Life in Lovelady Land
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Let's Pretend!

4/22/2015

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Something happens in my house on a regular basis. My kids play with fake food and talk on pretend phones.

It started when Lizzie was about 2 years old. Someone gave us a plastic kitchen play set and we put it in our kitchen so she can cook when mom cooks. It has a little stove, faucet and microwave. There are a few other compartments, but you get the idea. We gave her some plastic dishes and a few kid-sized kitchen tools and she began to cook. One day we went to a garage sale and bought some little toy animals. When we got home, she dug out the small plastic turtle and proceeded to cook it. Being the first child, I have pictures and at the time felt that if one day she became a famous chef, well, I would have pictures of how it all started. Then she asked me to taste it. What was I supposed to do? I tasted it. That was the best turtle I’ve ever eaten.

Fast forward to present day. Evelyn brings me a plate with three strings of Mardi Gras beads-red, purple, and yellow with bats- and a piece of pretend lettuce. It’s a berry salad. A golden, purple, cherry berry salad. I’m assuming it was proclaimed the salad because she put the piece of lettuce on it. And she asked me to taste it. What did I do? I tasted it.

Will has gotten in on the action too. He discovered the tea pot and tea cups. The boy makes a mean pot of pretend tea. I drink it.

Casey brought me a pretend piece of fried chicken. I tasted that too. He laughed hysterically. I thought he was too young for this game. Guess not.

This brings me to the next pretend thing my kids play. They talk on the phone. Not real phones, but pretend ones. They have princess phones, old cell phones and at times a banana phone. My kids have been known to turn any type of toy into a phone. About a year ago, my husband spent a lot of time working from home and would walk around the house with a cup of coffee and a phone. Very quickly, Will began to walk around the house with a phone just like his dad. It was adorable.

It gets better. All four of my kids have done this. Casey did this just the other day. They walk up with the pretend phone and hand it to me. Then they wait. What am I supposed to do? If you have a small child at home, you know the answer. You pick up the phone and you answer it. You talk to whoever it is on the other end. It is most likely Grandma or another favorite relative, but it could be anyone. When you are finished, you hand them back the pretend phone and act like that was normal. In my house the child will walk away happy. Or they will chatter for a moment and hand the phone back. Sometimes you act as your child’s personal secretary and have this conversation: “Oh yes, you want to talk to Casey? Here he is.”

You never ignore the opportunity to taste the food or answer the phone. I could say this is because you never want to miss a moment of their precious childhood and your sweet baby has discovered the freedom of imagination. You never want them to lose this freedom, so you indulge in this ritual of tasting or answering. If not your heart will cry because you missed a second of this preciousness.

Or you answer the phone because realize your child wants to be just like you whether cooking or working and you must make sure they are acknowledged and not ignored.

Plus if you don’t taste the food, they will continue to bug you unless you give in and will cry until you do.

Whatever the reason. Taste the food. Answer the phone. Soon it will be real food they are cooking and real phones they are answering. They are only little once.

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Lizzie cooking and Will talking on the 'phone'.
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Sting E. Medicine

4/17/2015

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My kids get hurt. All the time. Thankfully in their existence, they are a teeny bit less accident prone than I was at their age. No broken bones but one set of stitches at the hospital and countless numbers of bumps, bruises, scrapes, and general ‘owies’.

I have band aides everywhere. Everywhere. They are in the car, diaper bag, purse, and bathroom. I used to have antibiotic ointment everywhere too. It felt like every time I went to the store I was buying more of the stuff. My kids got into the habit of needing ‘medicine’ every time they needed a band aide.

Oh and let’s not forget the tears that come with these bumps and bruises. Tons. My kids know how to cry and I swear they know how to make tears run down their faces on cue. The bump could be invisible or something that turns ugly purple in just a second, and the tears flow just as much.

What do I do after they have a bump? Well I turn to Sting E. Medicine.

Yep.

Sting E. Medicine.

My husband’s homemade remedy is guaranteed to fix any minor bumps or bruises. Let me assure you we seek proper medical attention when blood is gushing or bones could be broken.

For those times when the kids wish they could be hurt enough for a big deal to made, but Mom or Dad can’t find a distinguishable mark or if there is a tiny scrape or bruise, my husband came up with the best thing ever.

He keeps it in an old green bottle. All it takes it a Q-tip to administer. You simply put some on the Q-tip, cover the boo-boo or “owie” with medicine, give kisses and hugs, then send the patients on their way.  Don’t forget the buildup before you apply it. Make sure you tell the patient that it might hurt or sting a little so they are ready. Prepare them for the pain. That helps. You can also put on that band aide that has Cars or Hello Kitty on it. In a pinch you can use the boring brown ones if you draw a smiley face on with a marker.

My kids love Sting E.  Medicine.

What is the secret? Shhh….don’t tell my kids. Please don’t tell my kids! I’m holding on to this remedy as long as I can.

