Oh, it's been a few weeks since my son's 5:30am wakings...but in true toddler fashion, he has created a new challenge to keep me on my toes. It's like every time I pass a mission, I go up a Mommi difficulty level. So, this newest challenge is threefold: temper tantrums, crib diving, and separation anxiety.
The temper tantrum part is pretty straight forward, and par for the course for most 2 year olds, I'm told: essentially, he goes into a blind rage and won't see reason whenever he doesn't get his way. I want him to stop playing with his cars and get clothes on so that we can go out? DUMP LAUNDRY BASKET FULL OF CLEAN, FOLDED CLOTHES ON FLOOR, ENSURING NOT ONE ITEM REMAINS FOLDED. I dare to refuse him cookies before dinner? THROW CARS AT TV. I won't let him play with the electric carving knife? DESTROY WOODEN RAILROAD, HURL PIECES ACROSS ROOM. I forget that he wants to ring our own doorbell before returning inside the house? COLLAPSE ON THE PORCH, POUND IT WITH FISTS. I feed the dog, without asking him if he wants to dump the food into the bowl for me? COMPLETE AND UTTER MELTDOWN. I can't say I've found an appropriate way to deal with these fits. I've tried talking to him, holding him, staying with him, leaving him alone, ignoring him, timeouts (HA! That was a joke!)...nothing works. That's not true...sometimes distraction will work, at least temporarily...but more often, just giving him whatever the eff it was that he wanted in the first place will quell the throbbing in my head (from all the screaming)! :S
My last post detailed my son's first couple days of daycare, and things seemed to be going much better than I'd expected. Such is my life: that didn't last. On day 3, we had our first me-having-to-walk-away-while-he-cried-and-reached-for-me-with-outstretched-arms drop off :( But thank Jesus (I like to say it the Spanish way) for those video cameras! I was able to check on him online and see that he did settle down and partake in some activities. When I picked him up, though, he burst into tears at first sight of me and launched himself at my legs. His teacher said he'd been up and down throughout the day, but had settled into nap much faster than before - win! But...had only slept for an hour and then cried - LOUDLY - for the second hour of the ministry-mandated 2-hour naptime - less win :s
On Day 4, things got even worse! The daycare called me to come and pick him up before lunch because he had a fever of 102 and wouldn't stop crying! Poor baby! I rushed home from work to get him. But as soon as he saw me...the tears stopped...and he didn't feel hot...and he was singing in the car on the way home...and he ate well at lunch, and started happily playing with his toys...?? Let those be "Clues" numbers 1 through 5. I took his temperature, but if anything, it was low (Clue 6). I looked in his mouth to see if he was cutting another tooth, but a quick check with my dental hygienist friend, Sabrina, confirmed that he actually has all his teeth already (until 5 or so, anyway), so it wasn't that! (Clue 7). So was he sick, or what?? He sure wasn't seeming like it!
Onto nap time - even more important for sick, feverish babies, right? Not according to Avery. He just wouldn't sleep! I left him in his crib for a while, yelling "LAY DOWN A MAMA'S BED!" over and over again - which was bizarre, because I have NEVER been the take-the-baby-into-my-bed type, so I don't know what even gave him the idea that that was an option! And then the most remarkable thing happened: I heard a thump, his white noise stopped, his door opened, and he just toddled right out of his room! This was new! The way he did it, too...like, "ain't no thang"! I didn't know what else to do, so I just figured naptime wasn't happening that day, and we went down to play cars. He failed to show any signs of illness for the rest of the day - which got me thinking: had my son just faked sick to come home from school for the first time?? At 2 years old??
That night, I put him to bed early, since he was "sick" and had skipped his nap. All was well...until 4am, when he woke up crying, the dove out of his crib again! I ran into his room, picked him up, and bounced him back to sleep. I also checked at that time for a fever (no), whether he'd been sick (no), or had a dirty diaper (no). Back to sleep, but at 5:15am, I heard my bedroom door open, and a 3 foot tall, blonde-haired monster walked in! He didn't even waste time crying that time! The part that kills me, is that he's supposed to be all distressed in there, right? And yet, once he escapes his crib, he pauses to turn off his own white noise machine before making his way out! What a kid!
