While I fully recognize that some parts of this country are still bedded down with snow, here in the Pacific Northwest we’re getting teased mercilessly with Spring-like sunshine and budding plants. We’ve been blessed with a couple of gorgeous days and the neighborhood has been all abuzz with lawnmowers, pungentbark-a-mulchand the onset of hyper kids.<\/p>\n

I’m not quite sure I’m ready for this. The kids that is. (I have no problem with lawnmowers, or bark-a-mulch, as long as I’m not pushing it or spreading it.)<\/p>\n

You see, there is a certain standard set with dark days and rainfall. The kids typically stay close to home and are resigned yet satisifed with indoor play. There are little to no expectations for exciting activities and visiting neighbor kids are limited to once or twicea week between bouts of rain showers.<\/p>\n

This is not such the casewith Spring.<\/p>\n

As soon as the sun begins shining my doorbell starts ringing.<\/p>\n

“Can Avery play?”<\/p>\n

“Is Avery here?”<\/p>\n

“What’s Avery doing?”<\/p>\n

While there are definite advantages to having social kids there is alsoa bit of baggage that comes along with the barrage of little neighbor friends. Over the last couple of years I’ve pinpointed a few key pointsof the most bothersome baggage.<\/p>\n

1) Jack has yet to earn his freedom<\/em>. Jack is certainly on his way to gaining a little independance but given his inability to detect oncoming traffic, failure to recognize friend from foe and general lack of any sense of direction Jack is still resigned to homebound play. He doesn’t understand this fact and harbors a whole lot of resentment watching his sister flock freely down the street. And a resentful three-year old = a whole lotta work.<\/p>\n

2) I will be losing my privacy. <\/em>Have you ever tried to make a quick run to the coffee maker in your underpants only to be met by the freckled-face neighbor girl coming back from her foray in your refrigerator? Well, I have. And they were not my best underpants.<\/p>\n

3)Long<\/em> gone is my quest fora clean floor<\/em>. Although I do try and employ the “take your shoes off at the door” rule with my kids I can’t stand constant guard at the door. We have wood flooring and it takes but one pair of crusty-bottomed shoes to ruin an entire mop job. Springtime brings many a pair of these shoes running through my house and unfortunately also brings many an emergency clean-up. *Sigh*<\/p>\n

4) Snacks become a hot commodity. <\/em>More kids means higher snacking demands. The phrase, “Can we have a snack?” becomes as common as “You kids are driving me nuts” around here. There is something about the sun shining that incites a gnawing hunger in even the smallest of child. Failure to provide snacks can bring out the ‘ugly’ in a kid. No one needs to see that.<\/p>\n

5) Decibels reach unhealthy levels. <\/em>Any mother (particularly those with toddlers who nap…or those with a certain unapologetic propensity for napping themselves) understands the frustration involved with the sudden onset of “noise.” Don’t misunderstand…both of my children have their own special gift of audible chaos but increasing the number of kids increases the volume of noise almost exponentially.Ah, how I will miss the silence. (Well, as silent asa house could bewith a three-year old who runs around counting his moms boobs on a daily basis.)<\/p>\n

So, as you can see, I anxiously await Spring and all it brings. But, I will have to begrudgingly admit that I secretly love the chaos. There’s a distinct sense of purpose which accompanies more active kids and I do thrive a bit on purpose.Life definitely get a little crazier around here but along with it comes a shining sun, growing Vitamin D levels and that delicious smell of grass (well, delicous untilabout the end of May when I start sneezing out my lungs on an hourly basis.)<\/p>\n

And I’m looking forward to it (Spring, not the sneezing.)<\/p>\n

Mindy<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I fully recognize that some parts of this country are still bedded down with snow, here in the Pacific Northwest we’re getting teased mercilessly with Spring-like sunshine and budding plants. We’ve been blessed with a couple of gorgeous days and the neighborhood has been all abuzz with lawnmowers, pungentbark-a-mulchand the onset of hyper kids. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stuff","7":"category-family-life","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1605,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/1605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesuburbanlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}