Homebodies

For the past few weeks, our days have started out with this conversation:

Mommy: Well, guys, what do you want to do today? We can go to the pet store and then get some groceries, or we can go to the pool with John & Ava, or we can go to the McWane Center, or the Rec Center & the library... What do you think?

Caleb: I just want to stay home.

Mommy: You want to stay home? Don't you want to go to any of those fun places?

Ethan: I do! I want to go!

Caleb: No, I think I just want to stay home. Staying home and playing with toys is more fun.

Ethan: I not want to 'tay home! I want to go to the pool!

Caleb: But, Ethan! Let's just stay home and play! We can build a fort with a blanket and make a giant train track. And we can do puzzles and color and dress up like spider man and you can be a pirate. And we can fight all the bad guys and look for monsters!

Ethan: Okay, we can 'tay home and do all dose t'ings.

Mommy: Are you guys sure? You don't want to go anywhere?

Caleb: We're sure, Mommy. We just love staying at home and playing.

And that is the end of it. We've been spending 3-4 weekdays each week at home, ever since we got home from Florida three weeks ago. I make the kids go out with me once a week for grocery shopping, and once or twice a week so I can work out, but other than that, we've spent a lot of time at home. We've foregone play dates, story hour at the library, and mornings at McWane Center, all in favor of uninterrupted imaginative play at home. The only time Caleb voluntarily leaves the house is when we are going to his gymnastics lesson or going to a friends house (where he can enjoy uninterrupted imaginative play with more people).

Part of Caleb's shift to being a homebody is the heat, since both he and I prefer not to be outside when it is warmer than 80-85 degrees, so that eliminates the zoo, all the parks, the botanical gardens, and any hiking. But the rest of it is just that he and Ethan have a lot of fun together at home these days. And Caleb definitely delivers on the exciting plans he sells to Ethan each morning. We build forts, throw parties, set up superhero wars, create animal jungles, play Memory & Candyland, dress up in costumes, construct train track mazes, build zoos and farms with the Legos, do puzzles, read books, and play chase, tickle & hide-and-seek, not to mention the hours each day that they sit at the craft table: drawing, painting, coloring, writing, stamping, cutting and glueing. I guess maybe I can see why Caleb likes to stay home :) And as long as they are getting along and busy doing & learning, I am a happy camper.