Pile it On

I apparently picked a great week to have Adam start his new daycare. And I mean that sarcastically.

Now that the week is over, I can honestly say it wasn't so bad. But if you had asked me on Monday, or Tuesday, or any of those days between then and now, I might have looked at you with some crazed look in my eye and mumbled something about a launch pad before scurrying off.

On top of starting at Adam's new daycare (which, so far, we love), we adjusted to daylight savings time, Adam got a new tooth (and boy, did he work for it), and all week I tested, retested, communicated and helped deploy what was basically an "upgrade" to our system at work. This week was also March Madness and St. Patrick's Day. We piled it on this week and survived.

Daycare

Adam adjusted well to being somewhere new, but talk about having a mom-guilt-o-meter in the red zone. By Tuesday I realized that I had just dumped him in a new room, with new people, new kids, new toys, new routines, and new everything all at once. And he never cried. I had intended to leave fairly early each day so I could ease him into it... but 2 pm turned into 3 pm turned into 4 pm... and I never picked him up as early as I had intended. He didn't nap there until Friday - there was too many new people, too many new things... and they said that even though he couldn't fall asleep, he didn't act out or cry or fuss. They could tell he was tired, but he didn't act out.


That's not to say that at home he didn't tell us exactly how tired he was and in pain over the little tooth in the evenings - especially Tuesday night when we had a little argument over a teething biscuit (he dropped it on the floor and it was covered in dog hair, so I threw it away and got him a new one - but that one wasn't THE one and he had one of the best tantrums I've ever seen for a 10 month old). He threw it on the floor a few times, then got mad when I wouldn't give it back. I feel for him though - it's gotta be tough.

He has never really had any fits (so far) when I've dropped him off anywhere. On Tuesday a different teacher than the day before was there in the morning. I guess she thought maybe he was going to scream when I left so she took him and whisked him away before I could say good-bye. I hadn't realized how much I really liked having that one last kiss on the cheek and "good-bye, Adam" and wave to him. I missed having that one last smile he gives me as I walk out of the room.

But other than those few seconds on Tuesday, things were okay. I really like his new teachers. He's learning new things and I know what he's being read or taught each day. And in just the 5 days he's started there, we've already seen him make incredible steps in language, development, and in his health.


I worked all night Thursday night (literally went to bed at 8 am), but when Shannon dropped him off Friday morning, he said Adam was grinning ear to ear as they walked into the building. When I picked him up after sleeping as much as I could that day, he had napped for about an hour, he had eaten really well that day, and he was playing and squealing and smiling with a little girl who is also very social and waves "hi" and "goodbye" to everyone when they come in or out. He was excited to see me but having the time of his life. It was refreshing to see such a big smile at 3:45pm.

Adam's Health

That particularly stubborn cold of Adam's very slowly went away without us having to do anything more. At the suggestion of the doctor, for about 5 nights we gave him allergy medicine, but it never showed any signs of helping anything, and we quit. He may have allergies someday, but he doesn't right now. The green runny nose and the nasty cough finally stopped on Thursday and then all of a sudden he was feeling great.

I point this out because it happens rarely that he is feeling great. He rarely cries, he rarely acts like he feels bad, and he usually just suffers through his colds and infections like a champ - but in the last 7 months since starting daycare he has been sick nearly everyday. In fact, I can almost guarantee that if we were still at the old daycare he'd already have another cold by now. I know he will get sick again, and it might be soon - but I'm hoping that it will be a while before we have to pull out that nebulizer to give him another round of breathing treatments.

St. Patrick's Day 

On Thursday, I worked until 2:30, left to pick up Adam, and came home. We napped for about an hour and a half, and then I worked a little bit more. Shannon came home, and we all got dressed and went across the street to a St. Patrick's Day party that our neighbors had invited us to. We met a lot of new people, Adam did a whole bunch of showing off and talking to everyone, we had dinner of corned beef and potatoes and salad (and Adam enjoyed his dinner of mostly corned beef and avocado), and then we went home, where I got online and worked from 8:20pm to 7:15am on the upgrade.

Adam's Words

"Adam" is still Adam's favorite word. He also knows "mama" and "dog" (well, "dah").

Before Adam went to bed Thursday night, I said, "Say 'night night', Adam." He was extremely tired and immediately said, "ni ni." When I asked him today if he wanted applesauce, he said "apples".

When Adam is with Shannon somewhere in the house you can hear Adam saying loudly, "Dad dad dad dad daddy!" Bathtime, playing, anywhere. When he's with dad, he says "dad." Wednesday, Adam called me "daddy" all morning. I said, "I think you mean Mommy. Say 'mommy'," Adam paused, looked at me with a big smile, and said "Adam." Cheeky little guy.

When Shannon tried to leave the room earlier today, Adam said "na na na na." (I think he was telling Shannon "no no", because he didn't want him to leave the room.) This is tricky, since "no no" and "night night" are sounding awfully familiar.

He's got the "ba" sound down too so I'm thinking "bottle" or "bye bye" might be coming up soon.

Yesterday, I put Adam in a pack n' play in our room and put on a video so I could take a shower. He was not at all pleased with the situation, so the entire time he fussed and screamed every word he knew at me, which sounded something like (translated): "Mom mom, dad dad dad DAD! Night Night. DOG!" (Notice, he left his name out of his screaming rant). It went on like this for some time.

Adam's Development

Adam's balance is incredible, really - and truthfully he can take a step or two on his own. But he's just not quite toddling through the house yet unassisted. He's getting there though. If you hold his hands, he's basically running full speed and you have to be pretty quick to keep up with him. We think if we spend some more time on the tile in the sunroom and outside it might give him the boost he needs. He's interested in standing and walking, for sure... but if he needs to get somewhere fast, he'll crawl.

He has another little tooth making an appearance on the bottom next to his other tooth, and we think the top two are starting to give him some trouble also. He's brave about foods and loves feeding himself. I can put a piece of orange on his little toddler fork, then hand him the fork, and he can do the rest on his own. He also enjoyed holding a slice of turkey deli meat for lunch today and biting/pulling pieces off on his own. If I tore small pieces for him, he spit them out.

Adam weighs about 23 lbs and is wearing 18 month old clothes officially. Still on track to be 6'3" (ish). His little mullet is showing signs of turning into the little curls I was hoping so desperately for. My dad tells me I might have put in too many requests in the genetic pool though - I got the height and blue eyes I "requested" - but it looks like his hair might be thin and curly instead of thick and straight. But at least he's a boy and doesn't have to worry too much about his hair. (Mom - Do you remember when I was about 14 and throwing a fit about how much I hated my hair? You said, "Well, when you're older you need to marry a man who has thick, curly hair so your kids will have thick hair." I did what you said. I'm starting to think maybe you were trying to find a way "out" of that conversation. Pretty clever.)

Anyway, he's looking more and more like a little Shannon with blue eyes.

And if you're at our house, and just walking through, you may see a little blanket with hands and feet sitting on the floor, until a cute little smiling face pops out. Adam loves to play peekaboo with his blankets.

Adam's favorite things at 10 months old:
Anywhere there is an audience.
Banging cabinet doors open and closed as hard as he can (any cabinets, any doors)
The open dryer.
The open refrigerator.
OUTSIDE!!

Overall, we survived the week. And we're excited about many more to come.