Parent Tip #108 and #109

#108: Not all things wanted need to be bought at the store!

My poor Riley Bear has been asking for a new piggy bank ever since his little glass monkey bank had been shattered what feels like centuries ago. I kept saying I would buy him a new one, but it's not a thing high on my priority list, so the bank gets forgotten on shopping trips.

Then, when kids find change and get excited and run to their rooms to put their shiny coinage in their banks, I feel super bad that the Bear has no place to keep his.

So, yesterday he found a nickel and had no place to put it. I felt bad about it... again. Until I decided to just make him his own little bank out of an empty clean peanut butter jar. As you can see, it's nothing fancy, we just decorated the bank with washi tape, put his name on it and cut out a hole at the top of the jar.

His new bank does the trick! It holds his treasures AND makes a happy Bear. I know he was as happy with this little 5 minute bank as he would have been with a $15 purchased one at Target. Maybe happier because he got to help make it and it's got his name on it. I swear his smiles make my heart melt. As you know, Bear's are sometimes very hard to please...

#109: Make the time to have special one on one times
with each of the kids and the other half

Yesterday, after lunch, the Deneweth clan split into two. Daddy took R and R to the barber shop while Zoie and I ran errands at Target and did a little grocery shopping.

I always hear one on one time is an important thing to do with your loved ones, but for me, it's a toughie. And I realized yesterday, that it only happens on a rare occasion.

Zoie and I had so much fun. She felt so special with a new sunglasses purchase... she wore them proudly for the rest of the day. With only one kid in tow, she even got to walk through the grocery store (as opposed to strapped into the cart) when I had to go back in for a forgotten item. It was her very first time walking the aisles of Publix and I could tell she thought she was hot stuff. She was so proud and so so cute. 

I vow to do this more. It will be tough to find the time, but it will be worth it.

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<3, Tabi :D