This post has been a long time coming, since I checked it off with my family on July 29th. My right hand still does not cooperate with long term use, so I have had to choose my activities wisely. As such, writing up posts about all of the checked-off-goals for my Forty Before Forty has been difficult. I still have a few more accomplishments that are waiting patiently in line to be officially acknowledged on my blog as well. Today’s spotlight is on #24: Stay in my PJ’s, Eat Cereal, and Watch Cartoons with My Kids in the Morning!
Whenever I slept over at my Grandpa & Grandma’s house with my cousin, we would get up early to watch cartoons together. We’d wait with eager anticipation for the colourful bars on the television to eventually yield to a display of the Canadian flag that waved, while the national anthem played. Then, the fun began! Grandpa always stocked the best foods for kids, so there was always something yummy to have for breakfast. I don’t really remember which cartoons were on that early, but I remember the experience around them. Recalling the hours and hours spent planted in front of a television, watching cartoons, is what inspired this goal. I wanted to rekindle a little childhood excitement, and share it with my kids.
My son introduced me to Ryan Trahan’s summer challenge of visiting 50 States in 50 Days*, while raising money for St. Jude’s. My daughter was already sucked in, but soon I found myself invested in his journey as well. Alongside his wife, Ryan Trahan stayed in a new Airbnb each night, before moving on to the next state. Each morning, they would rank the Airbnb they stayed in, which got harder to do as the list grew longer and longer. A new episode was uploaded each day, but we didn’t get to see all of them on the day they were shared. My daughter went away to camp for five days, and I couldn’t watch it without her. A big family vacation disrupted our viewing as well, but we managed to catch up to the finale in time to watch it the moment it was uploaded to Ryan Trahan’s channel.
My kiddos hadn’t expressed as much interest in getting up to watch cartoons, but they were excited about watching this series wrap up together. So, I shifted my expectations and rolled with it. We all stayed in our jammies, except for Raymond because he doesn’t have pajamas, and poured ourselves bowls of cereal. Raymond and I went with Crunch Berries, our daughter selected Rice Krispies, and our son chose Oreo Puffs. When the episode went live, we got comfy with our bowls of cereal and excitedly watched how it all wrapped up, as a family.
I’m not a morning person, so getting up at 6am to watch cartoons has lost the appeal it once held. So, this late morning event was more my speed. It was fun seeing my kids’ reactions to the final Airbnb, and then hearing about which states they would most like to visit. They had started following along with their magnetic States puzzle about halfway through the series so that they could add the states back to the puzzle as Ryan and Haley “unlocked” new states on their journey. There was a comment that Ryan read during one video while they were reading donations that made us laugh, because apparently my kiddos weren’t the only kids using a puzzle to “unlock” states along with the series.
It was weird having established an expectation for the past nearly fifty days (I jumped in a bit later, but my son made sure I later saw the ones I missed too), and then for it all to end. Having something to look forward to with my kids was nice, and it was sad to see it end, but I was glad we got to share that moment as a family. Raymond had some of the series with us, and I was glad he joined us for the final episode too. The way we watch television has changed drastically since I was a little girl, but this adaptation of a favourite childhood pastime brought me joy.
*This is the compilation edit with abbreviated clips, so if you want to breeze through the states this is your go-to video. If you want to experience all of the details and the donation readings, like we did, you’ll need to start here.
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