Monday, July 27, 2009

Some One on One Time

During the summer since the kids and I are both off for summer vacation we are rarely separated. There are special occasions when I sneak away for dinner with a friend, or daddy takes them to swim lessons, or Gramma takes them to play, but other than that it is usually them and me.

I love being able to spend the summers with them and the idea of one on one time with the kids had not really ever entered my mind. It seems they are usually both with me or both away. So when Gramma asked me about taking one kid at a time for a day I thought that sounded wonderful because that meant I had one on one time with the other.

Dylan went with Gramma first and I have to say it was tough to figure out what to do with just Zoe. She was all wishy washy with what she wanted to do so we did what any mommy/daughter team would do...WENT SHOPPING. If you follow me on Twitter then you probably spent the day with us as well. We picked up lunch at McD's and took it to a park for a picnic where we found treasures (some little girl must have had a b-day party there because there were little plastic jewels everywhere and Zoe picked up every.single.one). Then we went to the outlets where Zoe got new clip on earrings, a dress, some school clothes, and not one, but two pair of shoes (one that since then the dog has chewed, but let's not go there). Can you say spoiled much?


We girls had a blast on our special day and it makes me look forward to spending more just girl time with her as she grows. I'm counting down the days till we can do a spa day together!

Dylan's day was much easier to plan as he had many ideas although it was tough to narrow it down to one. In the end he decided that he wanted to go kayaking! He actually has talked about kayaking a lot, but we just never got around to figuring out the logistics for the family to go. So off we went to the bay where we rented a tandem kayak. We put on our life jackets, grabbed some paddles, and after a few directions from the kayak guy we were off to sea.



We explored some marshes, observed birds fishing, drifted under a bridge, checked out an old fishing pier, and even got stuck on a sandbar. Dylan kept saying, "This is a really good day mom. I'm glad we did this." Score 1 for mommy!! I was so proud of him because during the entire trip he never stopped paddling. He was amazing.

We both learned the important lesson that when kayaking you should always start against the wind so when you are tired coming back it is easier. Of course we learned this lesson the hard way as I was sorta worried we weren't going to make it back within our two hour time frame since we were paddling and paddling and our kayak was going backwards with the current! Eventually we did make it back though, right on the nose of our two hours too. After kayaking we were starving so he got to pick the lunch spot and then the rest of the afternoon was spent resting our sore arms with some wii. It was so much fun to just hang out with my little man.

I am so glad that Gramma suggesting spending a day with each of the kids. I'm thinking Dave and I may have to work on doing this so each of us get some alone time with each of them.

What about you? If you have more than one child, do you schedule alone time with each of them? What kind of activities would/do you do when you have one on one time? I can't wait to hear all the ideas so I can start planning our next fun day out.

6 comments:

  1. love, love, love this!! Before our 3rd was born, we would have a "date" afternoon and split up the kids and each of us have the afternoon and evening to do whatever we wanted with one kid at a time ... it was so much fun, and I miss the time that we had. Ever since Tom was born we have gotten out of the habit - maybe we will start up again!

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  2. As you know I don't have children yet but I must say those days when I would get some one on one time with my Mom were the best as a kid!!! I wish I could still have that sometimes :)
    Sounds like Dylan, Zoe and you had a very fun time - I'm so glad you guys got to have some one on one time :) I think it's a great idea to try and do this with Dave as well, I'm sure they'll enjoy spending time alone with Dad too :)

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  3. well you know that I only have the one kid so it doesn't apply to me so much. We do mom/daughter stuff all the time.

    But when I was a kid I only remember that mom had one on one with me, not my brothers. My mom DID try to get my father to take us out...but that was a HUGE failure which begins the story of why I hate beer. :(

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  4. what a great idea Mel! Abraham and I do stuff all the time together but since Kari works during the summer I have taken each of her kids out for a day. Today I took Chloe and we painted pottery, had lunch, got a sno-cone and hit Target! I just loved the girl time with her. I took Alex out about a month ago.. lunch and a cool science show at the library.

    Time is the best gift we can give to our kids!

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  5. I love that you did this with your kids. It is definitely something I need to take to heart - sometimes the crazyness of my weeks keeps me from really spending quality alone time with TK4 and Aubryn. Thanks for the reminder.

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  6. How fun! Right now my son is an only child so it's all 1:1 time! But, I have very fond memories of occasional 1:1 time with each of my parents growing up. With my dad, I especially loved getting to do "his" things like going to the driving range. It always felt very adult and therefore extra-special.

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