All About Girl Time

A couple of weeks ago, I headed to Port Townsend for a girls' night. We got an early start on Saturday to catch the ferry, and were there in time to kick the trip off with brunch. The weather couldn't have been better. It was a great time, and like a run, I've never regretted girl time.

Upon arriving at Safeway, we decided to park the mini in the middle of a Porsche convention. We caught one of the guys checking her out when we came back.

Four of us enjoyed a nice run the next morning, with great views and some not-so-great hills.

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Before the raised beds made it to their permanent location, the girls enjoyed one more day with play houses (pic waayyy down after some unexpected rambling). Oh, if I could just bottle up some of that imagination.

We let our kids watch TV and movies. We try very hard for moderation, and usually succeed. There are days, admittedly, when they get more screen time than we would like for one reason or another. Regardless, we believe in overall moderation.

Although I have myself pretty well convinced that my children are going to be just fine having grown up with TV watching, I often use these many, many, many imaginative play moments -- no, hours -- to remind myself that yes, they are indeed going to be just fine. More than fine.

I joke about how there are few thing I love more than watching and listening to this imaginative play, but being asked to actually participate in it is a bit like slow torture. This would be one of those times when you joke about something, but are actually not kidding. Time in Imaginative Play Land passes in triple the real time for me. Maybe that didn't make sense. Only ten minutes have gone by??? I was patting myself on the back for lasting 30.

I'll play blocks, puzzles, and games, and I'll color or do play dough, but I'd rather soak in the imaginative play from the sidelines. Is that horrible? Somehow it didn't sound as bad in my head...

That aside, did I mention that I LOVE to witness it? As I type this, they are upstairs playing something (I rarely know exactly what the scenario is), and Austen is calling, "Mayna (their made up names crack.me.up), Maaaaynnnnaaa...Sweetheart...what would you like for dinner? Do you want coffee?" There are these intricate, thoughtful situations that they make up and roll with forever.

They play these games with baby dolls, My Little Ponies, Polly Pockets, or whatever else they've deemed worthy of their imaginations. Austen calls anyone's offspring their "sweetheart." "Do you have a sweetheart?" "What would your sweetheart like to drink?" And they almost always have made up names for each other-- using them consistently during their games.

These imagination blocks usually last anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour, then end in a squabble (or knock-down, drag out fight, depending on the offending sister's offense) when they hit their threshold of perfect sibling play. They are at each other's throats for a bit, then off playing again.

There are pros and cons to having kids close together and farther apart. Ours are 17 months apart and there are times/days I've wanted to pull my hair out. We have many challenging moments amongst these dreamy ones because they are going through many of the same stages together. They are also both girls which means emotions can run pretty high in this house. However, I can honestly say that I would not trade this for the world and am quite happy with our decision on spacing.

They are the best of friends, and every day is a play date.

Kaitlyn recently got her third haircut ever, and Austen her second. Hey, we are on top of some things...

The moment I realized just how not-on-top of this thing we've been -- the Before and After comparison:

My elementary school bestie, Meagan, recently bought the coolest house ever with her fiance, Jonas. We headed over there a couple of weekends ago to celebrate their housewarming. The girls (okay, and me) loved meeting their new chicks (I'm sure I'm supposed to call them pullets here).

More to come on that...