Daycare

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The Pandemic Post

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I’ve thought about writing this post a million times, but since we were IN it, it felt like maybe I should wait. Until it was over. Now I’m beginning to wonder if it ever will be over. And the before time, it’s so far away now, that it’s hard to remember.

So here is a very messy, probably very long, in between post about this pandemic we’re living through. Because some day our kids might ask. Because it’s probably not a bad idea to write down some memories. To reflect on the craziness. I’m going to break it up into sections - it probably won’t make it any shorter, but maybe easier for me to write.

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This Season

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Nothing about this pandemic makes sense to me anymore, but one of the more annoying things is that some daycares let parents into the buildings while others do not. I understand the logic, and I’m not someone who’s going to fight against people who are trying to keep my children safe, but I will admit that it would be so much easier if I was allowed inside the building.

Yes I’d like to be able to see what’s going on in my children’s classroom, and be able to check that they have enough extra clothes that still fit them and if the baby needs more diapers or not, but also because it would be easier to gather everything. It would be nice to be able to strap the baby into car seat and gather all the things that need to go back and forth every day from inside a building. And not in the cold or the rain.

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A Sad Day

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Daycare during a pandemic is really hard. We’re not allowed in the building, and we’re not supposed to chat with the teachers when we pick up or drop off. That leaves us knowing very little about what goes on in the classrooms. I used to know the name of every kid in the room, and would spend 10-15 minutes in the room when I picked E&G up. Checking how many diapers they had, if they needed a change of clothes, picking up their artwork, but also seeing how the room functioned and getting to know the teachers. I could see who E&G were friends with, how they interacted in the room, and I felt like I knew what was going on.

All that’s gone now, of course. We get pictures and daily reports, but it’s not quite the same. I have to rely on what E&G tell me directly, which is partial information at best.

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Out of the Mouths of Toddlers

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The older E gets, the more interesting it is to talk to him. It’s gone from demands to short sentences to stories. Sometimes they’re true, sometimes they’re completely made up, and sometimes I’m left confused wondering.

E: Mama look at my boo boo
Me: Oh no!
E: I told it to my teachers yesterday
Me: Oh yeah? And what did they say?
E: The scooped me up and threw me in the trash!
Me: How did that make you feel?

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The Daycare Debate

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We’ve definitely encountered our fair share of parenting problems that we didn’t expect, and didn’t have answers for. Currently we’re ignoring two splinters in E’s palm, mostly because we don’t know what to do about them. They aren’t really bothering him, and despite trying, we can’t get them out. He definitely doesn’t want us to try again. We’ve tried a few ideas we’ve found online, but none of them worked. So right now we’re ignoring it. Hoping they’ll either come out on our own, or become an obvious enough problem we’ll need to get professional help.

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A Baby Update

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I’ve stopped doing monthly updates now that G is one, which means it feels like forever since I’ve given everyone an update on this little one. I’m starting to wonder if I can even call him the baby anymore. Every day he becomes more and more a toddler, and his older brother becomes more and more a big kid and less and less a toddler. Still, I find myself calling G by “baby” more often than not. My boss has started to call me out on it every time I mention “the baby” in a story. But for now, I’ll give you an update on baby G.

In a lot of ways, G is a typical second child. Both his reactions and actions are completely the opposite of his older sibling. Anything E was/is afraid of, G loves. Anything that’s E favorite, G could care less.

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Starting Off the New Year

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Phew.  We made it. 

A first birthday and Christmas all at once was a lot.  Plus daycare being closed and no work and what day is it?  We’re all back to our normal routines now, whatever that is. 

Because normal changes.  A new year means new work assignments and schedules, new car challenges, new teachers, new projects to tackle…

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Orange Happy Birthday

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We’re still obsessed with happy birthday over here. E can almost sing it by himself, but he still prefers it if we sing it, or we watch his two minute clip on Netflix. The drive home from daycare is prime happy birthday singing time. Lately, singing it is no longer enough. He’s requested that we merge his two favorite things, and sing “Orange Happy Birthday.”

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A Week with Grandma

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I don’t think we realized when we got pregnant with E, that we had timed things perfectly. Our parental leave ended in September, and that’s one of the easiest times to get a daycare placement, since all the kid’s “move up” to the next grade. June is not. It’s not as bad as February for example, but we still weren’t able to get a spot when we needed it. So we’ve been patching together coverage until G’s spot opens up.

