The fun mom!

 

I have been thinking that I want to be a fun mom.  It is great to be the cuddle mom and the making dinner mom and the put you in time out mom, but I also want to be fun mom.  Don't get me wrong, I love being the cuddle mom, but the kids probably won't remember times like this:

 

This summer, I have been gradually increasing my fun percentage with limited success.  It started out when Chazz said that he wanted to play soccer in the back yard.  Sure I was wearing flip flops and sure I was holding the baby, but I said yes anyway.  The whole family was in the back yard playing soccer and it was all fun and games until the baby got hit with the ball (she didn't get hurt).  Fun mom failure 1.

 

Just this weekend we decided it was time for Chazz to learn to ride his bike without training wheels.  At first I sat with the baby and watched the efforts.  It was really hot outside and eventually the heat started getting to my husband.  It took me forever to learn to ride my bike, but that struggle allowed me to teach my little sister to ride her bike in 5 minutes.  I decided that I could help Chazz learn to ride his bike.  I traded the chair and baby to the hubby and decided to take over bike duty.  Chazz fell many times during my help and during daddy's time helping.  But he only got hurt while I was helping.  He handled it well, but did decide he was done trying for the day.  Fun mom failure 2.

 

 

My favorite fun mom moment was over the 4th of July.  We always go "camping" at my Aunt's farm on the 4th of July.  We love it.  They have a lake and a super cool high dive.  The high dive is kind of a rite of passage.  Chazz decided he was ready to jump off of it, but he wanted me to go with him.  We climbed up onto the high dive and he insisted that I jump first.  I looked down at all my cousins in the water.  They yelled up wondering if this was my first time ever.  NO!  I had jumped off of the high dive lots of times...when I was a kid.  I knew from those experiences that the hardest part was just deciding to jump, so I did it.  I didn't want Chazz to think it was scary.

Of course I was successful with the jump!  I am obviously a pro at being a fun mom!  However, I guess I didn't make it look quite as easy as I though because Chazz decided he wasn't ready.  He decided to climb down from the high dive instead.  Even though he didn't jump, I am going to take this one as a fun mom win.  I think he will remember this for a while and remember how his mom was amazing enough to jump for him.

 

Any pointers or ideas for fun mom implementation?  I just remembered, I think the waterslide was a fun mom win, I didn't get stuck or anything.  What other activities should we try?