Collectors.

These past few weeks, I have really been thinking about the kind of stories and moments that I want to remember. Each day conversations happen, new games get made up, something extraordinary occurs, or it's just simply our same old mundane routine. The kids develop quirks, which quickly change as fast as they came, and its all these things the kids do now, that I take for granted. I always think that either I'll remember these things down the road, or no one will care about this after the moment has passed. But, I find myself turing to Fred and saying things like, what was that little thing Mason used to say/do when he was this age (referring to Sophie being 2)? Or, oh my gosh what was it that the kids were doing the other day that had us all in tears from laughing so hard? And I can't remember. It made me realize those seemingly ordinary things, the moments that happen in the background and are often overlooked, are the moments we reach for many years from now.

I couldn't tell you how it started, but that's not an important part of the story anyway. Mason and Sophie, like so many kids, enjoy crawling on the floors and hiding in the clothes racks while I shop at Target. Normally this drives me nuts, and I can be heard through gritted teeth telling them to, GET UP. However, these days I let them have their fun--within reason. All this crawling on the floor and diving in and out of those clothes racks actually holds a purpose. You see, they are finding tick tocks. Say what?! Yeah, that's what I said when I started to notice my kids leaving the store with these colored plastic things in hand, and asked what they were. Tick tocks are really those plastic size markers that top the hangers at Target. Seriously, if you look hard enough you can find at least 3 or 4 of these things just lying around.

I overheard them one day in the dressing room discussing how many tick tocks they had found that day, which colors and letters, and then announcing they needed to collect one of each. Above is a sampling from that day (they had 6 if I recall) with a few more that were already laying around the house. In fact, it has been nice to hear Mason say things like, "Mom, you look at the shirts and I'll search for tick tocks for Sophie." She's the one who really likes to collect these, carrying them around everywhere. Even now, she is staring at the picture as I write this post, smile on her face, pointing, "tick tocks. My tick tocks. My pink. Yay!" Funny, isn't it, how the simplest things are the stuff they enjoy the most?

I know this story will get forgotten over the years. They will stop collecting tick tocks, and even forget themselves why they called them that in the first place. Our lives will go on, they will develop other quirks and hobbies, and new stories will be written. It is then--months, days, even years from now--that I will be glad I documented this story and all the other moments of our lives that instinctively get overlooked.

Though, I might still find myself asking, why do you guys call them ticks tocks? No, seriously, why? It's killing me not knowing.