Against my better judgement, I took him into my bed then and gave him a bottle. We both managed to fall back to sleep, thank God. But this experience, plus all the previous Clues led me to believe that maybe my son wasn't sick at all; maybe he was suffering from separation anxiety from his mommi! It makes sense: he had always been cared for in our home, but in the summer, he got Mommi at home with him fulltime...and then all of a sudden, he was being taken to this place with strangers and new rules and routines and NO MOMMI - and he was just not okay with it. So if separation anxiety was the problem, it didn't seem to me that keeping him home from daycare to cling to Mommi all day was the solution...so I sent him anyway. BIG tears when I dropped him off. But when I picked him up later that day (a day I spent anxiously watching my phone, sure the daycare would be calling to ask me to come get him again :S), they said he had a really good day! He had his best daycare nap yet! And that night, he slept through the night with no mad escapes from his crib!
But the next day...naptime hell. At least I was better prepared for this time. I got out my trusty sleep Bible, and read that babies rarely suffer any injury from climbing out of their cribs, and that often moving them to a big kid bed before their third birthday causes more sleep issues than it solves. The recommended course of action was to practice a "silent return to bed", again and again, until your kid stops escaping. The idea is that you remain silent and unemotional, because ANY attention, even negative, might encourage your child. So: into crib went Avery. Not a minute later, I heard a thud and he had jumped out again! I went back into his room, picked him up, put him back in his crib, turned on his white noise machine (he had stopped to turn it off again, too!), left the room, closed the door. I barely made it back to my room to check the video monitor when I heard the next escape thud! Back I went, process repeated. HE ESCAPED SEVENTEEN TIMES IN THE FIRST FIFTEEN MINUTES!!! My heart was racing, I was in a sweat - I was getting my cardio quota for the whole day! After the seventeenth time, though, he stopped trying to get out. He spent the next hour yelling at me...but he stayed in there! Success? I don't know. After an hour, I decided naptime was not going to happen, and went in to rescue him. At the beginning of nap, I foolishly believed I might have a little nap, too, so had taken my hair out of its ponytail. Why am I telling you this? You'll see... The whole time I listen to my child cry, I envision him upset, distraught, an emotional wreck... So at the end of the hour, I go in to rescue my poor baby, and he abruptly stops yelling, points at me, waving his finger back and forth, and says, "Mama fix the hair!" !!!!! Are you kidding me?? Hello, Ronald (a la Paper Bag Princess - get it?). Big sigh.
We are now a few days past that last in-the-crib nap effort. The poor little future-stylist-slash-escape-artist had little bruises all over his legs from his escape efforts, and a few on his poor little baby head, too :(, so I knew that the crib was no longer a safe option. I looked into crib tents, but decided against one, only because he was close enough to being of big-boy bed age, anyway. My little guy spent a night at his dad's between then and now, and as I suspected, he slept just fine there! This further supported my theory that the crib diving was separation anxiety related - because he is having separation anxiety FROM MOMMI, not anyone else - and at Daddy's, he knows Mama is not an option, so doesn't bother crying to get into her (my) bed!
Anyhow, we decided to take the plunge and move him into a big boy bed. Well, a mini-plunge: we converted his crib into a toddler daybed, so it still has 3 sides, and still uses his crib mattress. The first night, he went down to sleep just fine, rolled out of bed around 3am, but didn't wake and continued his sleep on the floor! But he woke up rather upset at 5:45 :s Likely because he was pretty disoriented! I managed to soothe him in his own bed until 6:15, when his GroClock told him it was okay to get up anyway. The next day, he napped in his big boy bed for an hour - then woke up crying. That night, he slept through till 5:45 again, with another unconscious fall out of bed around 11pm. I suspect he's more sensitive to vibrations from us walking around on the floor outside his room when he's sleeping on his floor, and wakes up when we start moving around in the morning. Boo. Last night, I wedged him into bed against the back rails with a stuffed monkey, and he managed to stay in bed the whole night, and slept a little later, too (6:10am)! :) So, we're getting there.
I also decided to send him to daycare every day this week, suspecting that the consistency would help him with the separation anxiety, which would in turn help with the sleep stuff. And so far, it's been working! :) The last few days at daycare have been really good - his teacher says he only cries for a few minutes after I drop him off, and has been happy and napping very well :) He's sleeping better at home. An the temper tantrums have stopped! For now, I know. I'm sure they'll be back; this is the Terrible Twos, afterall :s But there you have it. Accidental Supermommi has been semi-super and semi-successful at overcoming the challenges her toddler has thrown at her this week ;)
Do you have any experience with separation anxiety, crib diving, or transitioning to a big kid bed? I'd love to hear about it! And come on...I KNOW all of you with kids over 2 have at least a FEW temper tantrum stories :D Please share!
