Enjoying my Kids
One area that I've been working on lately is relaxing enough from the endless things on my to-do list, to simply focus on enjoying my children (am I the only mom who has to make a real conscious effort to do that?). Since I don't post pictures of them as often as I wished I did, I thought I'd share a little about what we've been up to!
Here we are at the Seattle Woodland Zoo, where we have a membership. We went there for a verrrry cold (seriously…brrrr!) day while we were staying with my MIL a few weeks ago. There's Abbie with the flamingos, and posing near where the leopards should have been (smart leopards, they weren't out in the cold like us!).
Caden was enthralled by the fish tank at the Zoomazium (the indoor kid's center- the perfect place for a chilly day!), as well as the bin full of flax seeds and hidden shells and surprises.
The kids were so thrilled to watch a gorilla with it's sweet baby- it was truly adorable! We also observed some white tailed monkeys, and completed an observation worksheet, which we later turned in at the Zoomazium for "Nature Exchange". One of the staff members asked Abbie questions about what she had observed about the monkeys and taught her a little more about them, and then with the "points" she earned for doing the observation, she got to choose a pretty shell as her prize. (This is a really neat program to check out, if you live in the Seattle area).
Our happy trio. What a fun day we had!
My little goofies wearing a butterfly and a ladybug costume from their dress-up box. Can you tell they're related? Look at those cheesey, cheshire grins for the camera! 🙂
Trying a little experiment to make "rain" inside of a mason jar. This was a great way to follow up on the learning we did about the states of matter last week. Thanks Kym, for the experiment link!
How have you been enjoying your children lately? What sorts of fun things have you been up to? Is this something that you find easy or difficult as a mom?
My husband and I were just talking about this last night. With all of life’s craziness, it is easy to get caught up in the to do and forget the to be part. Spending good, fun times with your children is so important. I think you need to be friends with you kids.I am not saying friends first, you must be mommy first. But those good happy times make discipline more effective. If the only time you have with your kids is to correct them, that unbalanced approach can lead to exasperation on everyone’s part.
I am so glad you enjoyed your day. I am 34 weeks pregnant but I try to get my daughter outside every nice day to play and be active.
You are not the only one that has to make a conscious effort to simply. enjoy. your children 🙂 I do, too! I can’t wait for it to warm up enough to go to the zoo. Looks like it was such fun!
I’m glad I’m not the only one that has to make this conscious effort! I try to build rituals into the day for “enjoying” time, like story time before bed or morning snuggles. I’m dubbing Fridays for “Creative Fun” where we do some sort of educational fun activity together. Next week, we’re slated to visit a museum, which I had to consciously give up a lunch with girlfriends to do so. They’re only little once!
It is so great that you are finding enjoyment with your family. I love spending time with the kids and like you, I tend to make time or else I’d get so busy from day to day living. We have movie night, game night, etc so that I make sure that we are together more. Good job mom and I know you guys had fun!!
I also struggle with this. Especially since having our new baby. I need to work on this a lot. I think today I will get my 3 year old to help me make muffins for the freezer. I find it very hard to play pretend things with my daughter. So instead I have been finding ways of play that I like to do as well and then sometimes do the pretend type of play. I am more into reading, crafty stuff, going places etc. Its hardest in the winter time. I am looking forward to being able to take her to the park again once the snow and ice melts off of it.
You are most definitely not alone! It seems almost ironic that although I homeschool and am with my kids 24/7 that I have to carve out time to build our relationship but I do. “Enjoying” my kids and seeing the ones I have as BLESSINGS and not just any future babies is something I have to work at and am regularly convicted of.
The older two kids enjoy games (dominos, sequence, yahtzee)so I try to take that time to play with them. I’m also rethinking my approach to school so that I can make enjoying time together more of a priority.
no, you are not the only one who has to work at relaxing enough to enjoy her kids. parents who stay at home pretty much have an endless list of things that truly need to get done — it’s hard to put it aside sometimes, even for an hour. the partner who goes to a job often gets to come home and just relax with the kids, where as the parent who stays home is kind of in charge of things during the day, so it extends into the evening as well. i am working on this, too.
the photo of Caden watching the fish is so sweet. Thank you for sharing your photos. I am a first time visitor here, so now I’m off to look around.
