live life like you're 9

The past couple of days my twin 9 year old cousins have been visiting. I would say these, plus their 13 year old brother, are my favorite cousins which is kinda weird because they're actually 2nd cousins and it's the biggest age gap (I have a cousin who's 4 month's older than me, has always lived less than 3 hours away even in college, yet she and I never talk). But I remember when they were born and even got to visit the twins in the hospital before they went home, so I feel very close to them. Because of the large age gap we always call the three of them collectively "the babies" even though now at 9 they aren't babies at all.

Having them here has been really great because it's meant an excuse to live like I was 9 again. We've baked cookie cakes the past two nights and spent the afternoon in the pool practicing our underwater handstands. I've honestly had the best time with them doing these little things that are really fun, but I'd never do on my own. Which got me thinking about how much simpler life is when you're 9. I remember when I was 9 my biggest causes of stress were learning long division and that my best friend was "dating" my crush. Oh what I'd give to be 9 again and not have any real concerns.

So as the summer is beginning I'm going to challenge myself to live like I'm 9 more often. Obviously I can't completely throw all concerns and stress to the wind because I do have to be an adult and go to work and pay bills. But I think it'll do me a world of good to do more fun silly things like actually getting in the pool on a "pool day" instead of just lounging on the side like normal. I realized the other day that 2015 is almost halfway over and I'm not doing a very good job of sticking to my goal, so I'm hoping this is the first step to improving upon that.