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Friday 12 August 2011
Daycare Voyeur Slash Everything-Snob
I know that title suggests I'm some sort of pedophile, and I'm not. I'm not watching random kids at daycare; I'm just watching MINE. Obsessively. Compulsively. But it's his first say of daycare and I'm an interesting mix of worried, excited, and fascinated!
OH - HAHA - THEY HAVE TURNED OUT THE LIGHTS AND ALL THE KIDS HAVE THEIR HANDS ON THEIR HEADS...EXCEPT FOR MINE, WHO IS WANDERING AROUND, TOTALLY NOT CARING :) (I'm trying to write this but I can't help clicking back over to the live video feed the daycare centre provides.)
Mostly worried. He's my baby; I stayed home with him for 14 months, and then had a nanny come into the home to care for him when I returned to work. So this is his first time in this sort of setting. I went with him yesterday for an hour-long visit, I questioned my decision to put him into one class ahead of his age group: he is 26 months, and the class switch is at 30 months. The centre's director suggested he start in the older class, so that he doesn't have to switch just as he's gotten comfortable, and because he is pretty advanced, verbally and physically. That's something I'm obviously proud of, so take as a huge compliment, buuuuut...then come the worries. Is putting him in the older class making him the small fish in a big pond? Will it cause him to learn quicker from the influence and example of the older kids...or will it hurt his self esteem and give him an inferiority complex??
OH NO - ALL THE KIDS ARE IN A CIRCLE FOR STORYTIME, AND THERE IS A LADY TRYING TO CLEAN UP THE TABLES BEHIND, BUT SHE HAS TO KEEP STOPPING AND PLOPPING MY SON BACK INTO THE CIRCLE, BECAUSE HE KEEPS LEAVING TO ROAM
If you've been following this blog from the beginning, or know me personally, you may realize that incessant worry and over-analysis are sort of my things. It's just what I do. And it always come back to the same reason: my son is the best and most important thing I've ever done - and I really don't want to screw it (him) up! So, a lot of thought and investigation went into the decision of if, when and where to send him to daycare.
OKAY: WE WERE TOLD THIS MORNING THAT THEY WOULD BE MAKING MONKEYS TODAY, BUT SO FAR, ALL I'VE SEEN IS PLAYING...WHEN DOES THE MONKEY-MAKING BEGIN?
When he was a year old, I felt he was just too young to go to daycare. He couldn't verbalize his wants, needs, or complaints. Plus, the whole sleeping thing: I did not believe he would be able to sleep as well away from home. Some of this is likely just my own neurotic perception, but a lot is real: he just has a hard time shutting down when it's time to sleep, and is a really light sleeper to boot - he comes by that honestly: just like his momma! There was my fear of illness: I obviously know he is going to get sick, that we all do, that it is normal. But I felt if I could protect him when he was little, he'd be bigger and stronger and better able to fight things off when he did get sick, he could better communicate what was wrong and what he needed, and there are more safe drug options to treat his symptoms when he was older!
I'm getting off-topic, but when I talk about illness prevention, people often make comments about me keeping him in a bubble and the like. So I feel the need to clarify: I'm neurotic, but I'm not CRAZY. We go out in public, he eats food off the floor, he licks the cart handle at Walmart, he rolls around on the floor with dogs (and visits the dog park, too), and plays with horse manure at the stable. I think the grossest thing he ever did was maybe when he LICKED to glass door at the doctor's office! :s Anyhow, you get the point, right? I didn't have him quarantined, but I liked the idea of limiting his exposure to sick kid germs while at home. And, let me say: IT WORKED. He has been the healthiest kid in the world (partly due to breastfeeding, of course ;)). He made it through two years of life with only two mild colds and one ear infection to sully his record of perfect health - any mommi out there will be forced to recognize that as a pretty mean feat!
