Gawd I love my kids. I mean seriously. I know I have done some bitching lately but when I look deep into those beautiful blue gray eyes on my daughter and stroke her auburn colored hair as she drifts peacefully off to sleep with the birdy sound chirping from her throat as she nurses and her long girlie fingers are wrapped tightly around my finger, I am blessed. Or when my son says "Momma can I please have another prenzel?" with that sweet impish little grin on his face or he gives me a hug and a kiss good night and asks me to stay, PLEUUUSE stay so he can chat with me a few minutes longer, I know I am the luckiest gal on the planet!
********
Have I mentioned that my darling husband booked our next family vacation already? I was thinking some place warm, sunny, beachy, Caribbean or South Carolina shore... NO no we are heading to Orlando as in Walt Disney World again in February 2009. At that time Miss M will be just a couple of weeks past six months and M will be just shy of four years of age. We are insane... And yet oddly I am excited. The reason for the trip - $165 plane tickets (never mind the cost of going to Disney totally cancels the plant ticket cost out ENTIRELY!
*********
Today the activity I chose for my son - load him in the Rav and drive around B-town for an hour looking at construction sites. Ummm, yeah that may happen a lot during the next two months! If you asked M he would be thrilled to tell you about all the cool things we saw so it is not like he was hurting back there.
********
I totally suck as far as being friend is concerned - First Kelly (Shades of Gray) had a her baby on Monday!!! A little girl! YEAH Kelly and family!!! CONGRATS!
*******
Also, does time fly or what? I mean I cannot believe that come Saturday we will be beginning week six with Miss Pancake. It seems like forever but in a good way. She is smiling and holding her head up pretty well. She actually does not mind tummy time and is such a lovely charming little baby. K did the old weigh himself a few times while hold Miss Pancake and then weigh himself without the baby last night and he estimates her to be about 11.5 lbs. SHE IS HUGE. I mean that in the nicest way but I lookd over at K holding her two evenings ago and I thought "well crap she is huge - she does not even seem like a newborn any more..." And I suppose she is not. She is outgrowing her 0-3 clothes already as well as the 1-2 diapers (from Sam's Club). She has blown out her diapers every day this week...
SIGH, they do get big TOO fast I tell you. Likely the reason for this is she is a champ at nursing. She is SO unlike her brother. He gulped and gulped and spit up and hated me and my crazy strong mammary glands. Miss P totally takes it in stride. She will just the milk run out of her mouth (or squirt in as the case may be) and calmly takes deep breaths if she needs to. She spits up a tiny bit (usually because I forget to nurse her) but not near as bad as M did. She sleeps like a champ too - already we have had numerous 5-6 hours sleep nights and during the day she takes a four hour nap. I know this will likely change with the advent of new skills like turning over and well frankly teeth but still she is charming and dang if she is not starting week six. What next? Prom?
Showing posts with label growing up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label growing up. Show all posts
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
Grab Bag of Moments
I promise to be positive and happy today. No more death. No more tears. Well maybe a few tears but not from me and not in a tear jerker sort of way.
Matthew had impetigo which was "downgraded" (hardy har har) to a stomach virus coupled with his proclivity to get cold sores. He has the, ah, well he is not feeling well and he is not throwing up so you can draw your own conclusions. Needless to say that while he may not be vomiting what is coming out is just as messy, smelly and yucky as throw up... Oh the fun we have in our Technicolored world! The worst incident was during nap when he was rudely torn from his sleep because of this issue. He sobbed and threw a fit. He did not want to get in tub and be washed. I had to force him in there, scrub him down, dry him off and give him to Daddy to console while I "swabbed the decks". And do 40 loads of laundry. Poor kid.
We feel horrible for him and he is being very patient with the issue. He says 'OH my tummy hurts' and then you run with him to the toilet. AND he has not complained that he has had to essentially revert to a diapered state by wearing pull ups 24/7. His lips with the nasty sores are looking 100 million times better so that is lovely. Mostly it is the whiny voice that drives Kevin & I up the wall. I am amazed at the level he can get his voice to. The bright side is that I know once he is feeling better the whiny voice mostly goes with the sickness.
