Oh, To Be A Kid...

Who loves moving? Well, I guess on some level, I enjoy moving. I like seeing different parts of the world and new beginnings, but I am talking about the physical act of moving: the packing, the moving, the unpacking that drags on for weeks, the boxes, the mess, the piles of possessions you wish you had disposed of a long time ago and now have to find a spot for...

Who loves moving? I'll tell you who: my kids! They love new places and new houses and new adventures just like I do, but they love the other stuff as well! Packing up? Sweet! It gets them excited about the adventure beginning and they get a break from cleaning up their room! Boxes everywhere? Rad! We have dedicated one whole room in our new house of too many rooms just for box forts! Packing paper exploding out of every box? THE BEST!

I tell you, these movers must have used 5 or 6 pieces of packing paper for EVERY item in my kitchen. That is A LOT of paper to mess with, and mess with it we have done! I filled my new living room with a mountain of paper and the boys were leaping off couches and doing canon balls into the pile. They were completely burying themselves. They were having fights where they just threw it at each other until they collapsed in laughter.

Of course, they might not love the mess so much if they had any concept of the work involved cleaning up that much mess, but I'd rather they enjoy this as much as possible and not worry too much about how much work it is to move. That's my job.

Sharp Dressed Man

Mitchell has really been enjoying helping me pack this time around. I think what he loves most are the treasures we uncover. His top finds so far are an old day planner/calendar of mine with plenty of pockets, a heavy duty watch box, a sleep mask from an airplane, a shoe box, an old stop watch, and, best of all, Ben's old tuxedo.

We got Ben a tuxedo a couple years ago to wear in a wedding, but he only wore it that once. It has been hanging up in a zippered bag ever since then. Well, as I was packing clothes out of the closet, Mitchell spied that funny-looking bag hanging up and, of course, had to know about it. When I took it down and unzipped it, planning on showing it to him, then packing it right back up again, his eyes got wide and he just had to try it on!

Well, what do you know, it fits him perfectly! He got that bad boy on, all 5 pieces to it, and has not willingly taken it off since. He pretends to be a man going to work and shows it off to everyone he sees. He wore it to school the next day and walked around before drop off showing it off to anyone who would notice and listen. One of my friends there even thought he was so handsome, she took a picture of him! He kept it on when he got home and rode his bike to Starbucks in it. He wore it to the grocery store. He wore it to the park. Boy, was it funny watching a little boy riding his bike down the street in a tuxedo...

He wanted to wear it to bed, even, but I had to say "no." Well, I didn't think to warn the babysitter about his new treasure a couple nights ago, and when I got home, I found Mitchell wearing all 5 pieces of it, snuggled up in his bed!

Last night, as we were putting jammies on after bath, he started searching all over the room for it (I had put it away somewhere else, hoping he might forget about it if it was out of sight). After a minute or so of searching, he marched up to me, hands on his hips, and said, "Mom! What did you do with my mosquito?!"

Ben and I burst into laughter, and when Ben pointed out his mistake, Mitchell thought it was HILARIOUS and wouldn't stop laughing!

He did fall asleep, and not in his mosquito/tuxedo, but he kept it laid out close by so that he could keep an eye on it. He doesn't trust me...