When Kye first started back to school I had a TOUGH time figuring out what in the world to do with Brittlynn! Last year she napped during his time at school but this year I now have like 3 1/2 solid hours of time to fill with her. It doesn’t sound like that long, but with a toddlers attention span? We will play with a toy and she’ll be over it after 5 minutes! So 3 1/2 hours can easily feel like an eternity.
Here are some of the ways I fill our mornings together!
1) Errands: most stores around here don’t open until 10. Which is annoying. Because we drop Kye off at 8:30 so it’s silly to go home then go back out at 10! Both Target and Hobby Lobby are opened at 9 so we typically go one of those two places if we are going to run errands.
It’s important to me to use our one on one time to work with Britt on her behavior skills. I love that I get that solo time with her so I can give her my undivided attention. It’s AMAZING the difference in her behavior now that we have our mornings together!!! I keep my spank stick with me and I have had to take her in the bathroom a few times for a spanking, but usually she rides along happily in the cart and we enjoy our time together. I also enjoy how TONS of people constantly stop us to talk about how adorable she is 😉
2) Kid Fun: I like to try to do special toddler activities with Britt when I can. I think it’s important to allow her to have fun experiences that don’t always involve Kye. Sometimes we go to Chick-Fil-A to play. Now that it’s cooling down I plan to take her to our neighborhood park to enjoy the playground. I have also tried out toddler story time at our local library. Honestly, it didn’t go so amazing so I haven’t been back haha!!! She did AWESOME with the puzzles while we waited, she was quiet and paid great attention during the story, and she LOVED participating in the ribbon dancing. But I had a mommy fail moment b/c I didn’t realize that all the other moms brought snacks for their kids to eat. I try not to do as many snacks with my kids anymore so I didn’t even think to bring any with us. Well…it caused a major meltdown for my child! Another kid shared her snacks but Britt was downing them so quick that I finally told her she couldn’t have anymore and she got super upset. I took her to the bathroom and gave her a spanking (I don’t spank for fits at home but in public I do as I want to train her to behave in public!). I tried to take her back into the story time but she was just a MESS. So we left and haven’t gone back haha!
Ribbon Dancing!
I love that hand-on-hip action 😉
3) Play dates: Now that we do have so much time in the mornings I try to arrange play dates when possible. It allows Britt to work on social skills with other kids near her age and gives me a chance to visit with my friends! Olive and Crissy have come to play a few times already and it’s SO strange to see Crissy with just ONE child hahaha! Our girls are only 2 months apart and I love that they already get along so well 🙂
4) Chill at home: Many days we just stay at home! I’ve gotten into a good routine where we spend about an hour and a half together. Sometimes cleaning, sometimes preparing dinner stuff, sometimes just tickling and running around, and sometimes reading the same book 1,000 times 😉 Then Britt does her room time (post to come!) and will have a little video time while I make lunch before we go pick up Kye from school. While going and doing is FUN I value her independent playtime and make sure we are home for that most days of the week. I also try to make time for her to get a little “spoiled” and play with things that we typically don’t do when Kye is home. Now that Kye is older I can’t allow him to throw balls in the house, ride his ride on cars inside, etc but Britt is little enough to where she can still do those things without being destructive 😉 Her FAVORITE thing is to bring her Cozy Coupe inside and have me push her around the house in it!
While I miss Kye during the school day, I’m so thankful that I get this quality time with Brittlynn. It really allows me to treat her like an “only child” and I think there are many benefits to that! I’m able to work with her on her level and also able to give her my complete attention. I think it’s helped me to know her better and also has helped her to have better behavior since I’m better able to see things we need to improve on and give the time it takes to work on it! I’m sure when she starts school next year I’ll miss our mornings just the two of us 🙂
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She looks so long legged in that shopping cart! Sounds like fun girl time!