A Table, Chair, and Two Blankets: The Greatest Time in the World

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that every Tuesday night is Daddy/Kiddo night. For those who don't know, let me catch you up to speed really quick like. On Tuesday nights, The Wifey has class at the college. She usually leaves around 3 and gets home around 9:30 at night. These nights are dubbed "Daddy/Kiddo" nights. Some days are rough, the kids are grouchy and what not. Some nights we have the time of our lives playing and laughing. We sing, we dance, we run around like crazy monkeys until our legs give out. This past Tuesday was one of those nights that I wish never had to end.

To keep a long story short, let's fast forward through the beginning of "Daddy/Kiddo" night. It started out with The Kiddos being grouchy. It was post nap and after school. One of those times where all the cheesies in the world could not save my sanity. Bath time came early that afternoon as I knew it would be a good way to calm them down. After bath, and after they settled the fun really got started.

We played basketball, soccer, and catch. I got the crayons out and traced The Kiddos' hands so we could make turkeys. Daddy accidentally made one of the turkeys with 4 legs instead of two. See what having kids will do to your mind? After this an idea came to me: We have never built them a fort or clubhouse.  Into the living room we went! Using their Toy Story table, a saucer chair, and two blankets I quickly constructed their first ever clubhouse and it was a hit! Little Man ran around screaming "DADDY! I LOVE MY GOOD BOY HOUSE!!!" (I am not sure why he called it his good boy house) .. The two of them played in it for hours. It was a house, a school, a cave, an igloo. It was anything they wanted it to be.

I miss having such a free mind and the ability to make anything into anything I want it to be. I miss the joy that came with new adventures. Somewhere along the way I lost sight of what it meant to be free. In this moment, sharing this new ecitement with my children, I found it again. I remembered what it was like to watch ordinary things become extraordinary and amazing once again. I watched them laugh and play. I lived in their smiles and their kisses. I will forever have the images of that time ingrained in my mind, and I will never forget again. I will not forget to sometimes just let myself go. I will never forget to let the ordinary become extraordinary. And I will never forget that we were all children at once. Every now and then, we still can be. We can live it WITH our children, and not just sit back and observe.