Goggles, Imagination & Tickles

It used to be that if I wanted to get a shot of my kids doing something candid I had to sneak out and race upstairs and cross my fingers that they would still be doing it by the time I got back with my camera. I love that my kids are at the stage now that if they're doing something funny and I ask if I can take their picture they say "yes" and can't wait for me to return with the camera. I love capturing their imaginations on film for them to remember when they are "much to old" for this kind of stuff.

Here Johnny is practicing putting his head underwater with the aid of his new goggles. This is the first time he's gotten them wet, although he has been wearing them around the house constantly for the past few days. If I had taken my camera duty more seriously I would have pictures of him eating lunch, playing with his toys, and even sitting on the potty with them on. And for half of that time he had his water wings on as well. Here's hoping he likes the water now as much as he likes his accessories.

This was the first day when water wings were a must as well as the goggles. The slippers are there to help him fly (obviously). Any time he would cry the goggles would fog up and he would walk around practically blind until I noticed and was able to wipe them off for him. He loved it when I washed his hair and dumped water over his head and none of it got in his eyes. He's probably wondering why I didn't get him a pair years ago. Now we just need some nice weather to try them out in a pool!

And here's Alex best super hero impression. She was suppose to be in my room hanging up her Dad's shirts for me but she thought it would be much more fun to try them on instead. Go figure.

I have to say though, I learned a lot today about spending time with my kids. Today was a cleaning day and I was dreading forcing the kids into cleaning up their rooms. So for their incentive I told them to each pick out a couple of books and when we were all done we would sit down and read them. This got them very excited to be done cleaning the rooms, Johnny even likes to sit and listen to a good book now. Then anytime they did a little job like pick up all of the tools or blocks or dress up clothes I would give them a tickle. I've never seen a floor cleared faster in all my life. We finished with Alex's room and by the time I had her floor vacuumed they had Johnny's room all clean and ready to be vacuumed. They've never worked that hard when a physical reward was waiting for them but when a tickle is their reward they were asking for more chores to do. When I told them we were all done they were actually sad. How about that?