*****
When we went to the outlet mall a couple of weeks ago I was amazed by something. Well three somethings. First, Matthew's shoe size is a freaking 9-1/2. I crapped my pants. I mean seriously... I remember back in the day like what seems like last month when I was buying size 4 and 5!?!?? EKK. Second, Matthew is wearing 5T clothing in somethings. I am still trying to schmuck him in 3T stuff that ran big but man it looks funny on him. Just too small. 4T and 5T - again when the heck did that happen?!?! OH and he is flippin' 38 pounds even with the stomach virus! Finally, as I was wandering the Carter's store it dawned on me that in a year or two I would no longer be going there for Matthew's clothes. They only go to 6 or 7 in some cases but mostly they do have not have much in that regard. Same goes for Gymboree which I was also shopping in this past weekend. No more kiddie stores when it come to Matthew!?
This seems shocking to me in the sense that I seriously stopped growing in 5th grade. I have a hand print I did at camp in 5th grade and my hand is still the same size. I had to shop at and wear Stride Rite shoes until 8th grade. I managed to eek out an extra 1/2 size from 5 to 5-1/2 finally. I literally wore Keds until 10-11th grade for the most part because they were the only shoes that fit. I swear he will be wearing bigger shoes then me by the time he hits 1st grade! Which is totally cool and amazing and crap he is such a big boy is what I am trying to say. I cannot even say MY TODDLER any more because he is not, has not been for a long time. He is a little big boy and that is great and scary all at once!
*****
Okay if you do not live in my town, we had the biggest crash of thunder at some point after 4am last night that I think Kevin likely still has nail marks in his arm! I thought about checking to see if our fence was still there! LOUD. And Matthew slept through it!? BUT he will wake up if the truck starts up next door...
Finally, I am on my own this weekend with Matthew. Kevin is going away to see his sister graduate (FINALLY) with one of 10 degrees. She still has no job but hey she is super dooper well educated and could do anything that is required of someone with 2 (3?) advanced degrees that are very narrow and specific in scope.
I am just glad to be staying home. Flying at this stage of the pregnancy seems like a horrible idea more because good lord I so do not want to fit my butt into that seat. But really I had a bad day yesterday. I was uncomfortable all over, could hardly walk, headachy, my skin hurt for goodness sake and I just wanted to sleep. I feel much better today but boy yesterday was rough. Staying home even with a not so well child seems like a better option any day then flying to MN.
Though I was so fired up for a co-worker's Derby party tomorrow but it looks like it may not happen with Matthew being sick. We shall see... Anyway this is long winded as usual. Have a lovely weekend - stay healthy!
Matthew had impetigo which was "downgraded" (hardy har har) to a stomach virus coupled with his proclivity to get cold sores. He has the, ah, well he is not feeling well and he is not throwing up so you can draw your own conclusions. Needless to say that while he may not be vomiting what is coming out is just as messy, smelly and yucky as throw up... Oh the fun we have in our Technicolored world! The worst incident was during nap when he was rudely torn from his sleep because of this issue. He sobbed and threw a fit. He did not want to get in tub and be washed. I had to force him in there, scrub him down, dry him off and give him to Daddy to console while I "swabbed the decks". And do 40 loads of laundry. Poor kid.
We feel horrible for him and he is being very patient with the issue. He says 'OH my tummy hurts' and then you run with him to the toilet. AND he has not complained that he has had to essentially revert to a diapered state by wearing pull ups 24/7. His lips with the nasty sores are looking 100 million times better so that is lovely. Mostly it is the whiny voice that drives Kevin & I up the wall. I am amazed at the level he can get his voice to. The bright side is that I know once he is feeling better the whiny voice mostly goes with the sickness.