Okay, back to childcare selection. I'm going to devote another entire post to nannies, but suffice it to say: they have many advantages; a good nanny makes your life WAY, WAY easier - but a bad nanny makes it so much worse! And, they are not very cost effective. And keeping your child at home with a one on one care provider limits social development through interaction with other children, so...I felt it was appropriate (for MY son) to enter into some sort of daycare provider after the age of two. Oh - also, I was moving to a suburb that had no public transportation, and it seems A LOT of nannies do not have cars.
Because he had been at home up until this point, I believed a home daycare might be the best idea for him. I spoke with three different home daycare providers, after getting recommendations for my area online. All three women were delightful and very reassuring of all my concerns, and none of them said I was crazy :) They were happy to follow my sleep regimen for Avery as best they could, and claimed to serve healthy meals with limited snacking. Where I started to have a change of heart, however, was when I asked about educational activities. One replied, "Well...we colour..." :s Another fared better with, "We do numbers and reading, " until she added, "Oh - and cartoons - they learn from cartoons, too." [insert sound of my hand hitting my head here] I will give you that some cartoons are better than others, and that many do strive to teach certain elements and skills. I do let my son watch TV, and favour shows like Handy Manny (manners and citizenship) and Special Agent Oso (life skills) - oh, and Waybaloo - JUST KIDDING! Have you seen that shit?? Friggin' creepy and messed up, if you ask me... I guess from being a teacher, I'm a bit of an education snob, and I think it's really important, even if informal at this age. Anyhow, I went ahead and visited one, and it was a lovely home, run by a women I'd definitely love to be friends with! But her own son pushed mine twice in the short time we were there (his mom did address it), and it got me thinking about whether it was really possible to treat all the children in your home daycare program equally, if one was your own (which they usually are - I think being able to stay home with their own child is a big reason a lot of home daycare providers decide to do that, but that's just my observation), and I acknowledged that it must be difficult for the child whose home and whose mommy he is sharing, too. Also, this home had a gigantic TV - the biggest I've ever seen in a private residence - as the focal point of the living room, and the woman boasted about having the newest Cars video. It seemed to me that home daycares are a little more like babysitting and a little less like school - which is fine for some people, but it was then that I realized that I was apparently really looking for a Nursery School.
Still undecided, I looked into any daycare centres/nursery schools I could find between my home and work. I discounted those near my work simply because it's a bit of a sketchy neighbourhood, and I can admit that I may also be a neighbourhood snob. (To be fair, it is an interesting area, in that there are many very nice streets with homes that show pride of ownership and are occupied by lovely individuals and families...but then you turn a corner and you're in some scary, scary territory. Obviously, it was the scary territory I was reluctant to send my son into). I crossed several others off the list because of typos or grammatical errors on their websites. Fine, whatever: I'm an editing snob, too. (Someone is totally going to scour this blog and point out every imperfection now, aren't they?! Do it. For real. Because any errors will bother me far more than your pointing them out will, and at least it will give me the opportunity to correct them! :P)
Finally, I found one worth checking out. I visited and met with the owner. It smelled of tea tree oil: points for cleanliness and also for the use of natural products over harsher chemicals ;) None of the kids were crying, and they were cute (snob!). There were educational materials featured on the walls and there was a theme posted for each week, along with corresponding learning activities - KA-CHING! The owner was Italian and said she insisted on every meal being homemade, right down to the pasta sauce - that sounded healthy! They had licensed Educational Assistants in every room, and I liked the adult-child ratios. She reassured me about my sleep-concerns. And she was willing to accommodate my teacher schedule by letting me go down to only two days per week in the summer, in the interest of holding a spot for the following school year. Oh - and let's not forget the cameras!
OH, EFF! I DID FORGET THE CAMERAS AND IN THE TIME I WASN'T STALKING MY CHILD AT DAYCARE, THEY STARTED NAPTIME EARLY AND THE LIGHTS ARE OUT, AND I CAN'T MAKE OUT WHICH DARK BLOB IS MINE!!! THIS IS WHAT I WAS MOST STRESSED ABOUT! THIS IS WHAT I MOST WANTED TO SEE! [REASON KICKING IN: MAYBE THIS IS A GOOD THING...I DID SAY I'D USE THIS BABY-FREE TIME TO BE PRODUCTIVE AROUND THE HOUSE, AND SITTING IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER, WATCHING HIM EVERY THREE MINUTES ISN'T REALLY BEING PRODUCTIVE...] OOH: THERE IS MOTION IN ONE CORNER THAT LOOKS LIKE BACK-RUBBING - I BET THAT'S MINE; HE WILL NEED BACK-RUBBING. YEP, IT'S DEFINITELY BACK-RUBBING... WAIT - ARE THEY WEARING THEIR SHOES??? WHO CAN SLEEP WITH THEIR SHOES ON?? DEEP BREATHS, DEEP BREATHS...
