DAY DATE WITH MY BOY
My husband, Noam, and I feel lucky each day to have our two boys. We also acknowledge how special it is for Yuli, 4 years, and Ori, 16 months, to have each other, especially since they are so close in age. The time they spend together now - playing, reading, sharing a bedroom - will build strong brotherly bonds for the future.(hopefully!) Ori already looks up to his 'big bro' and Yuli never fails to shows protectiveness over his 'baby bro'.
Most of the time, our Dekel crew is altogether - both parents, both boys. In fact, it's pretty hard to find time to spend separately with each of our children. They go to sleep around the same time, wake up at similar hours, and spend an almost parallel portion of their days in school and daycare, respectively. Perhaps a half an hour, here or there, constitutes alone time, but not much more than that given our schedules and lack of nanny-care at all hours. But, recently, my husband and I read a parent psychology article that highlighted the need for spending time with each child separately.
The article explained that as kids mature and form greater lasting memories, they can actually pinpoint vivid situations in their mind from childhood, most of which involve alone time spent with parents. Clearly, one-on-one time is pretty sacred for kiddos. As such, Noam and I have been making more of an effort to take each of our boys aside and share in activities that they like to do, one son at a time. For Yuli, this usually translates into heading to sleep a bit later than Ori, and having extra reading and chatting time, whereas for Ori, this time is spent sitting and playing games before Yuli gets home from his slightly longer school day.
In fact, I've started doing a new school pickup routine with Yuli (on days where my schedule permits), (Since Ori was born, I feel like Yuli and I spend less one-on -one time, in general). When he sees just me waiting at the school entrance, he knows he's in for a treat. We bond over a bag of candies (He like the sours, I like them all lol:-)), we share stories of our days - more his than mine ;), and of course I need to play his favorite game "try to get me" every single time:)) though he is always curious how my 'photo-pictures' look after a shoot. It's important mommy-and-me time that connects me to my growing boy in a new, intentional way. Here are some pictures from this past Friday, when the weather was beautiful!
Cherishing the alone time with each of our boys has been really special. Having the opportunity to watch them grow individually and see them mature, day by day, is something that we don't do enough (and, of course, time passes so darn fast!). So, here's to this - to building each child up individually, and watching your kids become the amazing adults they're going to be, each and every day!
MY Outfit: Boots Dolce Vita; Skirt Top Shop; White Tee
Hope you all have a great Monday
Neshikot= Xx