*****
When we went to the outlet mall a couple of weeks ago I was amazed by something. Well three somethings. First, Matthew's shoe size is a freaking 9-1/2. I crapped my pants. I mean seriously... I remember back in the day like what seems like last month when I was buying size 4 and 5!?!?? EKK. Second, Matthew is wearing 5T clothing in somethings. I am still trying to schmuck him in 3T stuff that ran big but man it looks funny on him. Just too small. 4T and 5T - again when the heck did that happen?!?! OH and he is flippin' 38 pounds even with the stomach virus! Finally, as I was wandering the Carter's store it dawned on me that in a year or two I would no longer be going there for Matthew's clothes. They only go to 6 or 7 in some cases but mostly they do have not have much in that regard. Same goes for Gymboree which I was also shopping in this past weekend. No more kiddie stores when it come to Matthew!?
This seems shocking to me in the sense that I seriously stopped growing in 5th grade. I have a hand print I did at camp in 5th grade and my hand is still the same size. I had to shop at and wear Stride Rite shoes until 8th grade. I managed to eek out an extra 1/2 size from 5 to 5-1/2 finally. I literally wore Keds until 10-11th grade for the most part because they were the only shoes that fit. I swear he will be wearing bigger shoes then me by the time he hits 1st grade! Which is totally cool and amazing and crap he is such a big boy is what I am trying to say. I cannot even say MY TODDLER any more because he is not, has not been for a long time. He is a little big boy and that is great and scary all at once!
*****
Okay if you do not live in my town, we had the biggest crash of thunder at some point after 4am last night that I think Kevin likely still has nail marks in his arm! I thought about checking to see if our fence was still there! LOUD. And Matthew slept through it!? BUT he will wake up if the truck starts up next door...
Finally, I am on my own this weekend with Matthew. Kevin is going away to see his sister graduate (FINALLY) with one of 10 degrees. She still has no job but hey she is super dooper well educated and could do anything that is required of someone with 2 (3?) advanced degrees that are very narrow and specific in scope.
I am just glad to be staying home. Flying at this stage of the pregnancy seems like a horrible idea more because good lord I so do not want to fit my butt into that seat. But really I had a bad day yesterday. I was uncomfortable all over, could hardly walk, headachy, my skin hurt for goodness sake and I just wanted to sleep. I feel much better today but boy yesterday was rough. Staying home even with a not so well child seems like a better option any day then flying to MN.
Though I was so fired up for a co-worker's Derby party tomorrow but it looks like it may not happen with Matthew being sick. We shall see... Anyway this is long winded as usual. Have a lovely weekend - stay healthy!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Cha-Cha Changes...
I thought it might be interesting to look back to one year ago today and what I was blogging about. SO I did. Though it might be more interesting to see this day or this day or this one (mostly because there are photos in those links!) But still today a year ago well wow how life has changed for Matthew in terms of day care. And the truth is that I did not really love Matthew's school at the time but I wanted so badly to make it work for his sake that I overlooked a lot of stuff. Matthew is in such a better place with Kelly now and we could not be more grateful, as I have mentioned about 300 million times, that she decided to open her home, knowledge and experience to my child.
The seriousness of the daycare situation Matthew was in before Kelly's house is SO much bigger then anything I wrote that day one year ago. There were MANY "abuses" going on in that place and I can only say that I wish I knew then what I know now because I would have taken my son out on the SPOT. From the baby room up to the preschool there were terrible things that should not have been happening. It gives some credence to the whole homeschooling concept. And while Matthew did grow and thrive there he also learned some things he should not have, things that cannot be changed by telling him he should not do this or that. At the end of the day, I am glad he not there any more and I thank my lucky stars for that every single day.
I was also freaking out this week last year that my son was turning two in a few short weeks and party planning. Do I care less this year because I have yet to be worried? Ack, I mean seriously I have no idea what I am going to do for his birthday yet. We have a bunch of ideas floating around and I better settle on one QUICK because hey my kid turns THREE on the 19th of April (OMG OMG OMG 37 days breathing...) and mostly when the heck did that happen!? I mean doesn't he still look like this??!!
Yeah, no not so much, I know but can you believe that?
