We have a little one that is sick today. Sawyer woke up with a fever, his first one, and he's miserable. He's just laying around, wanting to snuggle, which is really unusual for him so I'm secretly happy I'm getting some quality cuddle time in. Our plan is to lay low and let him dictate our day which is fine with us.
Along with slowing down this week, I've been wanting a way to be thoughtful about each day even if I've just changed my 8th diaper in a row or cleaned the kitchen for the 4th time in an hour. So I love this idea... a sketchbook/journal about my day. Even though I've always liked the idea of journaling, I never seemed to stick with it. What I love is that I can take one page a day, write my to-do list, what we're planning on eating, etc...but also doodle or draw or write down little things the boys did or said that I want to remember. It's kind of like a snapshot of that day without any pressure of sitting down to journal all of it in flowing paragraphs.
And if it's not enough for Sawyer and I to need some quiet routines at home, than Ian desperately needs them too. He's pushing and testing and has been in some of the worst moods we've ever seen from him. Some days it feels like everything is an argument and he resists anything we want him to do. So after a good week or two of being completely flabbergasted by his disobedience and tantrums, I've decided the best thing to do is pull back, scale down and just bring everything back to center. So instead of rushing out and trying to fit in errands that can be done alone later in the evening, we are staying home. And what I'm finding is that I needed this too.
I notice a huge change in his attitude when we are busy doing things together in his familiar places. It's important for kids to feel needed, not just loved, and I see that in Ian so much. It builds his self-esteem to know that his hard work, even as a 3 year old, is needed in our family. So this morning, first thing, we headed outside and he fed the chickens.
He also learned to sort laundry and caught on really quickly without needing direction from me.
And so we didn't work the entire day, we read some new books while Sawyer slept. My niece Meagan stayed with us this week and while we were at Barnes and Nobles she introduced us to the Carl books. I think I'm in love! And oh yeah...Ian likes them too.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Taking our time
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3 comments:
such a wise mom, andrea...
and i'm glad you like the journal idea! it's a lot of fun.
sorry to hear about sawyer, give him an extra kiss for me...and ian too. he needs extra auntie-love, i can tell.
Kisses from Gramma and Grampa too! For both of them! Sorry to hear Sawyer isn't feeling well. I know he must have loved being held. That's good that Ian is helping around the house, Jeremy could always take care of himself when he got older because he learned to do those things when he was younger. Boy, Ian loves reading, does Sawyer love books too? Hope everyone is doing better today!
Hope Sawyer's feeling better. Pea's had some allergy-type symptoms so we've been keeping a bit quiet of late, too. Which I'm not complaining about either--we all need time to just be and be together, don't we? Life goes by so fast as it is... We even got Pea a little inflatable pool so in this nice weather we can just stay home and still have a way to enjoy the outdoors in a summery sort of way.
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