So you want to know what I love about having kids, my kids in particular

I don't always write about everything I love about my kids. It seems a little, well boring to tell you repeatedly about the tiny freckle under my son's left eye that makes me want to kiss his face every time I stop to notice it and the way Maddie's intuitive sense of empathy breaks my heart wide open with the swelling of pride.

Also, it's not my entire experience as a mother.

So maybe you've read about me in the newspaper or on another site or you just came by today and it's the first day of summer vacation and I'm in mourning facing the hundred or so days to fill before me and you're thinking, "Wow, does this woman love her kids or what?"

Yes! I do! 

I was once asked, "Is there anything you like about having kids?"

The answer was so huge and overwhelming and impossible to answer I suggested this reader take a look through my archives to find all the ways I love having kids, my kids in particular. 

Instead of making someone else look, I decided to collect some of the ways I love my kids as shown in my vast collection of posts over the life of this website. 

How nice of me! 

Making shadow puppets on the walls of a cozy tent in a thunderstorm.

I like how I can hand down long held family traditions of scaring the crap out of my mother.

Having kids means dressing them up as bacon. 

I like making stuff for them.

Seeing them grow when I'm not even noticing.

They tell the truth.

I love having kids because it makes you part of a larger community of parents. 

I like seeing my daughter blossom and gain self confidence. 

Puppy Love!

Helping them cross milestones off their list.

I like sharing life lessons with my daughter.

Days at the pool.

Crazy vacations with six collective kids and posing with dead animals. 

One liners.

They call it like they see it (and sometimes it's like how I see it too!)

Raising a sensitive little girl who will probably be a writer some day. ("I feel like a mouse and the other kids are snakes.")

Giving advice to my daughter, hoping I'm helping her become a better woman in the process.

Watching my daughter have the father I wanted and deserved. 

My son creating something he's so proud of, he can barely stand it.

Throwing memorable birthday parties, trying to be creative.

Watching them learn things in their own time.