divide and conquer

After 8 days with the kids and I pretty much on top of each other (well them crawling all over me day and night) followed by a week with Daddy home every night and through the weekend I have come to the conclusion that there is such a thing as too much togetherness!  We are a family of four people who need our alone time!  Not only that, but our kids need time without each other.  

The last few weeks have been insane with Cayden and Harper's fighting.  Fighting in our house involves hitting, pushing, yelling, spitting, crying and a LOT of tattling.  I knew that this day would come (obviously, I have brothers and even though we love each other now there was a time when we couldn't be within 100 yards of each other without something going down) I was just honestly hoping it would hold off a little bit longer.  In a last ditch effort one recent Saturday to try and reduce the fighting, Mommy decided that we were going to give the kids some much needed one-on-one time.  

Harper and I went on a crafting supply shopping trip that took us to Hobby Lobby (seriously got excited with all the sparkling, twinkling Christmas stuff that was being put up while we were there), two fabric stores and Menards and involved a quick stop for lunch.  It was a very successful trip though and it was obvious that my baby girl loved her Mommy time as much as I loved being alone with her.

Daddy and Cayden did some yard work and then headed to Walmart.  I was expecting them to come back with some sort of superhero action figure or a new movie.  Instead, Bob came home with them.  Bob is Cayden's new roommate and is a pretty, blue beta fish with a Spongebob pineapple house in his fish bowl.  Yes, that's right...J gave in and bought Cayden a fish. 

As a result of our separate trips with the kids, we had a very nice evening with them playing alone in their rooms and then playing together with minimal fighting.  Lesson learned!




My date for the day!

Cayden and his new roommate Bob.