I’ve been trying to be much more intentional about stopping and enjoying my children lately too.
We’ve been keeping things low key and just reading more books, and I have actually been playing WITH them more instead of just letting them play while I try to get stuff done.
So glad to hear I am not the only mom that has to do this!!
Life is busy with all of the responsibilities and demands and a day can easily fly right by!
I have to tell you though that after reading about little Tuesday’s journey over at her mom’s blog (goblogyourself.blogspot.com) my life has really been changed.
For whatever reason that sweet little girl was a light switch for me! Now I really make the effort to enjoy some part of the day with each of my children. Even if it is as simple as a special song at bedtime, playing trains on the living room floor, doing a project, or going somewhere fun, I really want my kids to know how much they mean to me!
And they are little for just such a short period of time!! Love them up!
Tuesdays blog is half12.blogspot.com 🙂
It is Spring Break for my oldest 2 so I’ve been making a conscious effort to enjoy them too 🙂 We have done some Spring purging and cleaning together (they really enjoy this, believe it or not!) We’ve also been doing some sewing with felt. Very fun. I printed out some photos and my kids each made a book with photos and their own captions/stories for each one for my grandparents and my husbands grandmother (so, their great-grandparents.) We’ve also played games and read books. I find this too is something I must really focus on or I will not spend enough time with them. So no, you aren’t the only one Stephanie. It’s good to keep on reminding ourselves of the importance of it.
this is sooo true! i just posted something about this on my blog. it is so hard to do!
I definitely have to make an effort to take a break and love on my daughter. It helps me to remind myself that my husband works hard so I get to stay home with her…not so the house can look perfect all the time. I’ve been trying to get the majority of my chores completed early in the day and during nap time so we can chill together. It’s especially important now, before her little brother or sister joins us in September!
Sometimes I get too busy taking care of my kids to even enjoy them. I’m trying to slow down and enjoy them more, they are growing up so fast!
Love the pictures; looks like you have been having lots of fun! Weekend before last, we took our girls to a local art museum for a children’s day which included a tour and special activities. I do struggle with trying to get chores and other tasks accomplished as opposed to just taking time to be with my children. I’m making a conscious effort to do better!
Sadly, I have to remind myself that my daughter is my number one priority, not cooking dinner, doing laundry, clean, etc. As she’s gotten older (16 months today!), it’s become more and more apparent that I need to not just be her caregiver, but her mom. For us, I’ve finding out things that she really enjoys and starting to do those more and more. So far I’ve started having her “help” in the kitchen (which makes cooking go twice as long, but she LOVES it), having playtime outside (now that the weather is nice enough) and making sure to read (one of her favorite pastimes). It’s really allowed us to have given greater bonding moments and shown me just how great it really is to be her mom.
Oh my goodness, I definitely understand what you mean – it’s almost kind of nice to hear someone else say they have to make a conscious effort to spend just fun time with their kids! I worked outside my home until a few months ago (my son is 4), and I thought for sure once I quit work, my focus would be completely on him, and keeping house would kind of come second. My eyes have been opened! With trying to keep my house the way I want, I end up feeling like I’m ALWAYS focused on that and not enough on my son. So we’ve done kind of like you all did the past few days, trying to get out and do some fun stuff like going to the park, hiking and playing in the creek. Warmer weather definitely helps! We also cook together, and like Sarah said, it takes a little longer, but he loves it, so it’s worth it. Don’t be too hard on yourself, though – I’m sure in your children’s eyes (and in general), you are doing a wonderful job!
Adorable !!!!!!!!!! I’m wanting to take my 2 year old to the zoo this summer … I think she’ll love it!! 🙂