Playing with kids

Yesterday, I was fortunate to have two invitations to New Years Day parties scheduled at different times, so I was able to make both. Both had good friends as hosts, Traci & Linda, an interesting assortment of people to talk to, and great food. But my real joy, and apparently a surprise to my office friends at the second party, was playing with the kids.

I pulled out my repertoire of kid songs to entertain and distract when the kids were getting a bit rambunctious. "In a Cabin in the Woods" probably tops the list. I remember when I was a babysitter, one of my frequent clients used to beg me to sing this "lullaby" to him every time I sat with him. It's also a song I use frequently when I'm showing houses to parents with small kids.

It's a great mystery to me why I never had my own kids. When I was a kid, I loved the movie "Cheaper By the Dozen" and planned to have 12 of my own and to run an orphanage. I guess I mistook the message from that movie, and rather than adopting a life with a lot of kids, I've adopted one with a lot of systems.

So one of my new systems for 2008 is try to spend a little time at least five days a week reflecting on the good in my life and posting it to my personal blog.