I scream, you scream

As a parent do you find yourself doing some "thing" over and over with your kids and you aren't sure why? I'm not talking about the usual bath and dinner routines. I'm talking about something fun that you find yourself compelled to do with your kids every chance you get. Today I realized I have one of thes "things" and I'm not sure why. I feel compelled to take my girls for ice cream every chance I get. In fact if I could take them for ice cream every day I probably would. I'm not sure why this is so important to me. As a child I didn't go for ice cream excessively. I do remember every visit with my dad required a trip to Brays Orchard for some peach ice cream. But that stuff was great, hard to stay away from. In fact during my last visit to KY almost two years ago, my mom, the girls and I stopped in for some. But other than that ice cream wasn't really a big thing for me. So why is it that something in me feels the need to stuff ice cream in the girls face every chance I get? Could it be that ice cream reminds me of pure, simple times. Kids grow up so fast these days could this be my attempt to keep them kids longer? Each scoop equating to one more day of a happy childhood. Who knows. Perhaps weekly trips to the ice cream parlor are just my way of creating a "thing" that the girls and I will have to do together no matter how old we get. As they get older I'm sure their favorite vanilla cone will change to a hot fudge sundae or a banana split. Maybe it's more simple than that. Maybe it's the joy I get seeing their eyes grow to be the size of quarters as they at handed their scoop or it's the smiling faces with ice cream dripping down their chins. What ever the reason, I look forward to many more scoops in the future. As we get older I'm sure the conversation will change from preschool, play dates, and potty talk to more grown up issues that I don't really want to think about right now. Maybe this "thing" is what will bind the girls to me in the future and make them think of me whenever they eat it. Sort of like I think of my dad every time I see a spider or a lady bug. Someday I might figure out the reason I need to take the girls for ice cream but until then I'll just keep doing it, and I look forward to each and every sticky hand and dirty face.