Sleep Overs… A must!

We had already let Adrian stay over night at his friend’s Isabella long time ago and he had no problem, he really loves it and asks for it a lot, so he has already stayed at more of his friends’ places! I love that about him too, that he’s very independent… And for him to stay over at his friend’s place is such a great experience because I know he will practice and learn more about independence, some discipline, sharing and all that good stuff.

But we recently had Isabella for the first time at our place and it was an awesome experience, for them both and for us as well.

• Watching the kids have fun –checked
• A little more work –checked
• Learning about our own parenting skills –Surprised!
• Having lots of fun myself –Surprised!
• Being a little more stressed out going out –Kind-of surprised

I was obviously expecting them both to have tons of fun and they did, I was also expecting a little more work for us and yes, there were little fights for the same toy here and there, sharing issues… But no biggie.

The cool thing is that when these came up it opened the door for “How do I handle it?” question for me as a parent. I know how Adrian reacts to some of my ways but I didn’t know how Izzy would react so being creative and learning about her was part of it which at the end of the day is so gratifying.

I came out feeling encouraged as a mom, it was almost like watching myself from the outside and I wasn’t disappointed at what I saw, it was a feeling of “Yes, I can do it!” It makes you get out of your comfort zone. 

I also got to watch Derek purely as a Dad and it was great, I love how he treats the kids and I love how he is able to manage some situations that I can’t do as well as he does.

Conclusion: I did get a little stressed about the extra responsibility when we went out, but I had way more fun than I was expecting so it all balanced out. I think every parent SHOULD have kids over at least once, it makes us see parenting outside of the box for a day :).

This was I think the last day that it snowed a lot at the close-by LA mountains, they looked so white! We wanted to get out there and sled but the roads were closed due to the snow so we at least stopped and played on the side of the road.

Esto fué el último día de este año que nevó bastante en las montañas cerca de L.A., se veían tan blanquitas! Queríamos ir a delizarnos pero estaba cerrada la carretera porque había mucha nieve, y entonces nos paramos a jugar un poquito ahí mismo.

• Ver a los niños gozar mucho –Lo esperaba
• Un poquito más de trabajo para mi –Lo esperaba
• Aprendimos un poquito más de cuidado de niños –Sorpresa!
• Divertirme mucho YO –Sorpresa!
• Estar más estresada cuando salimos –Un poquito de sorpresa

Hubo momentos que fueron chéveres porque me hacían pensar a mi como mamá por ejemplo “Y ahora cómo controlo esta situación?”. Yo ya se como Adrian reacciona a muchas de las cosas que yo le digo pero no sabía como iba a reaccionar Izzy así que allí es cuando tuve que ser un poco más creativa para ayudarles y al final todo salió bien y se siente muy gratificante.

En conclusión: Si me estresé un poquito cuando salimos por la responsabilidad extra pero gozé muchísimo más de lo que esperaba y todo se balanceó. Creo que todo padre debe de invitar a que amiguitos se queden en la casa con sus niños al menos una vez, nos ayuda a ver el cuidado de los niños de un ángulo distinto al normal 🙂