Little Known Fact

I have a small obsession with certain periods in history, and particularly with the colonial and Revolutionary War period in America.  I'm not sure when it developed but I can remember being given the first Felicity book in the American Girl series at church when I was a small child and from at least then on, I was hooked.  (only a few months ago I spent the afternoon curled up watching the Felicity movie.)  I love the colonial period, the Boston Tea Party, the passion these people felt on both sides of the political line.  I would love to live in Philadelphia or Boston for their history.  I love the sound of drums and flutes like those you hear from re-enactors.  

And so it goes without saying that I will be passing those things on to my children.  We have quite a few of the Felicity books already, but eventually will be getting the doll and all the overpriced very expensive lovely accessories.  I have found that a bunch of sellers on etsy make colonial dresses for the doll, so it should be easy to give our (future) daughter a wholesome, educational, girly toy to play with, with enough clothing changes to satisfy even the greatest budding fashionista.  

And what about a boy you might ask?  Well, did you know that you can find metal toy soldiers?  Bluecoats and redcoats will abound across a felt playland (which I'll be making).  And living where we do it shouldn't be hard to pick up things like tri-pointed hats and costumes for dress up play.  I imagine us marching around a lot while our little general is in command.  

G and I are plan-aheaders.  We look into items to purchase for ages before we do, weighing our options, looking on various sites for different colors, which place is most affordable.  We look into what it will take to care for an item (such as polishing or conditioning---like with my butcher block).  And then we buy.  I think we've been prepping our whole marriage for children.  We used to sit for hours and debate items and topics.  I think some people might think we're nuts, but we rationalized (we're both quite rational generally) that it was better to discuss some topics (such as vaccinations, circumcision, discipline methods) while we weren't hormonal or emotional about it.  That way we could weigh our options, look into different methods and decide what we rationally thought sounded like the best way to try and do it (I say try because I understand that you have to learn to be flexible as a parent).  

And we've approached toys with that same planning method.  As in we plan to categorize Christmas to make sure we don't just go crazy and get wrapped up in the fun of buying toys.  This also means I look into good, long lasting toys and we discussing purchasing ahead of time and putting away.  Once again, we know it sounds crazy, but when I saw the most perfect little Peter Rabbit porcelain children's tea set last year I snapped that thing up quickly.  It met the requirements of being a gender neutral, china but sturdy set that a child could actually drink from (something we had put on our list of toys we wanted our future children to have).  By buying whoa ahead of time it's been marked off the list, I bought it at a steep discount and it will be the perfect gift for a Christmas or birthday.  And since heirloom toys like that last and don't go out of style, I didn't have to worry that it was a fad or trend.  

This is the second post I've written on our future children in a day.  I think both G and I are excited to start trying again (through various methods, both natural and adoption) to start our little family growing once he gets back next year.  He lights up at both the idea of playing toy soldiers and attending a tea party by our future "little princess".  Since both of us are avid readers, we delight in the idea of reading to a child every night.  I could choose to be sad about the fact that children may not come easily, but instead I choose to plan, knowing that being pressed upon both of our hearts so firmly, we will have a family someday soon.