The live video feed requires a login, and limits parents to three-minute viewings at a time...but you can just log right back in after thee minutes! :D
Okay, I was a bit insane, I'll admit. But know what? Every time I checked on him via those cameras, he was playing! I ended up turning the computer off and catching a bit of a nap myself (only because I was unable to tell which kid was mine, and they all seemed to be pretty still anyway, which was a good sign...), and when I logged back on, he was just getting up - he had been the one who got out of bed and started pushing his cot around the floor and into other kids' cots. But he had also been the one who eventually did settle, and sleep for an hour and a half :D SUCCESS! My greatest fear: conquered! :D And now he is the kid who is waking up, sitting for a while, then jumping up and down on his cot! <3
At the end of the day, he was also the kid who came running up to me with a big smile on his face, telling me he was "PLAYIN'!", and running back to play with his friends and the daycare toys. He was the kid who showed me the paper monkey with gold sparkles he made for me.
On day two (I'm ending him two days a week until the end of the month, so he has time to adjust before starting full time in September. Also, I started writing this post on day one, but it is now three days later and I'm just getting it done.), he was the kid who was happy enough when I left him, had some ups and downs, but was able to get through the, throughout the day, settled into his nap in only a few minutes this time, made me a Bingo-dabbered kangaroo, and took me half an hour to get out of there, because he didn't want to leave! :) So...I guess, after all my fears and stress, I made the right decision for him. I think he's going to be just fine. I also think he's suddenly a lot more verbally communicative (he was good before, but he seems braver and bolder now), AND...while he has not used the potty AT daycare yet, he peed on it at home for the first time that first night! And now, just three days later, he pees on it every time we ask him to!
Anyhow, that is how I made my decision. I'd be interested in hearing about other choices that have worked out for you, what crazy fears you might have had with regard to child care, and whether your child had a transitional period at the start or not! And I should add, for anyone concerned, that in just the two days he has attended daycare, I have dramatically reduced the amount of time I spent being a daycare voyeur :D I bet next week I'll only virtually check in maybe TWENTY time or something... ;) :P
OH - HAHA - THEY HAVE TURNED OUT THE LIGHTS AND ALL THE KIDS HAVE THEIR HANDS ON THEIR HEADS...EXCEPT FOR MINE, WHO IS WANDERING AROUND, TOTALLY NOT CARING :) (I'm trying to write this but I can't help clicking back over to the live video feed the daycare centre provides.)
Mostly worried. He's my baby; I stayed home with him for 14 months, and then had a nanny come into the home to care for him when I returned to work. So this is his first time in this sort of setting. I went with him yesterday for an hour-long visit, I questioned my decision to put him into one class ahead of his age group: he is 26 months, and the class switch is at 30 months. The centre's director suggested he start in the older class, so that he doesn't have to switch just as he's gotten comfortable, and because he is pretty advanced, verbally and physically. That's something I'm obviously proud of, so take as a huge compliment, buuuuut...then come the worries. Is putting him in the older class making him the small fish in a big pond? Will it cause him to learn quicker from the influence and example of the older kids...or will it hurt his self esteem and give him an inferiority complex??
OH NO - ALL THE KIDS ARE IN A CIRCLE FOR STORYTIME, AND THERE IS A LADY TRYING TO CLEAN UP THE TABLES BEHIND, BUT SHE HAS TO KEEP STOPPING AND PLOPPING MY SON BACK INTO THE CIRCLE, BECAUSE HE KEEPS LEAVING TO ROAM
If you've been following this blog from the beginning, or know me personally, you may realize that incessant worry and over-analysis are sort of my things. It's just what I do. And it always come back to the same reason: my son is the best and most important thing I've ever done - and I really don't want to screw it (him) up! So, a lot of thought and investigation went into the decision of if, when and where to send him to daycare.
