Wednesday, April 8, 2009

to being a better mom...

I was inspired by this post written by my friend, Natalie. When I read it, I was taken back to my own childhood...and as I remember it, a near perfect childhood. I love that each day, my mom took time out of her busy life to just be a mom. To get down on the ground and wrestle with her children, to build snowmen, to play house, to go on bike rides, and have picnics. I loved it when she would read to me, and sing with me, and play hide and seek. It's interesting how such simple things, can have such an everlasting impact. I want to be that kind of mom. The kind of mom that builds Lego towers, and engineers train track frames. The kind of mom who plays dress ups and polly pockets. I don't want to be remembered as the mom who was always cleaning, or the mom that spent half her days on the computer or the telephone...or the mom that couldn't put her book - or the bills, or the scrub brush, or her lesson manual - down for just a few moments. It only takes a few moments to create lasting memories...memories that children might possibly carry with them into adulthood. So I am now committed - to myself and to my children - to being a better mom. I'm going to let my hair down and roll on the floor with my kids. With them I'm going to color and paint more, mold and create more, explore and discover more, imagine and pretend more, and most of all laugh more.

Today we molded several colors of play-doh into snowman heads with hats (100% Ruby's idea). I rolled the heads, and she made the hats...

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Then we got several pieces of fruit from the fridge (and an egg), and used them as models for these little creations...

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Ruby may not remember what we did today, or yesterday, or last week, or three weeks ago...but I hope she always remembers the way she feels when we spend time together.

9 comments:

Ashlyn Ellsworth said...

You are an amazing mom Nicole!! That was a sweet post and I hope that one day when I am a mother I can be as great as you! Love ya girl!

Celeste said...

I love this post Nicole. You've inspired me to be a better mom too!

Anonymous said...

YOu are such a good mom...John and your children are so blessed! We went to Joanns fabrics yesterday and got some 'spring break' projects for the boys...they have loved it and it has helped us 'connect' to! Well done my friend!

nevedobson said...

first of all... i love those fruit sculptures... those are super sweet, what a great idea.

you are such a good mom nicole, you are actually the one that inspired me to try and do fun things with emmi everyday. i love how festive you are when it comes to holidays (i am going to try and start some fun traditions for my emmi), i love how you guys play dress up and have photo shoots (the one of asher screaming his head off in the indian headdress still cracks me up), and i remembered reading your post about ruby's 2nd birthday a long time ago and made a special effort to make emmi's first birthday as special as possible. your kids are going to think you are so fun and will have so many fond memories of you and all you do with them.

Ethel Carola Aredes said...

AMIGA LA VERDA QUE UNO COMO MADRE DISFRUTA TANTO DEL TIEMPO QUE PASA CON LOS HIJOS
TIENES MUCHA RAZON QUE LOS RECUERDOS QUE NOS QUEDA ES LOS MOMENTO QUE NUESTROS PADRES NOS DIERON EN JUGAR CON NOSOTRAS Y CUANDO NOS LLEVAVAN A ACOSTARNOS Y SE QUEDABAN CON NOSOTRAS HASTA QUE NOS DORMIAMOS UNO RECUERDA LOS MOMENTO DE EXPRESION DE AMOR DE NUESTROS PADRES
GRACIAS POR TU COMENTARIO Y TUS HIJOS TE ESTARAN MUY AGRADECIDA POR EL AMOR QUE VOS LE EXPRESAS

Amy Eagleston said...

Good work! Those are some pretty fancy Play-doh sculptures!

diana said...

great post and great sculptures.

i, too have been trying to put aside things that can wait do something fun with my girls instead. it's way more fun.

Julie Knowlton said...

You are amazing. Thank you for that.

Rania said...

Little Roo, Asher, Dix-D, and John are super lucky to have you around. I just wish you lived by me so we could make little heads with hats and mini fruits.