I'm going to come clean

This probably sounds like blasphemy coming from a mommy's mouth, but after a day cooped up in the house because of the rain, I have reached the point of uber-boredom and must say it: I don't like playing with kids' games/toys. There, I said it. I envy people like my dad, who are an endless supply of childlike fun and make up games on the spot that cause my boys to collapse into giggle fits. And can sit for hours, enjoying whatever stash of toys we have on hand. But building train tracks or racing HotWheels (pretend there's a registered trademark symbol here...LOL) makes me want to lose my mind.

I am now the grownup version of the kid whose kindergarten teacher laughed at her for saying, "I don't want to color. I don't like coloring." As if ever kid has to like the same things. Certainly, my classmates seemed to like coloring (btw, it was a coloring page of The Letter People...extra points to you if you remember who they are). So I was clearly the oddball in the group.

I don't think it has anything to do with having boys and their ilk of toys, rather than girl toys, either. I didn't play with dolls much as a kid. I remember my mom being very frustrated with our pleas for help in putting shoes on our fake Barbies. I don't recall returning to those dolls very often. The things I most remember are playing made-up games with my sister. Oh, my parents certainly had it rough at first with us being 13mos apart, but once I was old enough to play with my sister, then they got to sit back and watch us entertain ourselves. I keep reminding myself that some day Padraic and Henry will be the same way.

Yet I wish I could find a way to enjoy it just a little bit since playing with my own kids should be fun. Right? The things I do enjoy are reading with them and helping Padraic with his letters and numbers. If you're thinking by now that I'm a big nerd who doesn't have a fun bone in her body, you are probably on target. I was born w/o a creativity gene, so all I can build with blocks is a larger block, and all I can build with train tracks is a circle or oval. While Ken practially recreates the Eiffel Tower and the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

If I look into the future, I see me being the homework helper and Ken being the fun dad. I guess there's nothing wrong with that...as long as he steps up when it's time for the science fair. I am, after all, also the one who opted to write a 30-page paper for Chemistry class my junior year of high school, rather than do a science fair project. NERD!