Mama to two

It’s an interesting thing, being at home with two kids. I love it. Love it sooooooo much. And I’m learning how to balance my time so that my kids get equal shares of me, and the house keeps running, food keeps appearing… and I get a little bit of time to myself as well.

Mayana has been an absolute trooper since Reuben was born. When I was pregnant I was told plenty of horror stories about jealousy, and to be prepared for Mayana to really act out as she adjusted to this big change.

We have had a few rough weeks here and there, and there have been times when Mayana has tested my patience, but overall, Mayana has really taken this whole big-sister thing well in her stride. She hasn’t shown any jealousy at all really, and absolutely adores her baby brother.

That aside though, I know that she craves my attention, and I know that I could probably try a little harder to do more with her and make some wonderful memories for her.

Now that Reuben is sleeping predictably through the day, and his feeding has settled into a routine, I really want to make a conscious effort to devote more time to Mayana.. and one-on-one time when possible. It dawned on me last week that next year is the last year of Mayana being home before she starts school. That hit me pretty hard. As much as I loved working, and love that Pete got to have an awesome year at home with his girl, I feel like I missed a lot last year. The year that Mayana was two… it was really her last year of being a ‘baby’ and I missed most of it. If I’m being honest that does make me feel pretty sad. I don’t want to have any regrets about this season of Mayana at home. Especially since I have the opportunity to be at home with her right now. I want to make the absolute most of it, and have her look back on these days with a smile in her heart.

Mayana loves to make and to learn and to do things with me. Sometimes its as easy as pulling out her rice tub or getting into her play kitchen for some imaginary pancakes.. but she also likes to do craft (and lots of it) and other hands-on activities. I want to be able to provide some great experiences for her, and have lots of fun and do lots of learning in the process.

Pinterest is an absolute wealth of ideas and information (and a lot of fun and a little addictive), and I’ve been trying to use it more productively lately to find some fun things I can do with my girl.

The problem with Pinterest though is that you tend to find and collate all these fabulous ideas, and then they just kinda sit there, and you think, “Oh I was going to do something really cool that I saw on Pinterest… what was it again?”. So my plan is to not let that happen anymore.

I’ve made this cute printable to keep on the fridge. When we find things that look fun (Mayana likes to pinterest with me on the iPad), we’ll not only pin them, we’ll write them on our list. And when we’re looking for inspiration for things to do, we’ll know exactly where to look! If you like it, you can click on the picture to download a PDF file of it. You could even laminate it and use a whiteboard marker to write your ideas and wipe them off when they’re done.

I want to make Mayana a part of this, with her helping to choose the things that are on the list and then picking activities that interest her. I don’t want to structure our time or make any type of rigid schedule or to-do list, just a reminder of the things we’ve talked about and thought would be fun. Bringing pinterest to life! And having fun with my favourite girl in the process.

Can’t wait!

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