In an effort to reconnect with each of my children, I like to go out every so often and spend some time alone with each one of them. This does seem to get harder and harder to do the more children we have but the effort is always worth it. Relationships become stronger between parent and child and the power struggles lessen.
My Christopher is a big fan of dressing up, not only in costumes for play but also in suit and tie. He is my child who likes formal clothing. We went on a lovely cruise last year and instead of renting tuxedos for the boys, we spent half as much and purchased them ourselves. Chris wore his to Mass every Sunday for most of the past year until he finally outgrew it. All the older ladies pinched his cheeks and asked him if he was making his First Holy Communion each week. Here is a photo of him after he got dressed for our "date".
We headed out for a bite to eat and then made our way to Mentor Headlands State Park and the Headland Dunes Nature Preserve where we like to spend time watching the birds, walking the beach and searching for beach glass. The findings were scarce this time of year and the wind was much colder than we thought it would be but we enjoyed our visit nonetheless.
Baby Annie came along with us in her sling as she is too little to stay home with Dad due to the nursing. She watched the seagulls from her happy hammock while Chris and I searched the waters edge for treasures. We found some small pieces of milk glass which are rare in our area of the Great Lakes.
On our way out of the park, Christopher spied some Canadian geese with goslings. These geese have become a bit of a nuisance in Ohio but their goslings are just darling. There were several families of them with upwards of two dozen goslings swimming in the marsh. We stopped to snap a few photos of them, being careful to stay back. Geese are very protective of their young ones and will attack people if they venture too close.
We then headed over to Barnes and Noble booksellers to have a treat in their cafe and peruse the children's book section. We read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Longfellow. He had a chocolate cupcake and an IBC rootbeer (his favorite treats) and I had a heavenly piece of cheesecake made by the Cheesecake Factory. I don't have any photos of our faces after those treats and our night spent together but I can assure you, they were all smiles.