A Weekend of One on One Time!

This past weekend was a "Girls Weekend" for my daughter and I, and a "Boys Weekend" for my husband and son.  My husband and son left Friday night for a weekend of guy time at my in-law's camp, and my daughter and I stayed home. 

My daughter had a birthday party to attend on Saturday afternoon, which was the original reasoning behind our family separation for the weekend.  However, we opted to maximize this time apart and spend some much needed one-on-one time with each of the children.  My daughter was beyond thrilled with the prospect of having Mommy to herself for the entire weekend, and my son (being only two-years-old) was rather oblivious to the matter. 

It amazes me how different my children are when they are apart.  I had grand plans for all the things my daughter and I would do, and while we did do many of them, she was most happy with the fact that she could play alone in her room and be uninterrupted by her little brother.  Likewise, little brother took advantage of his Daddy-time by playing quietly by himself without the interruption of his big sister. 

The boys left around 6pm Friday evening, and while I was ready to kick off our weekend of "girl time", my daughter quickly disappeared to her room to play with her babies.  Since she was content, and enjoying herself, I curled up with a book and waited, hoping that she would return shortly.  After an hour, or so, she did emerge from her room, and requested that we cuddle on the couch and eat popcorn.  Since this was her weekend, I quickly obliged, and she quickly fell asleep mid snacking.  Thus ended our first evening of our girls' weekend.

We awoke Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and she disappeared outside to play in the sand.  I attempted to join her, and was given an evil eye and told that I could go do something else.  She wanted to play by herself.  I was a bit disheartened, but recalled that I myself am always excited about doing things uninterrupted while I'm home alone.  I wrapped the birthday gift for the afternoon party, and enjoyed a cup of coffee as I watched her through the window.  The smile that alighted her face proved to me that she was enjoying her break by herself.  After a short time though, I was forced to call her inside so that she could shower and get cleaned up for the birthday party.

We attended the party, and she had a great time catching up with her pre-school friends that she hadn't seen in a few weeks (some since school ended, and others since the baseball season ended).  After the party we made our way to the city, went out to dinner, and the rest of the night was her choice of activities.  I found it highly amusing that after dinner the one thing that she wanted to do was to go to the dollar store.  In her eyes, the dollar store is the most amazing place on earth!  After walking the aisles of the dollar store, we went to look at the critters at Petco, and then went to Wal-mart.  During our shopping excursion, we picked up the new American Girl movie, "Saige Paints the Sky", and some snacks to enjoy while we were watching it. 

When we got home, we snuggled up in my bed with our snacks, and the movie.  The snacks remained untouched, and my daughter only saw about 10 minutes of the movie before she fell asleep.  Moving the snacks to the nightstand, so as not to have them crushed up in my bedsheets, I tucked her in tight, and shut off the movie.  She looked so tiny snuggled up in my bed, and it made me realize that despite being five-years-old, and defiantly independent, she's still such a little girl.

The next morning, I was awoken by my little angel pouncing on me, and demanding that we finish watching the movie while we eat breakfast in bed.  I turned the movie on, and made my way downstairs to make the requested toast.  We snuggled up and finished the movie, which was a really great movie!  I really like the American Girl movies, for the mere fact that I don't have to worry about there being anything inappropriate in them.  They are nice wholesome movies, and my daughter loves ANYTHING associated with American Girl.

My plan for Sunday was to take my daughter to the movie theater.  Having never been to the movie theater before, she was beyond excited to go!  Both my children loved the original "Despicable Me" movie, so "Despicable Me 2" was an obvious choice for us.  The movie theater experience was so exciting for her!  As we sat in the theater prior to the movie starting she was inundating me with questions about how everything worked.  When the lights went down, she could hardly contain herself!  It turned out that the sequel was just as enjoyable for us as the original movie (if not more so).  We had a wonderful time!

On our way home, my daughter confessed that she really missed Daddy, and little brother.  I assured her that they would be home shortly after we got home, and she sighed with relief.  When they got home, she ran and hugged them both, and told them about her "best weekend ever", then quickly declared that "next time we have a girls' weekend, it should only be for one day, so she doesn't have to miss them so much!"  I agree, it was a great weekend with my little girl, but I did miss my boys!!

What our vacation taught me...

For the past ten days, my family (my husband and I, our two children, my mother-in-law, and my father-in-law) have been vacationing in my in-laws' camp in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Our family is very fortunate to have this camp as a vacation destination, and my husband and I feel quite blessed that his parents are so willing to share it with us.

The camp itself, is a quaint little building made up of an open living/dining/kitchen area, and has three small bedrooms. Due to the fact that the camp is so small, it's sparsely furnished, housing just the bare necessities.

The picture above is taken from one corner of the camp, showing the living/dining area, and the tiny kitchen.

This photo is taken from one corner of the bedroom that my husband and I share with our two year old son.

So, what was it that I learned from this vacation? Despite having vacationed here countless times in the past, the reality of the situation never really hit me until this past week. There we were six people (four adults and two children), living in this tiny little house, without many of the luxuries that we take for granted at home. No washing machine, no dryer, no air conditioning. My children have a small box of toys at camp, compared to the rooms filled with toys that they have at home. Yet, even without all of those luxuries we function, we live, and best of all... we have a great time. It made me realize how unnecessary so many of the things in our lives really are.

While we were there, my five year old daughter lost her first tooth! A momentous occasion in her life, and one that will be even more memorable to her because we were at camp, and entirely focused on each other. It didn't take fancy toys, or electronic gadgets, to bring about the complete joy on her face when that tooth came out! The tooth fairy didn't care that she was sleeping in a tiny bedroom, she still came to whisk away that first tooth!

Our two year old son, made great strides in potty training while we were there. A feat that had seemed so unobtainable the week before we left for our vacation. The pride he took in using the potty like a big boy, and watching my baby grow into a young man in the course of that week was worth more to me than any gizmo or gadget.

I felt instantly enlightened by the realization that it really is the simple things in life that make it worth living. Watching my children grow, celebrating their milestones, and being together as a family for all of it. It made me realize that even though I've been making these steps towards minimizing the unnecessary from our lives, I still have a long way to go. We don't need "stuff", we have a beautiful family that is far more important than anything else in this world. My children are my everything, and I want them to fully feel that.

After spending the past few days pondering all of this, thinking about the simple pleasures, and all of the fun and exciting things that transpired in that tiny house in the middle of nowhere, I'm even more encouraged to purge the unneeded from our home, and from our life. Simplify what we have, and keep only that which is really important.