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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Time Passes too Quickly

In the Tree House:  Time Passes too Quickly
By: Samantha S. Daviss

Oddly enough we had one of the best nights as a family, that I could remember us having in a long time. And when I tell you what we were doing to have so much fun, you are going to think we are nuts…but even during and after the fact my husband and I sat down and talked about how much fun it was.
The five of us were playing “hot potato” with a baby diaper. I know, I know it sounds weird, and a little gross too. But the diaper was clean, just to preface the oddity of our family. My husband and I had just changed the babies into their fresh diapers and PJs getting everyone ready for bed. They were up running around our room having fun and wrestling with each other. Then our oldest son came in, and for whatever reason, one of us started throwing the previous diaper around, yelling “Hot Potato”.
Do you remember playing that game as a kid? It was always one of my favorites to play on the play ground at recess with friends. It is where you, typically have a ball or a bean bag, not a diaper, and you toss it around the room or circle yelling “hot potato” and whomever ends up dropping it, has the “Hot Potato” last, and is essentially the loser.
But our game kind of had its own rules. We were basically just throwing a diaper around the room. Even the one-year old was joining in on the fun, and our two year old was going just absolutely nuts with excitement. He would run from person to person yelling at the top of his lungs “Hot Tato”. And our oldest was having a ball, sliding in on the carpet, launching the diaper at one of us.
Amongst all the fun, laughter, and chaos, all I could do was sit and watch my family, in sort of an out of body experience, hoping that somewhere, some other family was having as much fun together on a spontaneous occurrence as we were right then at that moment.
There were no cell phones, no TVs, and no computers running. It was just the Fab Five, having a ball together…and yes, it was because of a diaper that we were playing “Hot Potato” with. But that just goes to show, it is the simplest, most spontaneous things that can create the most fun in our lives. We don’t need big fancy toys, elaborate trips, or all the high-tech gadgets that we all think we need in our lives to be close tight-knit families.
But after about 30 minutes of playing and everyone being so happy and excited, it was getting late, and we had school the next day. So unfortunately, I had to play “bad cop”, and shut the game down and send everyone off to bed. When in actuality they should have probably all been in bed about 45 minutes sooner. But those are the precious times and moments in your life that you throw caution to the wind, and toss the rule book out the window, and just live in the moment. Those moments really don’t happen that often, but when they do, you need to learn to hang on to them and savor them to the last drop.
Ever heard the saying “Suck the marrow out of life”? Well this was one of those times. It was a moment in time that my little family was laughing, enjoying, and just having a ball with one another…and it just happened. No planning, no expenses, nothing…just pure fun.
So after my husband and I got everyone settled down and tucked in bed, we sat on the couch together laughing and talking about the fact that we couldn’t remember the last time we had so much fun with our kids as a family.
I can only hope that everyone, every once in a while, gets to experience the pure elated joy that our family experienced, together, playing “Hot Potato” with a baby’s diaper.

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