This week I overheard something that made my heart sing.
We were visiting my in-laws for several days over Thanksgiving. They live in California, so there is always a lot to do outdoors and that’s where we spend a lot of time. But, they have very few toys for my kids and I never bring very many with us. Therefore, my kids – especially my three-year-old – do a lot of pretending and make-believe when we visit Grandmom and Grandad.
I am not complaining at all. Actually my kids love it (even the baby gets into it now) and I love that they get some time away from their regular toys using their imaginations to bring things to life. Grandmom really gets into pretending too and always has fun ideas up her sleeve. It’s not unusual to spend the morning with her holding a parade – complete with makeshift costumes and banners made out of blankets – and visiting a farm in the afternoon…all in the living room.
This particular day, I was in the guest bedroom and within earshot of where my son was playing with Grandmom. He had built himself a “house” out of couch pillows and the coffee table. It had many different rooms, a garage, a sun porch and even a locker room (he’s really into sports right now, so naturally his house had one). Grandmom was challenging his imagination by asking tons of questions about his house. Then I heard the exchange that made me so proud. It went something like this:
C: “This is the roof of my house.”
Grandmom: “Oh okay, and what do you do on your roof?”
C: “That’s where I do my laundry.”
G: “Really? On the roof?”
C: “Yep. I wash it, then I take it up there and hang it up for the sun to dry it off.”
G: “Oh yes, the sun does a great job of drying things and making them fresh.”
C: “Yeah, I like to dry my clothes up there. And diapers. I put them all over that hang-y thing (the drying rack). Yup. My clothes. The diapers. The pads. Everything goes up there to get nice and fresh. I love hanging my laundry up there. Isn’t that great?”
There I was, standing in the bedroom, listening and smiling from ear to ear. Yay! He does get something out of our day-to-day activities. That’s what I’m hoping this means, anyway. That, by demonstrating environmentally-friendly practices and making them part of our everyday, I’m teaching him something that becomes part of him (and eventually his sister too). And when he grows up he can’t think of doing it any other way.
Their little brains are amazing to me. He does help me hang the cloth diapers out in the sun, but we probably haven’t done it for six weeks or so, since the weather has been a little more unpredictable in the Midwest. And he still remembers it and wants to make it a part of the house he’s building for himself. Color me a proud mama.
What have you heard your kids saying that makes you proud? What do they think about helping you with cloth diaper tasks?
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every Tuesday.
