freedom. And, we try really hard to work out an agreeable solution. However, sometimes the answer is just no and sometimes the final decision may not be something all parties are completely excited about. But we do our best.

I also explained to her that we felt that too much freedom and too much responsibility had given her a lot of stress. That sometimes it is good to know that some one has your back and is looking out for you.

You could practically feel the tension of the world being lifted off her back. It was a really interesting thing to have happen. She then started in to a different topic happy as any six year old could be.

So, once again, I am happy we are doing it OUR way and that really we do not care if we are doing it all wrong anymore. No book can raise your kids for you and no person up on their soapbox is living your life for you. You and your family have to live with the daily and life long consequences of your choices, so you best make them for yourself.