5 Things We do well as Parents

I’m baaaack!  I’m back in Texas and no longer on vaca, *sniff* so I will be back to my regularly scheduled blogging program now!

If you happened to read my oh so lovely post: 5 Epic ParentFails, then I am in luck because now I have the chance to redeem myself with this weeks Listable Life prompt:

5. Encourage reading– Dr. Hubby and I are both bigtime readers.  We both love to read books of all sorts.  And that is something we really want to instill in little E.  I cannot count on my fingers and toes how many times E  brings me books throughout the day, and I almost always will pause what I am doing and read it to him (unless pausing is going to burn dinner!)  And we always read a book several books before bed.  Despite the fact that he has a TON of books and he is only 16 months old, he already has favorites!  He always picks the same books for bedtime.  And the only way to read a book is sitting in your mommy or daddy’s lap, of course!

 4. Maintain a routine and schedule–  Toddlers crave routine, and so do I (although I have been known to be spontaneous from time to time!), so I try very hard to be consistent and maintain a schedule for little E.  And because I know you are oh so very interested, I’m goin to tell you our schedule!  Eli always wakes up between 730-8, has breakfast, then plays for a couple hours.  Playing usually consist of taking every toy out of the toy bin in the living room, relocating every toy in his room and his main toybox out to the living room, creating what can only be described as the aftermath of an f5 torando.  Around 11, we pick up at least ½ of those toys and then its naptime.  He normally wakes up around 1230, and we then have lunch.  Then its playtime again! This time we may just play with toys, but then again we may fingerpaint, or have a playdate, or go for a walk, or go out for the afternoon.  If we have errands to run, we go during what would be playtime.  Naptime happens again round 330ish.  Yes, he takes two naps still! (yay!)  After naptime, we play some more followed by clean up (and yes Eli helps willingly!), wait for daddy to get home, eat dinner, bath, get ready for bed, brush teeth, read, get kisses and a prayer, and tucked into bed around 730 or 8.  Yes my kid sleeps 12 hours!  He has since he was like 9 months old.  That is such a blessing!!! This schedule doesn’t always work out, but we try to stick as close to it as possible.  When we are going to be going to Lubbock or Amarillo (which is an hour drive either way), we will leave around naptime if possible because E will normally nap on the way there.   But you know, sometimes life just happens and the schedule is thrown out the window.  Luckily, our little E adapts to new situation pretty well! Now aren’t you just so happy I told you our entire routine? 😉

3. Socialize –  Since he was 8 weeks old, E has been in church in the nursery.  He actually is at church at least 4 times a week!  On Sunday, he is in the nursery during church.  On Wednesday, he is in the nursery while Mom and Dad are at choir rehearsal.  On Tuesday and Thursday, he is at Mothers Day Out from 830-3.  And we do many events with our children’s ministry and of course, playdates!  I am not sure how much of it is his personality or us socializing him from such an early age, but at 16 months, we still haven’t really dealt with much separation anxiety and he will go to pretty much anyone!

2. Family time – I had people tell me when I had a baby that I would suddenly be cooped up in the house and never be able to do anything that I used to do pre-baby.  I told these people that wouldn’t be the case for us, and they just shrugged, as if I didn’t know what I was talking about.  We still do the things we did before, but now we include the baby!  It may take us double the amount of time to get ready and get out and get going, but we do it and the baby is often included.  We run with him in the jogging stroller.  We hike with him in the backpack.  We TRAVEL with him!  I’ve taken him to zumba workout classes with me.  We take him to the rodeo. 😉 I think its fun to take him on these adventures! And as he gets older, he will actually appreciate these activities.  Dr. Hubby and I also make a point to spend time together with E every evening as a whole family, and usually its just spent playing in Eli’s room before we go to bed.  Daddy often works late because he’s trying to wrap up that phd, but we always spend time playing with Daddy before E goes to bed.

1. Provide new experiences-  Like most parents, Dr. Hubby and I love to watch Eli experience new things.  And we love to provide him ample opportunities!  At 15 months, we let him dye Easter eggs.  Yes, he was entirely covered in blue dye, and so were we.  But it was worth it.  Sometimes that new experience is fingerpainting, or playing with bubbles, or eating coloring with crayons, playing at the park, or eating spaghetti not from a fork, but with his own hands (which usually results in spaghetti in his hair) or petting goats at the zoo, or… well, you get the idea.  This is seriously one of our favorite things about being parents!

We love being parents and just like everyone else, we learn as we go.  But hopefully this post has allowed me to redeem myself after posting about my Epic Parent Fails. J