How time flies when your child is growing up before your very eyes. And he is leaping, jumping, running, biking, getting better at drawing in the lines, and can have whole conversations with you; he can defy you, and get into trouble for being "bad" (because he intended to be bad...) He can sleep. THROUGH the night! He is strong and smart (not that he was not those things when he was a tiny baby too but more so now!) He pets his dogs & loves on the a lot. He has quirks and can crack jokes. He can be a handful and some times I jokingly refer to him as the world's smallest teenager (not to his face). He can remember the details of things that have happened over the past two years and he will recount stories. He cracks jokes. I thinks things over before acting (SOME TIMES...) I could go on & on about the changes that have slowly evolved over the past year...
Wow, I mean three - that is SO cool there are not even enough words I can use to explain all of that. From helpless to helpful. In a word, that is RAD (to pull out the old California lingo!)
The seriousness of the daycare situation Matthew was in before Kelly's house is SO much bigger then anything I wrote that day one year ago. There were MANY "abuses" going on in that place and I can only say that I wish I knew then what I know now because I would have taken my son out on the SPOT. From the baby room up to the preschool there were terrible things that should not have been happening. It gives some credence to the whole homeschooling concept. And while Matthew did grow and thrive there he also learned some things he should not have, things that cannot be changed by telling him he should not do this or that. At the end of the day, I am glad he not there any more and I thank my lucky stars for that every single day.
I was also freaking out this week last year that my son was turning two in a few short weeks and party planning. Do I care less this year because I have yet to be worried? Ack, I mean seriously I have no idea what I am going to do for his birthday yet. We have a bunch of ideas floating around and I better settle on one QUICK because hey my kid turns THREE on the 19th of April (OMG OMG OMG 37 days breathing...) and mostly when the heck did that happen!? I mean doesn't he still look like this??!!
Yeah, no not so much, I know but can you believe that?
How time flies when your child is growing up before your very eyes. And he is leaping, jumping, running, biking, getting better at drawing in the lines, and can have whole conversations with you; he can defy you, and get into trouble for being "bad" (because he intended to be bad...) He can sleep. THROUGH the night! He is strong and smart (not that he was not those things when he was a tiny baby too but more so now!) He pets his dogs & loves on the a lot. He has quirks and can crack jokes. He can be a handful and some times I jokingly refer to him as the world's smallest teenager (not to his face). He can remember the details of things that have happened over the past two years and he will recount stories. He cracks jokes. I thinks things over before acting (SOME TIMES...) I could go on & on about the changes that have slowly evolved over the past year...
Wow, I mean three - that is SO cool there are not even enough words I can use to explain all of that. From helpless to helpful. In a word, that is RAD (to pull out the old California lingo!)
Monday, January 21, 2008
Time keeps on slipping into the future...
Oh my... where as the time gone? I mean seriously I can remember people telling me to enjoy Matthew's early days, to not let a minute go by or rush that time because it will fly by. For once, I actually heeded that "warning". I did not take anything for granted. Even during those early months when I felt so horrible about myself & the thoughts I was having. That was all on me but it did not effect how I enjoyed and spent my time with Matthew.
Going back to work encouraged me to enjoy each moment because I had precious few with him (or so I felt at the time.) Perhaps that is why I glommed on to breast feeding and would not let it go until Matthew was ready - it was OUR special time and no matter how tired or grouchy I was from being up half the night, I loved those late nights. It was special time I got to spend with my ever growing baby. I remember distinct moments of holding Matthew in the chair nursing, bleary eyed for the third time in a night with the shadows from the moonlight crossing his little face and I knew I would never get those moments back.
That is how I made it through that time as well. I was super mom - I always said that I felt there was something about breast feeding, some hormone that women produce or some odd sort of mental game I played, that gave me that extra whatever it was to survive that time. That is no scientific nor am I in the mood to find some obscure article to support this. Okay so I never looked my best and I had dark circles under my eyes, was often scattered, forgetting appointments, birthdays, important things like driving with my eyes open (I KID!) and fitness/health were not priorities but I wanted, craved, desired that time with my son so I did it until he was ready to be done at 20 months.
