Growing up

While having kids is an experience in watching them grow up, there are always things I'm going to notice about the parents needing to grow up. I will admit, getting this new clothes washer has really made me realize how I am growing up. For those of you that don't know, many years ago, I used to LOVE going to the laundro-mat so much that I talked about how some day I wanted to own my own. I can't explain why exactly. Part of it is how cool it is to be able to do like 5 loads of laundry at once. Part of it is watching the clothes spin around and how mesmerizing that is (peaceful even). Part of it is all the cool compartments in a washer that you have to put the detergent and such in.

I still enjoy finding a nearby laundro-mat in order to do industrial sized washes such as big sleeping bags or down comforters and such. And when we got our washer last weekend, I have been very excited to use it. I find myself wondering why they didn't put an internal light on it because I feel like I really could sit in there and watch our laundry. Instead, I have resulted to giving the kids a flashlight to watch it with because I think that they have a bit of my love of the laundry with them.

I did want to mention a few things that I have noticed about it that I thought differently. First off, the time needed to do laundry has either stayed the same, or increased slightly. The washer spins the clothes dry a lot more than previously, however it takes longer...about 20-25 minutes longer. That causes the dryer to use less time, but overall, not less than 20-25 minutes. It requires the use of HE laundry soap. I found and am very happy with rear controls, yet a front loading washer. This saved money on having to buy pedestals. They can run about $200 each. We did not buy a new dryer. Our dryer was fine, and like I said the drying time has decreased. No we don't have a matching set anymore, but I don't plan on letting go of these anytime soon, and you can have a retailer take them for little to no cost anyway. Who wants to deal with trying to haul out a huge laundry appliance? Because of the tight seal on the washer, it can lead to mold or mildew from the water that stays in the tub. My kids want to shut the door whenever they see it open, so I'm trying to remember to leave it open at night.

Moving on to Gwen. Both kids are still recovering from their colds this week, but they seem almost well again. They both have a bad sounding cough, but they don't cough much. The humidity in Florida will do them well. Anyway, Gwen has been enjoying her bed and talking about what is going on the next day. This week, I took her to our local grocery store. This is the one we don't usually go to but is closer. I just needed to pick up a few things. I decided to let her push the child sized cart around. I could not believe how well she did. She is my much more independent child, wanting to do everything herself. But I think once she knows I will leave her alone to do what she wants to do, she really is a good listener. She walked around with me following me, and not putting up a fight. She unloaded the groceries for the check-out without a fuss. It was remarkably pleasant. I am much less nervous about her traveling on the airplane today than I felt about Trevor at her age. I do know I need to pull some of the usual parent tricks...new toys and snacks...but she doesn't feel the need to run around like he did.

On the Trevor front, he has had a really good week. Or maybe I had a better week than the first week Russ was traveling. But school has gone well, home has gone well, we signed up for baseball this week, and a lot of the snow has melted! There isn't much to say when all is good, other than looking back over the past year, to even before Kindergarten, Trevor has really come around in his personality. I feel like just as he is starting to back off, Gwen is asserting her independence more and wanting to not respond to our requests. Hopefully, this vacation will be a good way to get some Vitamin D and recharge. Only another month and a half and we'll be almost to summer! (That's what I keep telling myself anyway.)