This was such a lovely weekend. I’ve been craving a slow, lazy, relaxing weekend, and I finally had one. Sure, a getaway somewhere would have been great, but it’s amazing how much better I felt after just two days of unplugging and resting at home!
I intentionally planned a weekend with lots of quality sleep, mini naps, good food, catching up on reading, very few errands, a kid birthday party, checking out a new restaurant in Brickell (Or new to me…have you been to Tacology?) and lots and lots of playing in the house. Kiki might have not been the fan of spending so much time at home, but with bad winds and somewhat rainy weather, I had no desire to go anywhere, so we created entertainment at home.
It gave Kiki a chance to play with toys that have been collecting dust in the corners of her room and most of all to expand her creativity…and when I say expand her creativity, in Kiki’s fashion, she took it to another level! She took the iPad and created toy videos and asked me to create her own YouTube Kids channel where she could demonstrate the functionality of her toys. So what does a proud mama do, create a YouTube Kids channel “Kiki and Company“, now I just need to upload all the videos 🙂 I promise, I will work on editing the quality of the videos, but I am beyond impressed at the concept and execution by my five year old! Need I remind you she’s five!!! I’ve created a digital media mini monster! So please subscribe to her YouTube Kids Channel and follow her toy adventures! I know it would mean a world to her.
This weekend was also a first in our mother-daughter relationship…I left Kiki alone at the birthday party for three hours! Until this Saturday, I would happily take Kiki to birthday parties (dare I say my child has a busier social life than I do?!!) stay there for a few hours, talking to other parents and eating pizza, candy and cake, riding the sugar highs! This time, the party invitation came with detailed instructions that the party will be at the painting studio for 10 girls and the host mom offered for all the parents to drop off their daughters, and leave them in a supervised painting class (the host mom was also staying and took everyone’s numbers, texting every hour to let parents know how the girls were doing). I must say I was a bit skeptical at first since I didn’t know the host mom, but at the encouragement of my trusted parental adviser L, I followed the party instructions, gave Kiki a big hug, and she was off. She turned around once and grinned at me with her big toothless smile, which was more of her saying “Mom, don’t worry, I will be fine” and she was off into her big independent world!
I must admit, it was a great feeling to see her confidently walk away, and have an amazing time without me hovering over (I promise I am not a helicopter mom…OK, maybe just a little bit). For some, five might be too early to teach independence, but I firmly believe there is no right or wrong way to tackle and move through stages of our child’s development. Every child requires different parenting as every parent will do their best based on knowledge, experiences, and available parenting tools. Even the smallest steps are monumental in guiding our children to take another step toward becoming a free-standing human beings. My trusted parental adviser L always says “Good parents give their children roots and wings—roots to know where home is and wings to fly off and practice what has been taught them.”
The three hours of my independence, I spent getting the whole house cleaned and even managed to plan our weekly menu. Once we were home, I was thrilled to be able to just sit on the couch and enjoying the rest of the Saturday watching Moana. And I am sure now you are wondering what we are eating this week…
SUNDAY: Chicken Fajita Pasta Casserole
MONDAY: Vegetarian Peanut Noodles #meatlessmondays
TUESDAY: Dinner with Mr. S
WEDNESDAY: Dinner in NYC
THURSDAY: Turkey Burgers and Tatertots (with my supermom cape on, I am back in 36 hours)
FRIDAY: Homemade pizza (our Fridays tradition)
SATURDAY:….we have no plans, so I will leave it at that!
What are you meal plans for this week? I promise you both of the recipes that we are making this week can be prepared on Sundays, and the noodles can be eaten both warm or cold, meatless or not, and all the recipes are 30 minute recipes!!!
Hope your week is just as amazing as you are!!!
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