I know there have been 'moments' where I lost my patience or felt at a loss as to how to deal with 'things' relating to Matthew and I have bitched about them or felt horribly wrong inside for being that way "like my mother" I would mutter but than I would understand I am NOT my mother, I am me and all mommies lose patience - that is okay. There was that embarrassing day that I stayed home with Matthew when he had Hand, Foot & Mouth disease and I completely lost my shit on the poor sick child. I felt horrible at those moments but on the other hand I am learning that they are minor blips in life.
That sleep will one day be something I hate because I will trying to drag my child from his bed to get him to school. That I will not ALWAYS be apple of my son's eye - that he will not cry 'mommy' when I go off to work but will rather be eying me with annoyance in essence saying with his eyes "go away lady - I am busy being a human being with my own life." That the freely given hugs & kisses will go away eventually. That the happy smiling face will give way to disdain and girlfriends, cars and other "teenage" thrills. I know these things will happen no matter how wonderful and perfect my parenting is because that is life. I am not saying it will or will not be to these extremes. What I am saying is that this is nature and it may be in degrees. It may not be as blatant as my rebellion was to my own mother but eventually all kids feel like they need to be their own people, escaping in degrees from their parents, being their own people.
This morning, I received the usual parent center child update on my 33 month old - generally I do not read these the way I once did when Matthew was 2 months old I was wondering should his poop REALLY be that color. But today I decided to read the e-mail. The first line said "as your child nears his third birthday..." I spat my coffee out and took a deep breath. I mean logically I know he will be three in a few short months and in the big scheme of things he will be still be my lovey little boy but on the other hand it is amazing.
I mean seriously moments ago I was pregnant for the 1st time, fretting about how to be a parent (not even like a good parent, just simply a parent in charge of a little human life). I was struggling, screaming, scaring the shit out of any other woman in labor in that hospital and giving birth to this little human. I was holding that tiny baby in the moonlight and watching him grow ever longer and bigger right there on my lap nursing, ever nursing.
That time flies by in ways that are inexplicable to me even though I was watching for it, even though I was well aware of it all happening and here we are - my child who fearlessly took to ice skates with his daddy this weekend smiling and giddy about the Zamboni, my child who slept all weekend without his bed rail and only fell out once and without incident, my child who danced in the isles with all of the bigger kids at the Doodlebops concert honking on his kazoo like there was nothing better than that moment (oh and he loved the cookie and Mo the most), my child who threw a pretend temper tantrum and got up smiling and laughing to see the look on his parent's faces. My god how time flies and even while looking my boy is growing up faster than I can watch it happen!
Going back to work encouraged me to enjoy each moment because I had precious few with him (or so I felt at the time.) Perhaps that is why I glommed on to breast feeding and would not let it go until Matthew was ready - it was OUR special time and no matter how tired or grouchy I was from being up half the night, I loved those late nights. It was special time I got to spend with my ever growing baby. I remember distinct moments of holding Matthew in the chair nursing, bleary eyed for the third time in a night with the shadows from the moonlight crossing his little face and I knew I would never get those moments back.
That is how I made it through that time as well. I was super mom - I always said that I felt there was something about breast feeding, some hormone that women produce or some odd sort of mental game I played, that gave me that extra whatever it was to survive that time. That is no scientific nor am I in the mood to find some obscure article to support this. Okay so I never looked my best and I had dark circles under my eyes, was often scattered, forgetting appointments, birthdays, important things like driving with my eyes open (I KID!) and fitness/health were not priorities but I wanted, craved, desired that time with my son so I did it until he was ready to be done at 20 months.
I know there have been 'moments' where I lost my patience or felt at a loss as to how to deal with 'things' relating to Matthew and I have bitched about them or felt horribly wrong inside for being that way "like my mother" I would mutter but than I would understand I am NOT my mother, I am me and all mommies lose patience - that is okay. There was that embarrassing day that I stayed home with Matthew when he had Hand, Foot & Mouth disease and I completely lost my shit on the poor sick child. I felt horrible at those moments but on the other hand I am learning that they are minor blips in life.
