[Cerek the Barbaric]

Garnet,

That was an absolutely lovely thread. Thank you so much for the fond childhood memories.

Fortunately, I haven't completely lost my "childlike" perspective on some things (although I'm too grown-up for my own tastes a lot of the time).

I have 2 boys (with a third on the way). They are currently 5 & 3.

Some of the things we've done together are:
1 - Caught fireflies.
2 - Dug in the sandbox.
3 - Played hide-n-seek.
4 - Gone to the fair for an entire afternoon.
5 - Played "cars" together (setting up the track and rolling cars down it).
6 - "Raced" from the car to the front porch.
7 - Played "chase".
8 - (And my personal favorite) Thrown rocks in the creek. I NEVER get tired of that!. We can go to the creek below our house and spend an hour just throwing rocks.

Another great tradition we've started are "Terry Stories". I made up a story one night about Terry, the Three-Horn dinosaur for bedtime - now I have to come up with a new story every night (what a challenge!)

Terry and his friends - Larry, the long-neck (brontosaurus) and Kerry, the club-tail (anklysauros) - live in LeafEater Valley and play in Blue Meadow. They are also friends with a super-sharptooth (named Sharpy). Some stories have a moral to them, some are just silly nonsense, and some end up having nothing to do with the dinosaurs at all (one day, Terry and his friends went to the river and watch odd-colored fish swim upstream and "jump" up the waterfall).

Oooops.....time to put my horn away (I've blown it enough). The point is this...anyone who has lost touch with these wonderful childhood memories can re-live them through their own children.


And - for those of you who don't have children - try these suggestions.

1. Lay in the yard and watch the clouds go by (or stars).
2. The next time you hear the ice-cream truck (if you're lucky enough to live where that still happens) go outside and RUUUUUUUUNNNN like a madman. Not only will you have a lot of fun, you should be able to outrun all the "little kids" and get your choice of ice cream.
3. Go throw some rocks in the creek. Especially if the creek is big enough to actually "skip" the stones across. (Yahoooooo)
4. Finally - take a good friend on an old fashioned "Snipe Hunt". If you don't know how to do that, I'll be glad to give you instructions (but don't let your friend see them).