Connected

My parents were out of town this weekend, which meant that Beanie and I were by ourselves the entire weekend.

That is rare!

We almost always do something with my Mom on weekends - shopping, farmers market, lunch etc - so its not common for us to have a  full 2 days on our own without a visit from my parents. My Dad usually drops by in the evenings while we are playing outside. Its great....but its is also nice to be by ourselves.

Beanie and I had a fabulous time and I really felt we were able to enjoy each other and connect.  Just last week I was thinking that life is so busy that even though we have Mommy and Beanie time every evening, I always feel rushed, as though I have 1000 things still needing to get done.

This weekend was the opposite.

We had stuff to do and we did it, but we were able to keep a slow pace and I think it helped a lot. I had a great time connecting with my little girl. She is so much fun and is such a great age. I love being able to talk to her, ask her opinion on things and hear her world view.

We took it easy both mornings which I think was a nice way to start the day. On Sat we went to K.ohls since I needed a new pair of running shoes. Beanie was awesome and I was actually able to look around and buy shoes! We then walked around the store, picked up a T-shirt for her and went out to lunch. Then in the evening, we stayed home and painted, went outside for a stroll in our neighborhood and cooked dinner.

Today we had another lazy start. Beanie helped me make blueberry pancakes and later I was able to vacuum the house and do some cleaning up. Beanie seems to be getting better about keeping herself entertained for short periods of time which helps.

We then went to the grocery store, got a balloon, came home and made lemonade which we drank out on the back deck (so relaxing!) while I made organic pizza for lunch. Later she watched some cartoons and after a nap we went to Tar.get. As you can see, I ended up running a lot of errands this weekend, but it was slow paced and very enjoyable.

Not having to rush made me feel less stressed which of course rubs off on Beanie, so there was no drama and even when presented with tough situations she handled it really well.

For example, we saw a red police car cart at the grocery store, but by the time I had parked the car and we crossed the street another kid got to it. Beanie was upset, but did not have a  meltdown. After some cajoling, she agreed to take a regular cart and I promised her we would look for one police cart in the store or when we came back out. Well her patience paid off because we saw a pink police cart abandoned in the store so I transferred all my stuff over (we were done with shopping) and I took her for a few laps around the store. She was happy and I was really proud of her and how well she handled what must have been disappointing seeing another kid take the red cart.