That sleep will one day be something I hate because I will trying to drag my child from his bed to get him to school. That I will not ALWAYS be apple of my son's eye - that he will not cry 'mommy' when I go off to work but will rather be eying me with annoyance in essence saying with his eyes "go away lady - I am busy being a human being with my own life." That the freely given hugs & kisses will go away eventually. That the happy smiling face will give way to disdain and girlfriends, cars and other "teenage" thrills. I know these things will happen no matter how wonderful and perfect my parenting is because that is life. I am not saying it will or will not be to these extremes. What I am saying is that this is nature and it may be in degrees. It may not be as blatant as my rebellion was to my own mother but eventually all kids feel like they need to be their own people, escaping in degrees from their parents, being their own people.
This morning, I received the usual parent center child update on my 33 month old - generally I do not read these the way I once did when Matthew was 2 months old I was wondering should his poop REALLY be that color. But today I decided to read the e-mail. The first line said "as your child nears his third birthday..." I spat my coffee out and took a deep breath. I mean logically I know he will be three in a few short months and in the big scheme of things he will be still be my lovey little boy but on the other hand it is amazing.
I mean seriously moments ago I was pregnant for the 1st time, fretting about how to be a parent (not even like a good parent, just simply a parent in charge of a little human life). I was struggling, screaming, scaring the shit out of any other woman in labor in that hospital and giving birth to this little human. I was holding that tiny baby in the moonlight and watching him grow ever longer and bigger right there on my lap nursing, ever nursing.
That time flies by in ways that are inexplicable to me even though I was watching for it, even though I was well aware of it all happening and here we are - my child who fearlessly took to ice skates with his daddy this weekend smiling and giddy about the Zamboni, my child who slept all weekend without his bed rail and only fell out once and without incident, my child who danced in the isles with all of the bigger kids at the Doodlebops concert honking on his kazoo like there was nothing better than that moment (oh and he loved the cookie and Mo the most), my child who threw a pretend temper tantrum and got up smiling and laughing to see the look on his parent's faces. My god how time flies and even while looking my boy is growing up faster than I can watch it happen!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Tea for two
Yesterday, our friend and day care "provider", Kelly, had her air conditioning go out. Actually, I think it went over the weekend but yesterday it was 93 in good old Indiana. It was hot. So Kelly some how managed to keep four children under the age of 3 entertained until she could no longer handle the heat (I would have melted long before she did so YOU ROCK!) Then took the kids to the air at her neighbor's house. That neighbor being a piece of cake. Later, we picked Matthew up and went home as usual.
At dinner, we asked Matthew what he did during his day and he said "We went to Kate's house..."
"Wow", we said. "Well what did you do there?"
Matthew said with a thrilled and excited look on his face "we had a tea party! AND we had ice cream!." *pure rapture on his face.
"Wow", that is so cool", we said.
Later, I talked with Kelly and I told her about this conversation. Kelly said that Matthew was very excited about the tea set and got right into it. Also, that the above mentioned ice cream was from a play set of plastic ice cream that the kids all shared! As we talked about this I remembered that at Matthew's old day care, the kids who came early had tea parties in the morning. With real (herbal) tea, honey and milk! Matthew LOVED this activity more than anything!
One the of major reasons I relate this entire story to all of you few poor souls who read this blog... we have been trying to figure out how to get Matthew more comfortable with this day care transition situation. There is no doubt that Matthew loves his parents - he does not want us to leave in the morning. BUT he also LOVES him some Kelly's house as well because at the end of the day he does not want to leave there either. PLUS he misses his old daycare.
Case in point, we went to Kid Kazooey this past weekend. I realized most of you were probably all 'what the hell is a Kid Kazooey?' Kid Kazooey played music once a week at Matthew's old day care and Matthew was apparently quite taken by the Kid. Matthew told me after seeing Kid Kazooey that he loves him! Which is great, right?! Well, wrong (sort of), Matthew was terribly confused about things by Sunday. It dawned on me that I never really talked with Matthew before or after seeing Kid Kazooey about how he might feel about seeing this huge personality from his old day care. About seeing kids from his old day care and how that would make him feel. About a day care situation that really did offer Matthew some wonderful experiences that he obviously not forgotten...
