One on One Time

Today was a blizzardy day here in Buffalo. Drafty, windy, snowy, cold...downright miserable outside. For many kids this meant a snow day, including Ava's Aunt Caitlyn, who is 13. She called this morning as she was dancing around her kitchen because she was SO excited and wanted to make a snowman with Ava!

All that to say, Grandma Connie and Aunt Caitlyn came to pick Ava up this morning leaving me with just one child!! I hate to sound so excited about this, but after having two kids, taking care of one is a piece of cake!! Not to mention the cleaning I was able to get done around the house while Ella napped. It was a small moment of euphoria to have all, let me repeat, ALL of my clean laundry folded and put away, stew in the crockpot and the entire house vacuumed by 2:00 p.m.!

But here is what else I found; it is really, really nice sometimes to just be able to focus on one child purely because you are so much more easily able to connect to that child in those moments. I imagine this changes as they get older and we can all do more together, but on a day to day basis, poor little 10 mo. old Ella pretty much gets the shaft around here sometimes.

She's so content, bless her heart, to sit in the middle of the living room floor and play with a cap to a jar of baby food for 25 minutes, while her 2 1/2 year old sister is dragging my tired behind around the house to wipe her spilled water, spilled milk or rescue her from some other household trouble she's gotten herself into. I just don't have the time to focus on Ella that I used to with Ava.

So I got to focus on Ella for a little while today; on her beautiful gummy smile, on her laughter as I tickled her, on the smell of her yummy baby head, on feeding her, on helping her walk around the living room, on rolling balls with her-- the little stuff that little ones like. It was delightful and as much as I LOVE having two girls, I LOVE one on one time with them individually sometimes too. Besides my loving it, it's so obvious that they love it, and I think it is really important to do.