It is water. Yep. Water.
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The CardBoard Box

4/10/2015

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I mentioned the other day that I was super happy and blessed because I have a dishwasher.

Guess what else I have? A cardboard box that came with that dishwasher.

Guess what I did with that bad boy? I made a ‘door’ in it and put it in the living room for my kids so they could play with it.

My kids love cardboard boxes. We had a box they turned into playhouse. I would hand the girls a pile of stickers and crayons and tell them “have fun.” It got a little harder to play when William was learning to walk because like all kids, he loved to eat crayons! (As a side note thankfully I only had one kid that liked to eat stickers…..)

The girls played for weeks in one particular cardboard box that once contained a gas fireplace. We cut a window in it and after playing I would let them watch TV from their box. For Christmas one year they even got a super cool cardboard castle and the next year a cardboard rocket ship. Talk about days of fun!

Lately, we have been playing with smaller cardboard boxes from the grocery store. They turn into space helmets, masks, and at times, creative ways to annoy siblings.  And Casey got to experience his first giant cardboard box last week. He was adorable walking in and out through the door. Unfortunately, he too eats crayons so I haven’t been able to let them color on it, but the other morning after I got him out of his crib he was playing with his sisters in the box. I think they were pretending he was a baby doll or a puppy dog, but nonetheless, he was playing with them!

As I watch them play with the box, I think of the countless, and by countless I mean, ‘if I had a quarter for every time I heard this story’ kind of story about kids in cardboard boxes. You know the basis: Parents spend a stupid amount of money for an AMAZING toy. Kid plays with the cardboard box longer than the toy. I think it is a rite of passage for this to happen to parents and kids.

It reminds me of one thing I learned a long time ago: keep it simple.

Kids love to play and have fun. They love being someplace where they are loved and can have fun. Give them a cardboard box or an empty room and they can find something to do! Of course there is a time for complicated toys, big trips and expensive or complicated anything. (I experienced all of those at one point in time growing up.) But we have to remember that sometimes our kids need simple. They simply need a cardboard box, a trip down the road for an ice cream cone, and nothing expensive at all.

Life is full of times that are not fun. There are times of tears and pain. Your kids will learn this soon enough if they haven’t already. So let them play a little longer with the cardboard box. Eventually the box will fall apart and they will go play with the toy it came in or have to help load the dishwasher that it once housed. They will have to grow up, they will have to move on. They will one day remember the simple fun of playing in a cardboard box.

Let them and love them. It is that simple.

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Today

4/7/2015

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I am staring at a blank page. I know I need to blog. I have a million ideas rolling around in my head. I want to write about how Lizzie got hit in the head with a soccer ball, had a bloody nose and got to come home early from school. I want to write about how Evelyn bumped her head on the slide and tried to come home early from school. I want to tell you all about my ear infection and how I haven’t had one since college. And how it hurts. I can now sympathize with Will who just got over a double ear infection. Then there is Casey. I want to tell you how his cuteness is walking all over the place and how he thinks he is ‘big’ kid in this house. He eats pizza by the slice, is in a horrible habit of screeching instead of using words and can reach higher on the kitchen table than any of my other kids.

But all I can think about is two of my friends who have been battling cancer. They have very different types of cancer, but they have both been very quiet and very humbling about the whole experience. One friend I have known since elementary school. She has 2 young children. She let many people know by a simple post on Facebook. I know she has the support of her family and nearby friends, as well as many like me who only know what she shares. The other I have known since I was 12. She lived down the street from me and I babysat her adorable children. Now those children have made her a grandmother. I also found out through Facebook. Both are strong women who will fight with everything. Both are humble and want God to be their rock.

You may be wondering how close a friend am I if I am just finding out about this on Facebook? I don’t know and I don’t really care. All I care about is the fact that these two wonderful women have been heavy on my heart these past few days.

So today, I will go through today thinking of these two along with others who are also struggling with bigger things than ear infections and bloody noses. My heart if filled with love and prayers for those who can’t call their moms anymore, for those who are raising children with Autism, for those struggling to get pregnant, for those who have to go before a judge for car problems, for those who just need to be reminded that life is not full of these things that get us down, but is full of blessings that can be counted.

Bless someone today by telling them you are thinking and praying for them.

Count your own blessings.

I can think of 6. (1 hubby, 4 kids and a new dishwasher!)


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Cheep!

4/3/2015

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Every Spring Break, my Mom takes me and my kids to Uncle Donald's Farm in Lady Lake, Florida. I figured the best way to share was by sharing the pictures from over the years!
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Lizzie 2010
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Lizzie and Evelyn 2011
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Lizzie and Evelyn 2012
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Evelyn, Lizzie and Will 2013
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Will, Evelyn, Casey and Lizzie 2014
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Casey, Lizzie, Evelyn and Will 2015
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    Raising four kids
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