Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Friday Mom – Erin:
One of the topics of conversation during my mom’s group last week was the suggestion that we each make a concerted effort to spend one-on-one time with our older children each week. Although, in my experience, it may be difficult to find an extended period of alone time everyday, I have been making an effort to steal away with Rory for at least a little bit each day. With the exception of a particularly obstinate morning on Thursday, I am already seeing progress in my relationship with my “big boy.”

Most days, our alone time is spent in Rory’s playroom before he and his dad head out the door to daycare/work. About half of the time Charlotte will go back to sleep in the mornings, allowing me a few moments with her older brother. These moments are fairly fleeting, but we have been able to get in some good conversations and have read a few books. The cries of “daddy do it” still persist, but we have made some headway.

Sometimes we are able to sneak away for longer periods of time. For example, on Saturday, Rory and I took a walk around the neighborhood in his new stroller. We chatted a bit before he fell asleep. I talked about how I had a big brother, and how my parents (his grandparents) loved us both equally. I explained how much fun siblings can be, and explained that without siblings, he wouldn’t have the cousins he adores so much. I think most of this was lost on him, but he thanked me for the walk, nonetheless.

Other times my husband and I trade off on primary care responsibilities. On Wednesday afternoon, I handed Charlotte off to Rory’s dad and took the lead in feeding Rory dinner and playing with him afterwards. Charlotte is sometimes too fussy for this role-swap to work, but when it does, it helps give everyone some welcomed variety to the day, and allows both my husband and me time to bond with the child we generally see less often during the week.

Regardless of the format my time with Rory, I am glad to have a chance each day to hear about his day in his own words. His communication skills continue to grow by leaps and bounds each week, and having the opportunity to chat with him one-on-one is a true gift.

From Friday Mom – Jaime:
Earlier in the month, I asked Andrew if he would like to have some special Andrew and Mommy time. His face lit up like it was Christmas, Hanukkah and his birthday all at the same time. “What can we do?” he asked, all excited. I had planned to take him to a cooking class at Kings (it’s a local supermarket, but they have a cooking studio with all kinds of cooking classes for people of all ages). So I told him about it and he thought it was cool that everything was heart-themed for Valentines Day.

We had a lot of fun making heart shaped pancakes, love potion (fruit punch), hugs and kisses cookies (think sugar cookie, with a Hershey hug or kiss in the center) and other goodies. He held my hand on the way back to the car and asked whether we could have more special Andrew and Mommy time.

So we made a deal. (Yeah, he’s the kid of 2 lawyers. We do deals and negotiate…)

Anytime Andrew wanted to have special Mommy time, all he had to do was ask. I might not be able to drop everything I was doing right that second, but we could have our time together as soon as we could. He claims to have understood that I couldn’t always stop working to hang out or that wanting Mommy time couldn’t be an excuse not to go to sleep… But he still tries to get out of bedtime with begging for special Andrew Mommy time. (It is cute…Sometimes it works. I’m such a sucker for this kid sometimes!)

We’ve continued to create our Mommy and Andrew time. Sometimes we go out to dinner. Sometimes we head upstairs and read books or watch Sophia the First before bed. (Andrew likes it. Hubby doesn’t. They don’t usually watch it together). It always makes me feel good when Andrew asks me for time together and I’ve enjoyed every second of it.

Tonight we made cookies together. We did both oatmeal chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. He freaked out because we got cookie dough all over our hands. I tried not to laugh. Getting messy while cooking is half the fun! The cookies are awesome, by the way. I considered it a major success that I got him to eat one of the raisin cookies – and he liked it! (“The raisins are kinda squishy…but they still taste yum!”)

I should jump off the computer. I have a little guy asking for some Andrew Mommy time before bed.

Have a great weekend everyone.