One-On-One - Shmoo Bear

It's hard with three. I seem to get so little on-on-one time with them. Whilst they can be lovely all together, they usually spend half the time bickering with each other or having some kind of issue that they need help dealing with. Shmoo's meltdowns and sensitivities; Loo's meltdowns and provocation of everyone, particularly his brothers; Beanie's sensitivities and typical toddlerness... on a good day it requires planning and some deep breathing. Throw in The OH's Asperger's and on a bad day things aren't pretty.

So I figured that it was about time that I start making some time to have regular one-on-one sessions with each of the boys, nothing fancy or expensive, just some enjoyable time with each other away from the other kids. Today it was Shmoo's turn and we took a drive over to a cosy little cafe in Penguin. It's been years since I've been there, not since Shmoo was an only child, but it was as lovely as ever.

As we went inside we passed a couple having lunch at the outside tables and Shmoo was fascinated with the large, black, curly-coated dog standing attentively by the table, intently watching the food. Shmoo whispered to me that he wondered what breed of dog it was and, after some reassurance and encouragement from me, he managed to work up the courage to ask. The dog, named Oliver, turned out to be a poodle much to Shmoo's amusement (of course the 7yo boy has to have a snicker at anything containing the word 'poo').

We had a hot chocolate each and shared some scones - a warming and delicious afternoon tea for a cold, windy day. Shmoo was thrilled. Going to a cafe is an extremely rare treat for us. I'd also brought along a pencil case full of supplies and an exercise book. Shmoo's perfectionism means that he often finds writing a tedious and frustrating process but, as I suspected, his excitement motivated him to persist at writing down the highlights of our trip out. We even calculated how much we would need to pay for our snack.

 

And, finally, we couldn't go past the park without stopping for a quick play. :)