What I Wish I Had Known Before I Had Kids…

Here’s a great quote from Dallas Parents…

Happy weekend!

 

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Play Is the Work of Children

We all know that children need lots of free time to play, but sometimes it’s nice to hear it again.  Here’s a compilation of quotes through the centuries about the importance of play…

“You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again.”

~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.”

~Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Play is not only our creative drive; it’s a fundamental mode of learning.”

~David Elkind

“The activities that are the easiest, cheapest, and most fun to do – such as singing, playing games, reading, storytelling, and just talking and listening – are also the best for child development.”

~Jerome Singer

“Play is the beginning of knowledge.”

~Anonymous

“Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs.”

~James L. Hymes Jr.

“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.”

~Plato

Children need the freedom and time to play.  Play is not a luxury.  Play is a necessity. 

~Kay Redfield Jamison

Pausing to listen to an airplane in the sky, stooping to watch a ladybug on a plant, sitting on a rock to watch the waves crash over the quayside – children have their own agendas and timescales.  As they find out more about their world and their place in it, they work hard not to let adults hurry them.  We need to hear their voices. 

~Cathy Nutbrown

“Play is the highest form of research.”

~Albert Einstein

Happy Tuesday!

Peace (with or without quiet!)

“Peace does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise,
trouble, or hard work.
Peace means to be in the midst of all those things
and still be calm in your heart.”

~Marcel Morin

I love this picture I took last month at Magical Mama Tiffany’s house.  She was hosting an extra wacky mama (that would be me!), a baby and an extra boy for a week, along with her own (growing!!!) family.  She even had a couple of crazy birds on her shoulder who are fond of whistling “If you’re happy and you know it” and then pecking people in the head!  🙂 

Next time things are really zany at your house, do me a favor and picture a wacky bird or two on your shoulder, thank your lucky stars for people to fill your house with noise, and laugh.  It gets me through an awful lot of crazy days! 

Happy weekend!

Seize the Day

I was going to finally get back to posting just now (we’re freshly back from a wonderful jaunt to Nebraska!) but I have a purple-clad baby in my arms who would rather sit on the couch and cuddle with me.  And well, nothing can quite compete with that!  😉

So here’s a marvelous quote I’ll share instead…

I have no idea who the original source is, but if you know, please drop me a note!

Have a wonderful day!

In Praise of Silliness

“Draw a crazy picture, 
Write a nutty poem, 
Sing a mumble-gumble song, 
Whistle through your comb. 
Do a loony-goony dance 
‘Cross the kitchen floor, 
Put something silly in the world 
That ain’t been there before.”
― Shel Silverstein

Here’s to a new year of silliness and fun.  🙂

A New Year’s Wish

I stumbled across this quote and thought it was marvelous for the new year.  🙂

(P.S.  Doesn’t that photo above look pretty, like a bokeh shot of holiday lights?  I thought so, but it’s actually a shot we took a while back through our microscope.)  🙂

Happy New Year! 

May your 2012 be filled with magic and love.

 

A Little Madness

“You’re only given a little madness.

You mustn’t lose it.”

– Robin Williams

It has been a kind of wonderful week here. 

There’s been the usual messes and meltdowns and stresses

BUT

I seem to finally be done with “morning” (all the time) sickness

(yay!)

and while a new set of pains has replaced them,

I am getting my energy back

and spring is just too wonderful

to waste

not feeling pretty fabulously happy

(especially when the sun comes out).

I am now about 21 weeks along

and feeling lots of pokes and wiggles. 

Victoria is working on getting belly pictures. 

In the meantime,

here’s a few pictures of happy madness here lately…

Happy weekend!

On Sisters…

My sister taught me everything I really need to know, and she was only in sixth grade at the time.
– Linda Sunshine

A sister smiles when one tells one’s stories – for she knows where the decoration has been added.
-Chris Montaigne

A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.
– Marion C. Garretty

Sisters are different flowers from the same garden.
-Author Unknown

Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life.
– Charles M. Schulz

You can kid the world. But not your sister.
– Charlotte Gray

Sisters never quite forgive each other for what happened when they were five.
-Pam Brown

Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.
– Margaret Mead

On Brothers

A brother is a friend given by Nature.

~Legouve

We are not only our brother’s keeper; in countless large and small ways, we are our brother’s maker.

~Bonaro Overstreet

Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.

~Marc Brown

On Miracles

(Super tiny baby grasshopper spotted by Alex, age 3)

“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

~ Albert Einstein