Mommy Style Monday: Bonding with My Kids

A while back I wrote a post on my transition from one to two kids.  I have to say that as Lizzie is getting older, daily survival is getting easier, but each stage brings new challenges.  Learning to share, taking turns, and all those fun social skills are a big part of Brecken's learning right now.
From the beginning I have been a huge advocate of making sure that both my kids are loved, protected, and taught by me as much as possible.  Most of our days consist of the three of us playing together.  The balancing act during those times can get tricky, but I do my best to ensure that I am giving them both what they need.

This week's Mommy Style Monday post is answering the question "How do you bond with your kids?"  Being 2.5 and almost 8 months old, it all comes down to one word: TIME.

Brecken has been a trooper going from getting all my attention to sharing it with his sister.  When she has her morning nap and late afternoon nap it is his time with me.  I basically give him free reign to decide what we do, but we do it together.  I don't get on my phone, turn on the TV, or anything that would distract from him.  Normally we play with toys, read books, and he likes to run around the room and then jump on pillows to play "night night".  This past week his favorite things were: playing with Easter eggs and building towers with his legos.  This time with him is precious to me and I know he craves that one-on-one attention as well.  When Brandon is home, he often will take Brecken outside, just the two of them to play, ride tractors, etc.  I can see a huge difference when he has these times with us.

Elizabeth gets a bit more one-on-one with me than her brother.  I love my bedtime feeding with her.  She is usually very snuggly and smiley.  Same goes for her though, if she wakes up early from her lunchtime nap (when Brecken naps) then I give her my time.  We play with learning toys, I read her books, and we also just walk around the house and look out the windows (her new favorite activity).  Again, just giving her my time she knows she is the center of my world in those moments.                                
                                                            

As the kids get older we plan to do two-on-one and one-on-one "dates" with the kids.  It just consists of having them with both parents and individual parents to go out and do something fun together.  Brecken will probably be ready to start doing this soon.  He and I did go to the dentist this week with out his sister.  He loved it!

There isn't much complexity to what I believe makes kids (or people for that matter) feel special.  Give them your time.

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Check out the other Blogs: 

Kiana at Glitter&Donuts

Madeline at CaseyLand

Alexis at Witt Family Happenings

Haley at Embrace the Journey