OKAY: WE WERE TOLD THIS MORNING THAT THEY WOULD BE MAKING MONKEYS TODAY, BUT SO FAR, ALL I'VE SEEN IS PLAYING...WHEN DOES THE MONKEY-MAKING BEGIN?
When he was a year old, I felt he was just too young to go to daycare. He couldn't verbalize his wants, needs, or complaints. Plus, the whole sleeping thing: I did not believe he would be able to sleep as well away from home. Some of this is likely just my own neurotic perception, but a lot is real: he just has a hard time shutting down when it's time to sleep, and is a really light sleeper to boot - he comes by that honestly: just like his momma! There was my fear of illness: I obviously know he is going to get sick, that we all do, that it is normal. But I felt if I could protect him when he was little, he'd be bigger and stronger and better able to fight things off when he did get sick, he could better communicate what was wrong and what he needed, and there are more safe drug options to treat his symptoms when he was older!
I'm getting off-topic, but when I talk about illness prevention, people often make comments about me keeping him in a bubble and the like. So I feel the need to clarify: I'm neurotic, but I'm not CRAZY. We go out in public, he eats food off the floor, he licks the cart handle at Walmart, he rolls around on the floor with dogs (and visits the dog park, too), and plays with horse manure at the stable. I think the grossest thing he ever did was maybe when he LICKED to glass door at the doctor's office! :s Anyhow, you get the point, right? I didn't have him quarantined, but I liked the idea of limiting his exposure to sick kid germs while at home. And, let me say: IT WORKED. He has been the healthiest kid in the world (partly due to breastfeeding, of course ;)). He made it through two years of life with only two mild colds and one ear infection to sully his record of perfect health - any mommi out there will be forced to recognize that as a pretty mean feat!
Okay, back to childcare selection. I'm going to devote another entire post to nannies, but suffice it to say: they have many advantages; a good nanny makes your life WAY, WAY easier - but a bad nanny makes it so much worse! And, they are not very cost effective. And keeping your child at home with a one on one care provider limits social development through interaction with other children, so...I felt it was appropriate (for MY son) to enter into some sort of daycare provider after the age of two. Oh - also, I was moving to a suburb that had no public transportation, and it seems A LOT of nannies do not have cars.
Because he had been at home up until this point, I believed a home daycare might be the best idea for him. I spoke with three different home daycare providers, after getting recommendations for my area online. All three women were delightful and very reassuring of all my concerns, and none of them said I was crazy :) They were happy to follow my sleep regimen for Avery as best they could, and claimed to serve healthy meals with limited snacking. Where I started to have a change of heart, however, was when I asked about educational activities. One replied, "Well...we colour..." :s Another fared better with, "We do numbers and reading, " until she added, "Oh - and cartoons - they learn from cartoons, too." [insert sound of my hand hitting my head here] I will give you that some cartoons are better than others, and that many do strive to teach certain elements and skills. I do let my son watch TV, and favour shows like Handy Manny (manners and citizenship) and Special Agent Oso (life skills) - oh, and Waybaloo - JUST KIDDING! Have you seen that shit?? Friggin' creepy and messed up, if you ask me... I guess from being a teacher, I'm a bit of an education snob, and I think it's really important, even if informal at this age. Anyhow, I went ahead and visited one, and it was a lovely home, run by a women I'd definitely love to be friends with! But her own son pushed mine twice in the short time we were there (his mom did address it), and it got me thinking about whether it was really possible to treat all the children in your home daycare program equally, if one was your own (which they usually are - I think being able to stay home with their own child is a big reason a lot of home daycare providers decide to do that, but that's just my observation), and I acknowledged that it must be difficult for the child whose home and whose mommy he is sharing, too. Also, this home had a gigantic TV - the biggest I've ever seen in a private residence - as the focal point of the living room, and the woman boasted about having the newest Cars video. It seemed to me that home daycares are a little more like babysitting and a little less like school - which is fine for some people, but it was then that I realized that I was apparently really looking for a Nursery School.