Basically, we do a lot of talking with and to Matthew but hardly ever really get to talking about feelings and experiences that might affect Matthew. For instance, this morning we talked with Matthew about Kelly' house and how we had to go to work but we would be there after work to pick him just like yesterday. That he loves Kelly and Grayson and how it would be all right. Matthew immediately started a pretend cry and even tried the usual morning grab Daddy and don't let go routine but this time without the tears. At this point, we reminded Matthew what we talked about in the car on the ride over. We also engaged him by talking about perhaps having a tea party at Kelly's like the one they had yesterday at Kate's house. He gave us a kiss, jumped down and smiled as we left.
It all seems so simple, right? And it is. It is just that something I think we forget that these little people are just that - people with feelings, memories and emotions. That my BABY is no longer a tiny baby cooing and grasping and clinging to me for every thing... but a thinking, learning little being who can tell me what he is feeling and experiencing every day but he must be given the opportunity to do this. often. without me talking at him and being open to his life experiences... because thankfully he can tell me all of this - if I just stop, and listen.
Parenting is such humbling experience!
At dinner, we asked Matthew what he did during his day and he said "We went to Kate's house..."
"Wow", we said. "Well what did you do there?"
Matthew said with a thrilled and excited look on his face "we had a tea party! AND we had ice cream!." *pure rapture on his face.
"Wow", that is so cool", we said.
Later, I talked with Kelly and I told her about this conversation. Kelly said that Matthew was very excited about the tea set and got right into it. Also, that the above mentioned ice cream was from a play set of plastic ice cream that the kids all shared! As we talked about this I remembered that at Matthew's old day care, the kids who came early had tea parties in the morning. With real (herbal) tea, honey and milk! Matthew LOVED this activity more than anything!
One the of major reasons I relate this entire story to all of you few poor souls who read this blog... we have been trying to figure out how to get Matthew more comfortable with this day care transition situation. There is no doubt that Matthew loves his parents - he does not want us to leave in the morning. BUT he also LOVES him some Kelly's house as well because at the end of the day he does not want to leave there either. PLUS he misses his old daycare.
Case in point, we went to Kid Kazooey this past weekend. I realized most of you were probably all 'what the hell is a Kid Kazooey?' Kid Kazooey played music once a week at Matthew's old day care and Matthew was apparently quite taken by the Kid. Matthew told me after seeing Kid Kazooey that he loves him! Which is great, right?! Well, wrong (sort of), Matthew was terribly confused about things by Sunday. It dawned on me that I never really talked with Matthew before or after seeing Kid Kazooey about how he might feel about seeing this huge personality from his old day care. About seeing kids from his old day care and how that would make him feel. About a day care situation that really did offer Matthew some wonderful experiences that he obviously not forgotten...
Basically, we do a lot of talking with and to Matthew but hardly ever really get to talking about feelings and experiences that might affect Matthew. For instance, this morning we talked with Matthew about Kelly' house and how we had to go to work but we would be there after work to pick him just like yesterday. That he loves Kelly and Grayson and how it would be all right. Matthew immediately started a pretend cry and even tried the usual morning grab Daddy and don't let go routine but this time without the tears. At this point, we reminded Matthew what we talked about in the car on the ride over. We also engaged him by talking about perhaps having a tea party at Kelly's like the one they had yesterday at Kate's house. He gave us a kiss, jumped down and smiled as we left.
It all seems so simple, right? And it is. It is just that something I think we forget that these little people are just that - people with feelings, memories and emotions. That my BABY is no longer a tiny baby cooing and grasping and clinging to me for every thing... but a thinking, learning little being who can tell me what he is feeling and experiencing every day but he must be given the opportunity to do this. often. without me talking at him and being open to his life experiences... because thankfully he can tell me all of this - if I just stop, and listen.
Parenting is such humbling experience!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)