We Sing, We dance, We play!

Avery, like most 3 1/2 yr. olds, loves to play. It's one of the first things she asks me when she wakes up, besides "Can I have some Milk". She likes to play "little People", doctor, cafe(a personal fav), fairies, you be the daddy or the baby...or the mommy(which is confusing lol). All day long...Do you wanna play? Mommy, you wanna play...Come'on Naoj..let's play! Rick and I have created our "Little People" characters... He is Juan De La Handsome. A strong rugged ladies man with a spanish accent, and everything ends with..because I am Juan..Juan De La Handsome. Sometimes I have to warn him on content(Men!) I am Maggie Apple Bottom Pink Tree, why? I don't know it just came out one day and it stuck. Maggie is a friend to all and pretty boring compared to Juan...but Avery gets a kick out of it! I try and play at least 1-2 times a day, but most the time I say no or "let me finish this". I honestly don't enjoy playing. I never wanted to admit that, I kept that a secret for a long time, I had a lot of guilt about it. That was until I went to one of my 'power of moms' meetings and someone said it! She actually spoke on it, out loud and it was the most comforting and reviving moments I've had throughout this journey(Motherhood).

 I'm not alone, I'm not cruel or selfish, I'm not a bad mother, I'm human. And there are other mothers who are not playing with their children. It's so easy to imagine while your surfing the internet and your child wants to play that there is a mom out there at that moment reading, teaching, playing, or taking her kids to the park. Everything you are not doing, there is a mom out there being Super Mom and you suck! But you know what, after picking up endless toys, and laundry and dishes and beds that need to be made, phone calls placed, the last thing I wanna do is play.. and think. When all is said and done I really wanna just sit down(or hide in the back of the closet) and have some quiet time. I remember asking my mom to play Barbies with me, and when I recall my childhood...I don't really remember her playing with me. I used to think, who doesn't wanna play barbies? I didn't get it! As I grew up I thought, I'm gonna play with my kids, I'm gonna play Barbies for hours and have cool story lines, and I'm gonna... Yeah Right.. Okay!...now I get it!

I was an only child and my mom didn't always play with me...and I'm fine. As will she... and Hey! she's got Berkely and in just a minute she's gonna have a full time playmate! Who's super excited about that?!(Armed raised)

What I took away from that 'power of moms' meeting was, If playing is not my forte find another activity that we both enjoy. So we play with playdough, sing songs for Berkely, draw pictures, make cookies, but most of all we love to Dance! I put on her pandora station, filled with Raffi, The Laurie Berkner Band, and all things Disney, and we get our groove on! I hold her, and dip her, and spin her around and I'll go as far as saying she loves that way more than when we play. Do it again Mommy! She'll say with a big'ol smile on her face! It's actually a two for one when you think about it...We bond and I sweat! BooYaa!!