Monday, October 25, 2010

Like the Corner of My Mind


Welcome home to me! We are back in San Antonio after spending two weeks in NC staying at my mom's house while my parents went on a vacation. We house/dog sat, and in the mornings drove my niece and nephew to school, jobs my mom usually takes care of.

Kinda hard to carpool from somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean!

We had a really fun time visiting all of our families. Jerry and I are the one's that moved away so all of our cousins, Aunts and Uncles, and Grandparents still live back in the RDU area of NC.

I'll be posting some funny pics and stories of the kids soon, but until then I just wanted to contemplate memories for a bit.

While watching the kids play with their cousins, I couldn't help but wonder what memories they were making, what activities, words, actions would stick in their minds, which would fade away, and what I would remember to later embarrass them with.

But that's another subject.

It feels like yesterday that I was the child playing "school" or "jobs" with our best friends, Heidi and Katie. Or swimming with our cousin at Grandma's pool. Or exploring our vast front/back/side yards on a warm summer day. I had a very idyllic childhood and I cherish each and every memory.

I don't really have a lot of day to day playing memories that involve my parents. My dad worked all day, and my mom was a busy stay at home mom, running a huge house, two girls, a dog, and a husband. She played with us, sure, letting us put on plays for her, sitting at our restaurant table and ordering plastic meal after plastic meal. Pretending not to see us as all four of us girls played "spy", slithering our way across the carpeted family room until we could creep under the card table where our parents were playing Pinochle. We were sure we had gotten past them undetected!

And they never even caught us when four little hands reached over the edge of the table to snatch a handful of Andes mints or Planters mixed nuts!

They were so oblivious!

Years and years, and so many years later, Paige is old enough now to start enjoying those types of games. It's a tad hard for me to let her play those types of games without wanting to hop in and play, too. I want to be carefree and sneaky, play in the fort and run crazy through the yard.

But I don't.

I have my childhood memories. I've been there, done that. It's her turn, their turn, to make their own childhood memories, free of parental involvement. They need to chase their friends and cousins through the grass, play stuffed animals and put on shows, save the day and ward off the bad guys with their mad kung fu skills.

I'll sit back and watch, enjoying every minute as their bank of memories grow.

I'll order yet another round of plastic food, making all the appropriate "Mmmm!" sounds, and I'll pretend that I don't see them when they try to sneak food from the kitchen.

And when they're not looking, I'll chase them across the yard, grabbing them up in a great big bear hug and tickling them silly.

That's a memory I will cherish forever.