I want to be the kind of mom who . . .

The kind of mom who teaches my kids all those classic kid songs. I've realized lately how many kids songs I actually know and need to teach Creed. We've been listening to some Johnny Bregar for non-annoying versions of classics like If Your Happy and You Know It, This Old Man, Bingo, etc. (think Harry Conick Jr. for kids). Check out some of his songs here.

I want to be the kind of mom who buys toys that promote creative play. I think it would be so fun to put together a pretend mail set like this one. My sisters and I used to love to play mail and write each other letters and deliver them to each other.



I want to be the kind of mom who remember to share favorites from my youth I think my kids will like. I jokingly spoke to Larry like Beeker from from the Muppets the other day and realized that I better make sure that when Creed gets older he knows who Beeker is.
I want to be the kind of mom who fills my home with cheerful art that I love, but the kids will appreciate too. Like this college by Kate Endle that makes me smile.

I want to be the kind of mom who scouts out things that the kids will love to see on our travels (I guess that also means I want to be the kind of mom who travels often with my kids). Have you seen the City Walks For Kids series? They have beautiful guide books for London, Rome, Paris, New York, San Fransisco, and Washington DC and I wish I owned them all!

I want to be the kind of mom who is always exploring the places we live. This past week, I read on not one but two friends blogs about Homestead crater, a 55 foot rock dome full of warm spring water. I've lived in Utah before, but I've never even heard of the Homestead crater. It sounds like a good place for a winter swim. What else am I missing around here?


Robot Parade from Jared Foster on Vimeo.
I want to be the kind of mom who who comes up with awesome activities to keep my kids busy and creative. I think throwing a Robot Parade like this one would be awesome!
I want to be the kind of mom who comes up with really fun ways to stay entertained on car trips. I think for older kids, it would be fun to print out a bunch of these pdfs from Toy-A-Day for them to work on in the caray for car trips (and let's be truthful, there's a few that I know Larry would love too).
I want to be the kind of mom who gets my kids involved in the family gift giving. I came across a great idea for giving Christmas gifts and I'm tempted not to share it because this is what some of you lovely readers may be getting for Christmas. You really should read about it here, but the basic idea is to give couples a pair of wooden clogs full of goodies that the kids helped collect over the year. Then let the kids help collect clog fillers every year.

I want to be the kind of mom who wraps things beautifully. My friend Nikki seems especially good at this, but I procrastinate and always end up lucky if something makes it in a giftbag and I almost never have a card to go with the gift. Amazing paper engineer Denise Sharp has started sharing her beautiful wrapping jobs on her blog and she says she'll be sharing regularly. Don't you love this paper boat wrapping job?