My favorite musical is Fiddler on the Roof. I never get tired of it and subsequently, I've seen it a lot. So, whenever I develop a habit of doing something with my kids, I immediately think of the song Tradition. "Who must know the way to make a proper home, a quiet home, a kosher home? Who must raise the family and run the home, so Papa's free to read the holy books? The Mama, the Mama! Tradition! The Mama, the Mama! Tradition!"
Thus it was these last few weeks. Benjamin read a book recently about a bear family picking apples and then having a picnic and now he wants to have a picnic every day. It has become a real highlight of our days. We make our lunch, gather up the sippy cups and beach towel and head out into the back yard. It's been wonderful weather and it's so relaxing to eat and play and pick peas from our garden and just enjoy that time together. And even when the rain from the night before has soaked the grass, we just sit on the concrete instead. There's something different about eating outside together rather than at the table. The atmosphere completely changes. Our favorite things to do are to listen to the different bird calls or to see which little bugs come over to check out our feast. When we're done, we wipe our hands on the towel and come inside. I love our picnics. It's a great tradition.
So, take a careful look at Bella's hair in the picnic picture. That was taken a day or two after we got home from our trip. Here's another cute picture of her from the same time.
Now look at this one taken a few days later.
Notice anything? That haircut was not my doing - it was hers. She has developed a hair-ripping habit and has ripped out all the hair on the top of her head. Sites on the internet claim that kids do it as a result of stress or over stimulation. I guess our Utah trip, with its constant go-go-go pace was a bit too much for her. She started ripping a few days before we came home and within a week, she had huge bald patches. Thereafter she continued at home until I finally had to cut off what remained, so she'd stop and also so she'd look slightly normal again. Now every day I get people telling me, "Oh, she's so cute. You know, I love bald babies, my .... was bald until he/she was 3! So funny!" Not funny, lady. She was BORN with more hair than this! So, alas, now I'm rubbing sunscreen on her bare scalp and trying to dress her in as much pink as possible to avoid the even more awkward, "Oh he's so cute!" comments. On the upside, my stress over trying to get her to keep clips in her hair has ended.
I don't know if there are other kids as water obsessed as mine, but mine are a cut above any I've ever known. Their backyard pool is their absolute favorite toy. They play in it every day, even in the rain. They'll fill it up and splash around in it with their rain boots and rain coats on. On warm days you can't drag them away. They'll play in the pool, ride their bikes, jump back into the pool, and over and over again.
And it's best to stay indoors after a big rainstorm, or you'll deal with this:
I'm so glad we have a mud room with a big sink.
On days I need to get away from the pool, we go other fun places like Greenfield Village (Detroit's version of Colonial Williamsburg or This is the Place State Park) and The Detroit Science Center. This is Isabella on her first carousel ride.
And this is Benjamin when he saw that the dragon, which he'd had his heart set on, was one of the animals that doesn't go up and down, so he was forced to settle for a horse.
How we love our little melodramatic boy. He's definitely one of a kind.
