there are millions of reasons why i love my little family. the fact that it's easily divisible by 2 is one of my favorites. taking on 2 kids is easy and completely do-able. and no matter how we divide our wee ones, it's even. boys vs. girls. in school kids vs. at home kids. big kids vs. little kids (don't let riley hear you call her little.) good kids vs. bad kids. kidding. i'm KIDding! 2, for us, is pretty simple. but we are trying to spend one on one time with them, too. and we have found that just taking one kid out of the mix (it doesn't matter which one) makes it infinitely easier. but amidst our quest of division, we realized we were never mommy+daddy+child. it was always mommy+children and daddy+children. so we have remedied that. it will be rare, but it will be. we have decided that we will take trips with each child, individually, when they are 8, 12, and 16. hopefully bonding us as parents and child. we decided to make the 8 year old trip a day trip. and let them choose what we do. all day. this summer when we were visiting jp's family in nc, we left the 3 youngest with nana and grandad and took our eldest for a "day in the life of zoe". jp was hinting towards a water park, i kept hoping for a play, but zoe made the final decision. she chose to go to the mall and get her ears pierced, go to build-a-bear and to eat at the nearest restaurant. (i think it was a friday's, or bennigan's or something exactly like it.) we had so much fun. she was thrilled that she got to get dessert (chocolate covered strawberries) and felt so grown up with tiny blue earrings. john paul and i were ecstatic that we could have a conversation with our sweet girl and not be interupted. that we got to hear everything she had to say. and that we had a chance to remember to just look at her. and smile at her. and let her be loved. it was a huge success. she is already planning what she wants to do for her 12 year old trip, and making suggestions for jakob on what he could do next year for his first trip. maybe he will be more easily swayed toward the play. but, i highly doubt that.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
divide and conquer
there are millions of reasons why i love my little family. the fact that it's easily divisible by 2 is one of my favorites. taking on 2 kids is easy and completely do-able. and no matter how we divide our wee ones, it's even. boys vs. girls. in school kids vs. at home kids. big kids vs. little kids (don't let riley hear you call her little.) good kids vs. bad kids. kidding. i'm KIDding! 2, for us, is pretty simple. but we are trying to spend one on one time with them, too. and we have found that just taking one kid out of the mix (it doesn't matter which one) makes it infinitely easier. but amidst our quest of division, we realized we were never mommy+daddy+child. it was always mommy+children and daddy+children. so we have remedied that. it will be rare, but it will be. we have decided that we will take trips with each child, individually, when they are 8, 12, and 16. hopefully bonding us as parents and child. we decided to make the 8 year old trip a day trip. and let them choose what we do. all day. this summer when we were visiting jp's family in nc, we left the 3 youngest with nana and grandad and took our eldest for a "day in the life of zoe". jp was hinting towards a water park, i kept hoping for a play, but zoe made the final decision. she chose to go to the mall and get her ears pierced, go to build-a-bear and to eat at the nearest restaurant. (i think it was a friday's, or bennigan's or something exactly like it.) we had so much fun. she was thrilled that she got to get dessert (chocolate covered strawberries) and felt so grown up with tiny blue earrings. john paul and i were ecstatic that we could have a conversation with our sweet girl and not be interupted. that we got to hear everything she had to say. and that we had a chance to remember to just look at her. and smile at her. and let her be loved. it was a huge success. she is already planning what she wants to do for her 12 year old trip, and making suggestions for jakob on what he could do next year for his first trip. maybe he will be more easily swayed toward the play. but, i highly doubt that.