Luckily we have some great family who have agreed to give up a week of their time to come hang out with us and take care of G while we work. Considering he’s almost 20 lbs, likes to pinch loose skin, and scream randomly in your face, it’s a pretty big commitment!

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Progress

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It’s amazing to watch a toddler’s brain develop. It changes week by week, and it’s awesome to watch them learn something in real time.

Now that E can officially say his name, he’s using it all the time. Of course he won’t just say it, he’ll beat his chest like an ape and yell it out loud. He’s also learning how to put sentences together, and it’s so fun to watch. The other day he dumped out his box of blocks, and they were all over his playpen. I held my hands up to my face and said “Oh no! What a mess! Who could have done this??” He looked up at me proudly, slammed his chest with his hand and goes “E DID IT!” I’m not sure what’s better. The brutal honesty, or the cuteness overload.

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Bits and Pieces

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A few random stories that I want to remember, but aren’t really related beyond that:
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E has a new(ish) teacher in his room, and he has slowly but surely winning her over. She’s pretty quiet, so it’s taken me a bit longer to get to know her, and get a read on her. She was asking me a few questions about him recently which left me wondering if she was worried about his speech. I was talking to Tom about it, and mentioned that she kept asking about what he can say, and seemed surprised that he couldn’t say his name. To be clear, Tom and I aren’t worried. But the conversation led me to believe that maybe she was.

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Baby Feet

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When we first brought G home, E kept pulling the blanket off of him. At first we thought it was an attention thing, but we realized it was more that he needed to see the baby. The whole baby. He needed to see that it really was a tiny person we’d brought home, and not just a crying head.

And it’s continued. He loves to point out his own eyes/nose/mouth, and then point to the same body part on the baby. He’s learning that the baby is a person.

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Coffee

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Today it finally happened. After hearing about it all the time but never experiencing it, someone paid for my Starbucks order in the drive through! It's like winning the random acts of kindness lottery. You feel special and chosen, and it instantly cheered me up. And boy did I need cheering up. It was the whole reason I was in that drive through line. And in case you're wondering, yes I did pay it forward (backward?) and paid for the person behind me. You better believe I was passing on that insta-good mood karma.

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Remember the Giggles

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Did you know that on January 15th, 1986 it was -25 degrees in Newport Center? I do, because it’s in my baby book. You may think that’s an odd thing to record in a baby book, but as a new mom I soon realized that sometimes there’s not much going on to write in the baby book! And weather becomes a big deal. Too hot, too cold, too rainy, too anything.. all become great reasons to not go anywhere and spend the day on the couch with the baby.

So if you look in E or G’s baby books, you’ll find random comments on the weather. Especially last week (because you run out of ways to say, we stayed home and did nothing). G’s baby book entries look like this:

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What We've Been Doing

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A lot! The fall is always my favorite time of year. It seems like it always gets filled up with fun trips and visits and activities that we never get around to at other times of the year. There are holidays to look forward to, the weather is perfect, life is good! However, it seems like I’ll never get around to making a separate blog post about everything we’ve been up to, so instead I’m going to try and play a bit of catch up. So here are a bunch of random but good things we’ve been up to.

Also in completely random updates, E has 4 teeth! We have no idea when #3 and #4 came in - we flipped him upside down the other day (the only way to really check) and he has a mouth full of teeth up there! But since he only has 1 on the bottom, we hadn’t noticed. I guess that’s a good thing though. (Although now that we know they’re here, we’re thinking back on a cranky week last week and wondering if that’s what was going on!)

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My Day

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Hey Caitlin, how are you doing?

Oh great!  I was driving home today, and it was only 92 outside according to my car, although it was at least 10 degrees warmer inside since the steering wheel was burning the skin off my hands.  AC was on blast, and the windows were all down so I'd get the breeze.  Felt nice.. right until something hit me on the side of my neck!

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Small Tales from Daycare

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It's no secret that we love our daycare, and E especially loves it there.  He learns new things all the time, and it's amazing.  One weekend we noticed he had started bringing books over to us and then immediately sitting down on the ground and crossing his ankles like he's trying to sit cross legged.  It's the cutest thing ever, and we definitely have circle time to thank for it.