Hello Spring

Let me start out by saying that when we tackled this weekend we thought Adam might have been teething. So I gave him some things to do to try to keep his mind off of it. However, we discovered today that it wasn't teething but a sinus infection and double ear infection... I guess it makes these smiles all that much more amazing...

(And I have thus decided that it's never "just teething" with this guy.)

This weekend was a full one, complete with a half day for me and bowling for Junior Achievement on Friday, a trip to the Arboretum with my mom for pictures and fresh air, co-hostess for a baby shower on Sunday, and then the Ft. Worth Zoo on Monday (a planned family day off since vacations are hard to come by).

Adam enjoyed the Arboretum on Saturday, even though the sun and the people watching wore him plum out. (I love that saying, "plum out." I feel very Southern.) Here are some pictures from the day.

Adam and Mamie

Adam and Mamie

getting excited...

 

WIPED OUT!

On Sunday Adam's "teething" made for a rough day for Shannon while I was out of the house for the baby shower.

Then yesterday we had Mexican food for lunch (Adam inhaled almost an entire sour cream chicken enchilada)  and then tackled the zoo. Even though Adam really wasn't feeling all that great, he didn't complain. His top moments were: The stroller, the train, and the people. Second on the list were the turtles and the penguins. He also seemed to take notice of the big cats (the Cheetahs and the Jaguar), but couldn't have cared less about the elephants and giraffes. We left for the day with confirmation that still at the top of Adam's animal favorite's list is Eli (the fat black and white cat at home who wanders the house and screams at everyone).

(He loves Dad's hat)

PENGUINS!

Riding the Train!

Riding the train!

 

OTTERS!!

And the best part of the trip . . . (yes, the part that we could have done in a trip around our neighborhood block) . . . THE STROLLER RIDE!

Anyway, we had a good time even though Adam is still probably just a little too young to understand it and much more interested in people and socializing than the cages and animals. Oh well.

Hopefully he can knock out these ear infections and sinus infection with this round of extra strong antibiotics and we can have more fun weekends.

Saturday BBQ

Pictures from last Saturday:

Another successful barbecue - except the chicken fajitas weren't as big a hit as the cheeseburger last week. I think he got tired before he could enjoy the food, but he definitely enjoyed the DIRT he got into! Luckily he enjoys baths as much as he enjoys everything else.

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.

March So Far

So far, March has been hectic. Adam was bitten at daycare, we went to the doctor for a sinus/double ear infection, we gave our notice at the current daycare (for many, many reasons - the bite was just the tipping-point), Adam was bitten again, then got sick again and went back to the doctor (it was determined that it was a new cold), was home for a few days, then had another urgent rush to the doctor again 4 days later because of a fever while on antibiotics. 3 trips to the pediatrician in literally 8 days.

The doctors think it could be a lingering ear infection or it could be teething, but that it's hard to tell. I think it might be both. He has another little tooth popping in on the bottom next to his lone baby tooth. The doctor also thinks he is showing signs that he might have allergies (and contributing to the constant colds). This wouldn't be surprising since I'm allergic to everything that exists (except food) - indoor, outdoor, pets, winter, spring, summer, fall... hopefully he doesn't have the same ailment, but we will see. Adam never minded the nasty Nexium, but apparently the grape flavored children's Claritin makes him cringe (and tonight, made him gag).

After Adam did so well with the CBC blood test, they called and said that the sample clotted in the lab and they have to do it again. Really? I hear this is common, but seriously - there aren't ways to prevent that? I guess not. I have until his first birthday to do it again, but I'm not anxious to see if that one miraculous made-of-steel baby was just a fluke that one day. Plus, whether Adam deals with it like a champ or not, I hate the sight of blood.

Shannon went on a business trip earlier this week in Orlando (poor guy, right?) He saw the Harry Potter amusement park and did a whole lot of networking. Adam and I were both glad when he came home Wednesday night.  But we all survived. :)
 
This weekend we played in the backyard and grilled out - and Adam loved it. He squealed and smiled and kicked his legs the whole time, then devoured his cheeseburger patty (well, the half that we gave him, cut up into small bites), his sweet potatoes, and his watermelon - and kept eating even when he could barely keep his eyes open. I had to save him from himself and remove the remaining delicious bites - and he thanked me for it.

Today we were all hit especially hard by the daylight savings time. We slept in a little, but then two hours later we all went down for a 3 hour nap and have been dragging and lounging all day - reading books, watching movies, taking pictures, and basically being lazy (except for my 25 minute jog with Caley). I'm looking forward to the longer, warmer days to come.

