Skip to main content

Our goals for the rest of winter

The excitement of the holidays (plus a week of two of wind-down) is fully behind us, so Willow and I have put some serious thought into how we're going to defeat the winter doldrums.
Willow needed a few seconds to create and refine her list. Here it is:
  • Play.
I needed a week to think about my list then the whole morning to start to write it down. Here is a glimpse (please keep in mind that it's a working list, constantly evolving and changing according to the weather, the economy and the mood of the GOP political base):
  • Have all homemaking chores done in the morning, so I can concentrate on afternoon time with Willow in the following ways: Go to the park or zoo when it's warm. Play out back when it's cooler. Stay inside when it's cold, preferably spending as much time in the play room as a 37-year-old man can tolerate.
  • Spend more time with Willow on sign-language lessons.
  • Read more to Willow.
  • Read "Lord of the Rings" to myself.
  • Teach Willow geometry and the history of the Boxer Rebellion.
  • Start diversifying Willow's meals.
  • Tackle minor home projects such as cleaning the blinds and organizing Che's new recipe book (Thanks, Nikki!).
  • Tackle major home projects such as organizing my out-of-control baseball card collection and building an addition to the house to store my baseball cards.
  • Contribute to this blog daily.
  • Finish my novel (I've written three pages!!!).
  • Exercise more.
  • Stop eating cheese and cut down on peanut butter.
  • Lose 10 pounds by spring.
  • Train for the Music City half-marathon.
The list goes on from there into some tedious things (although I admit it has some cool things there).
I tried to keep the list practical, but Willow is having none of it.
I can see it in her eyes. The list is too grown-up. Too complicated. Too boring. Unrealisitic (fooey I say!!!).
So I let her at the keyboard to edit down my list, and this is what she typed (pounded, actually):

 h yhyu oi  c /

OK, she's not an expert editor (or typist) just yet, but I think I know what she's trying to say.
"Chill out, Daddy."
So here you go, my refined list (with Willow's editorial approval):
  • Play.

P.S. Dearest grown-up friends, of course I'll do more than play, but I think I get the gist of Willow's wisdom. I shouldn't take myself too seriously. One of my favorite T-shirts (no longer with us, poor boy) used to say, "I like to play in the dirt."
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

With baby comes packing (and a lot of it)

Willow, Che and I are traveling to see the grandparents, aunts, cousins and Mos (or is it Moes or is it Mo's or is it Moses?) in Henderson, Tenn., this weekend. And that brings up one of the big differences between being a couple without kids and being a couple with kids: packing for travel (they even have an app for that, God bless us packing-weary parents). Back in my pre-child days, packing hardly mattered, probably taking up 1 zillionth of a tenth of a percent of my brain capacity to do (six days equals six days of socks and underwear plus some T-shirts, some shorts, a pair or two of pants, put on some shoes, throw in some toothpaste, and I was off). That's hardly the case anymore. Take, for example, if you have a spit-up-prone baby. Do you take two burp clothes, four, eight or, maybe, 16? Better take 24. And how many diapers do you take? Or wipes? Do I need to take baby medicine? Is it going to be cold or warm or cold and warm or warm and hot then ... AACK!!! You get t...
2 comments
Read more

Summer zips on by

I guess it's official. This morning, we witnessed the kiddos hopping on school buses and heading to school. That marks the end of summer, I suppose, and the end of summer seems to come a little earlier every year (even though the actual warmness of the weather keeps creeping later and later; are we going to have winter this year, anyone?). Call me silly, but I like to think of the end of summer as that day on the calendar that falls in the middle of September, after my birthday (my birthday, Sept. 16, is in summer, but it has never, ever felt that way even though I know it's always hot on my birthday). This marks my 39th summer if you count that first one I was born during in 1974, and I'm sure many of them seemed really long or really short depending on how old I was. For me, it seemed like the summers of my childhood lasted FOREVER. Now it seems like they zip by. In a flash. Especially this one. It's been a busy one, filled with lots of travels, family visits and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Willow hones her friend-making skills

Up until now Willow has enjoyed the company of other tots her age only in the sense that where they are is where the fun and the toys are. That is to say she likes the toys and the gyms and the swings and if she has to be around these other toddlers, so be it. That's with kids her own age. She LOVES older kids, but they don't care much for her (other than "she's a baby," and Willow can't keep up with them, though she tries). Her older cousin, Rett, for example, hung the stars and moon in her opinion, so she'll just about do anything he does, including cozying up with him on the chair to watch a movie. And he does like her more than the typical older kid does. But as far as all the toddlers and babies roughly in Willow's age range, she doesn't have much use for them. She's not mean to them. She'll let them take a ball from her hand, for example (as some say, she plays well with others). But I can tell you, most definitely, she just doesn...
Post a Comment
Read more