thinking outside the box..

i learn alot from the little people i spend my days with.

and in particular this little miss challenges me

almost daily with her out of the box thinking.

can you tell by this photo that we are colouring?

yea, we are.

well the rest of us at least.

she turned the round crayons into thrones for her princesses.

we were happily colouring

and all of a sudden she lines up the crayons,

gets this "look"in her eye and announces to anyone who will listen,

which is often me,

that she NEEDS the princesses...

so off she runs into the house and returns

sets them upon their thrones and happily spends a good long time.

we happily coloured right beside her.

this is not an unusual occurance..

lacing cards in the shapes of animals become fish being dragged

up to the imaginary boat,

anything that holds water becomes a tea party

and i am privilidged to always be invited.

sometimes, honestly this creative, make something different

than all the rest

can be challenging.

sometimes i just want her to do what everyone else is doing.

then i stop myself and remember

that

1. that's not how it works at my place so why is this bugging me

and

2. creative play is vital to so many other parts of our lives so i should be celebrating

all of this pondering about a three year old somehow trickles up into my thinking

and i start wondering about myself and the rules or expectations

i place on myself and my family.

do the things we do make sense?

do they need to always make sense?

if i trust a 3 year old to know what is best for her

(and i do believe when it comes to play choices, she absolutly knows best!)

why don't i allow my teenagers or myself the same trust?

we don't have alot of rules in our house

and most of them make sense

and aren't based out of fear or convenience for me

(which honestly is probably why it can be frustrating when Maddy wants to do something

completly different all the time- convenience for me)

but there is this one rule...

 no one is allowed to go to Thetis Lake

this is just the way it has always been and

the boys never challenged me.

Caleb, curiously enough, didn't start going until after he moved out?!

this summer

there have been numerous attempts to have me change my rule.

and i have.

today!

today i reilized that my children are not going to behave

differently at Thetis than they are at Langford Lake

and if i am concerned about their behaviour

location isn't the biggest problem.

so the ban is lifted!

they are pretty pleased:)