Being Young

I've done a lot of thinking about getting older. My knees hurt when I work out, keeping weight off requires eating a lot less these days, and the wrinkles and gray hair are starting to be noticeable. Each day I'm reminded how fast time really does go, as Shannon grows and changes. One day she can't reach the edge of the carpet, and the next day she's moving all over the room and sliding across the hardwood floor. I'm doing a decent job of living in the moment, enjoying each new thing she does and taking my time to cuddle with her after rocking her to sleep. Life really is good, no, great, right now.
I love having Erin and Grady over each week. Erin is almost 4 (going on 10) and Grady is 18 months. Grady and Shannon take afternoon naps but Erin is too old for that so we hang out. I could put a "novie" on and get some housework done, or even take a nap, but the one on one time with her is too precious for that. It reminds me of times with my niece, Sam, when I watched her years ago. I loved doing things with Sam, like going for walks, heading to the park, coloring, and any craft imaginable. The same is true with Erin, though I realized last week I didn't have much for a preschool age kid to do when the weather forced us indoors. It was forecast to snow so I improvised and got out some white paper, scissors, and crayons to cut snowflakes for Erin to color. It was quite a hit! That evening Shannon and I went to Michael's to buy the essentials- watercolor paint, paint brushes, construction paper, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, glue, kid scissors, craft sticks...oh, and a set of 100 cookie cutters.
This afternoon Erin and I made turkeys out of construction paper by tracing our hands. I remember doing that in school and added a few fun steps, such as tearing all colors of construction paper into little bits and gluing these "feathers" on all over the turkey. We also glued our birds on a craft stick to make a puppet of sorts. Of course the googly eye was the best part. After over an hour of craft time Erin says, "I think I need to have some rest time. I'm tired!" It was great.

Shannon usually wakes up at the end of our craft time and she LOVES watching whatever Erin is doing.


I'm looking forward to many more winter afternoons making crafts and feeling younger.

Here are a few new videos of Shannon lately. There's just one word to describe her-fun.
Shannon LOVES being out and about. We are at the store and she was giggling at everything I picked up. She enjoyed looking at her reflection in this beverage bucket.

Giggle Girl from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Here's Erin and Shannon in action. I have a feeling Shannon will be cruising as soon as she figures out to sit up before reaching for items on the table. Shannon is reaching for the picture Erin painted with watercolor while Erin babbles in "Shany talk" admiring herself in the baby mirror. Too cute!

Watching Erin from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Shannon went to her first basketball game tonight. She enjoyed the action but wasn't fond of the loud buzzer.