Recently I received a wonderful reminder of the importance of quality one-on-one time I got with my kids. My daughter and I went on a nice walk the other night that turned into less walking and a lot more playing at the park. This little girl is fearless and absolutely loves playing on the slide. She kept climbing up and sliding down over and over again. Her beautiful smile greeting me over and over again. It was a great way to connect and get to spend some time just with her doing something she loves.

A couple of days later my son and I got to go on a nice long date. A trip to the LEGO store and an impromptu lunch at Red Robin after. We bonded over our love of LEGOs and got some awesome new ones to take home. Then we had a great lunch together that included this beautiful back and forth:

Me: “Your smile is one of my favorite things.”

Son: “Aww you’re making me blush!”

Through the busyness and craziness of life…through the highs and lows we all search for moments and memories that matter. I keep getting reminded that one of the best ways to do this is to make sure I create the opportunity for some special one-on-one time with each of my kids. We have some terrific family moments all together, but there’s just something different and amazing about individual time together.

This is fatherhood…