Still undecided, I looked into any daycare centres/nursery schools I could find between my home and work. I discounted those near my work simply because it's a bit of a sketchy neighbourhood, and I can admit that I may also be a neighbourhood snob. (To be fair, it is an interesting area, in that there are many very nice streets with homes that show pride of ownership and are occupied by lovely individuals and families...but then you turn a corner and you're in some scary, scary territory. Obviously, it was the scary territory I was reluctant to send my son into). I crossed several others off the list because of typos or grammatical errors on their websites. Fine, whatever: I'm an editing snob, too. (Someone is totally going to scour this blog and point out every imperfection now, aren't they?! Do it. For real. Because any errors will bother me far more than your pointing them out will, and at least it will give me the opportunity to correct them! :P)
Finally, I found one worth checking out. I visited and met with the owner. It smelled of tea tree oil: points for cleanliness and also for the use of natural products over harsher chemicals ;) None of the kids were crying, and they were cute (snob!). There were educational materials featured on the walls and there was a theme posted for each week, along with corresponding learning activities - KA-CHING! The owner was Italian and said she insisted on every meal being homemade, right down to the pasta sauce - that sounded healthy! They had licensed Educational Assistants in every room, and I liked the adult-child ratios. She reassured me about my sleep-concerns. And she was willing to accommodate my teacher schedule by letting me go down to only two days per week in the summer, in the interest of holding a spot for the following school year. Oh - and let's not forget the cameras!
OH, EFF! I DID FORGET THE CAMERAS AND IN THE TIME I WASN'T STALKING MY CHILD AT DAYCARE, THEY STARTED NAPTIME EARLY AND THE LIGHTS ARE OUT, AND I CAN'T MAKE OUT WHICH DARK BLOB IS MINE!!! THIS IS WHAT I WAS MOST STRESSED ABOUT! THIS IS WHAT I MOST WANTED TO SEE! [REASON KICKING IN: MAYBE THIS IS A GOOD THING...I DID SAY I'D USE THIS BABY-FREE TIME TO BE PRODUCTIVE AROUND THE HOUSE, AND SITTING IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER, WATCHING HIM EVERY THREE MINUTES ISN'T REALLY BEING PRODUCTIVE...] OOH: THERE IS MOTION IN ONE CORNER THAT LOOKS LIKE BACK-RUBBING - I BET THAT'S MINE; HE WILL NEED BACK-RUBBING. YEP, IT'S DEFINITELY BACK-RUBBING... WAIT - ARE THEY WEARING THEIR SHOES??? WHO CAN SLEEP WITH THEIR SHOES ON?? DEEP BREATHS, DEEP BREATHS...
The live video feed requires a login, and limits parents to three-minute viewings at a time...but you can just log right back in after thee minutes! :D
Okay, I was a bit insane, I'll admit. But know what? Every time I checked on him via those cameras, he was playing! I ended up turning the computer off and catching a bit of a nap myself (only because I was unable to tell which kid was mine, and they all seemed to be pretty still anyway, which was a good sign...), and when I logged back on, he was just getting up - he had been the one who got out of bed and started pushing his cot around the floor and into other kids' cots. But he had also been the one who eventually did settle, and sleep for an hour and a half :D SUCCESS! My greatest fear: conquered! :D And now he is the kid who is waking up, sitting for a while, then jumping up and down on his cot! <3
At the end of the day, he was also the kid who came running up to me with a big smile on his face, telling me he was "PLAYIN'!", and running back to play with his friends and the daycare toys. He was the kid who showed me the paper monkey with gold sparkles he made for me.
On day two (I'm ending him two days a week until the end of the month, so he has time to adjust before starting full time in September. Also, I started writing this post on day one, but it is now three days later and I'm just getting it done.), he was the kid who was happy enough when I left him, had some ups and downs, but was able to get through the, throughout the day, settled into his nap in only a few minutes this time, made me a Bingo-dabbered kangaroo, and took me half an hour to get out of there, because he didn't want to leave! :) So...I guess, after all my fears and stress, I made the right decision for him. I think he's going to be just fine. I also think he's suddenly a lot more verbally communicative (he was good before, but he seems braver and bolder now), AND...while he has not used the potty AT daycare yet, he peed on it at home for the first time that first night! And now, just three days later, he pees on it every time we ask him to!
Anyhow, that is how I made my decision. I'd be interested in hearing about other choices that have worked out for you, what crazy fears you might have had with regard to child care, and whether your child had a transitional period at the start or not! And I should add, for anyone concerned, that in just the two days he has attended daycare, I have dramatically reduced the amount of time I spent being a daycare voyeur :D I bet next week I'll only virtually check in maybe TWENTY time or something... ;) :P
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)