I woke up from a nap (rare opportunity) and wondered what the girls might be up to. My husband was also on the couch relaxing with me. I took a peak outside our open front door and found this:

You guys…this may not mean anything to you, but for me this was such a proud parent moment. I’m sure I had a silly grin on my face too. Manny has taken out the tent before and shown them how to set it up by making sure they’re hands on with things like this. It warms my heart when I see him showing them these things.

And the girls clearly paid attention. They didn’t even wake us up to ask us to get the tent, and to know they can be that self reliant and independent and get things figured out makes me smile.

It’s a cold rainy day today and they’re out there building memories with their two friends. As I’m typing this, the four of them (our two girls and their two friends who are sisters) all walked out of the tent, put their rain gear on, grabbed their umbrellas and marched toward their friends’ house singing a song.

This is what childhood memories are made of.

It may seem silly to you, and that’s alright. But for me, this is one of many skills I am so happy to see them learning.

We are not big on tech for them and we won’t allow them to get sucked down the rabbit hole of gaming, iPads, and screen time. Are we anti technology? No. We watch movies together, they sometimes get to watch a show (or two) max when my husband is home from work so we can get some alone time together. But we limit their screen time significantly, which means they get huge amounts of time to play, explore, and foster creativity. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Years from now they aren’t going to remember how many hours they got to spend on technology, they’re going to look back and smile on moments like this.

Did I watch TV when I was a kid? Did my brother play Atari? He sure did. But what I remember are the hours I spent reading, riding my bike outside and playing, swimming for hours in the pool, the spontaneous trips my dad would take us on to eat tacos in Tijuana, or my dad waking us up at 2am when he got home from bartending because he came home with nachos or bbq wings. I remember coming home from school and always getting the warm smell of dinner my mom made when I walked through the door. Or that my mom and dad always gave each other a peck on the lips when they came home or were stepping out.

My childhood was full of wonder and love and also of heartbreaking moments where you see life for what it is and sometimes people for who they are. They’re all memories that shaped me and that I remember.

So yes, when I see my girls making memories like this, I will very much get a silly grin on my face. I hope that sprinkled generously among the good and not so good of their childhood, these are the things that come back to my daughters’ mind when they think back on their own life at home.