I thought this was a fitting picture for this post. My oldest son, Sterling took this photograph (he's three going on ten). So many times, we get wrapped up in what we think our children need, that we forget what they really need. Not sure? Give them a camera for a few minutes and let the unbridled snap-happiness reveal their true passions!! Within moments, Sterling had filled the memory card in the digital camera, and what did he capture? Books, Mommy, Daddy, his brother, his cars, the ceiling, the floor, markers, and his couch. For real; that's all he took pictures of.

Things like this remind me to get back to basics. All they want is what is important to them in their very small world. Everyday, I try to take what I think I want to do with my children that day, and strip it down until I'm at the root of what I want to share with them or what they want to accomplish. Last winter when Royal was a newborn and too small to take into the cold, I would bring a bucket of snow inside on a towel to play with Sterling. He didn't care that he wasn't bundled in layers and layers and immersed in a snowbank- he just wanted to make a snowball. That was what he wanted. I was meeting his need in the simplest way possible.

In my experience, children don't miss the bells and whistles and batteries. They don't need the big contraption that plays ten different tunes; they just need to be held. After they've developed roots in your arms, give them wings in the world. Play is children's work. It's how they experience life and how they learn. It might hurt, it might not taste too good, but it is what it is in all it's glory. I try everyday to get back to basics. I gave my children life, I want to give them the experience of life, too, and sometimes that takes a little inventive mothering and a bucket of snow!