We start at the new daycare tomorrow and I wouldn't be more excited than if I was staying home with him myself. Since giving our notice, he was bit again on the back, I've had to tell the lead teacher not to feed him strawberry cupcakes and banana pudding - and got a, "he's never had cake before??" from one young teacher. No. He's ten months old and doesn't need cake. I sent strawberry yogurt and bananas that day so he could participate, but had very little confidence that he stayed completely away from the sugar. The next day, I picked him up and he had a very large scratch on his head - but they didn't know when or how he got it. The last day, the lead teacher was rude about not having "enough" wipes to last the day, and looked at me like she expected me to run out and get some for her. I didn't. They could clearly make do on his last day, and the office manager, who was standing right next to me, chimed in about the situation before I had to. Then Adam ran a fever for 3 hours that afternoon before they called me, and when they finally did, it was at 4pm  on a Friday, when it's nearly impossible to sneak in an appointment at the doctor before the weekend. Luckily, we were able to.

So needless to say, when they were weeping to say good-bye to Adam, I felt for him that he would never again see these people that he knows, but was thinking, "adios!" in my head.

I'm going to cut out from work a couple hours early a few days this week so I'm not just dumping him somewhere new for 10 hours at a time. I think he'll do okay, but the next week or so might be a pretty big adjustment. I'm just glad we had such a great weekend. It feels like a good omen.

1 minute Bedtime Routine

Last night I was wondering how I got so lucky to have such a sweet, playful, and easy baby. I do realize that this could change at any moment, so I am relishing it.

Last night Adam and I got home from daycare/work at 5:30, and for 3 hours we played, ate dinner, giggled, and clapped at all the the things that I could do and all the things that he could do... we put on his pajamas, trimmed Adam's nails (his favorite thing) and played some more. All of a sudden it was 8:30 pm, Adam's bedtime, and he was wired and still happy from all the playing.

I scooped him up and Adam said good night to Dad... the whole time trying to flip himself upside-down and hang there, giggling. So I let him a couple of times and dangled him by the ankles and laughed with him. Shannon jokingly wished me good luck on getting him to calm down for bed. I figured it would be a little bit of a struggle myself, but we tried anyway.

I took Adam into his room, stood in front of the crib, and gave him a kiss. He smiled at me. I gave him his pacifier and he rolled his whole upper body over so I was cradling him. I gave him another kiss and put him in the crib.

I pulled his blanket up over him - he likes how the top of the blanket feels when it touches his cheeks. He put his hands on his cheeks, snuggled in the blanket, and smiled again, kinda giggled, then rolled over and went to sleep. 1 minute bedtime routine.

This isn't the first time we've had this experience - every night this week has been this easy. There are evenings where he'll whimper for a minute or three in his crib, but it's never a screaming fit or 20 minutes of crying. He definitely loves his crib and his room.

He is finally starting to sleep through the night - or at least not need a full meal during the night. Last night he woke up upset at 1:30 so I went in to see what was going on, gave him a sip of water, stroked his forehead and put him back to bed... and he slept until 7:30 this morning. But the night before that he slept all the way through, and has been for maybe a week now.

Playing with Adam after work and putting him to bed is so fun and easy that it makes me want to go get him out of bed so we can play some more. But I don't. I just look forward to the next day with him.

Superman

Proud-Parent Moment:

On Friday after a doctor's appointment, I took Adam to get a standard CBC blood test and the technician seemed like he really didn’t want to prick happy little Adam's finger because it makes babies cry - and at 9 months old, who wouldn't cry?

I sat Adam on my lap and we waited. The technician pricked Adam’s finger and I waited for the tears and the squirming...

Adam didn’t move, didn’t flinch, didn’t cry, didn’t utter a noise, and just sat there happily watching the guy milk enough out of his finger to fill a vial. Halfway through it, Adam turned and smiled at me. Like he was glad I brought him to this fun place. I told him he should be in marketing campaigns for getting your fingers pricked.

Maybe he really is from Krypton. I'm so proud he's my son.



Playing with Dad.



42 weeks old

The weekend:
Shannon installed the cooktop, then this last weekend he installed our new microwave. He's done a fabulous job. I love sweat equity . . . especially when it's not my sweat. (Kidding, Shannon.) I like living with two Supermen.

This coming weekend we are putting in some mosaic tile as a trim underneath the microwave. This will be mostly my project if I can gather the patience. Hopefully I won't give up and make Shannon take over for me. Everyone cross your fingers. Then on Sunday, Shannon is going to Orlando for work.

In other news:

Last Wednesday when I picked Adam up from daycare, I had to sign an incident report that he'd been bitten by another child. Adam was wearing a long-sleeve shirt and the bite drew blood. He was bitten because of a toy, which is not exactly one year-old behavior. It just seemed very aggressive. I checked out his bite and was immediately suspicious, especially since a near two year-old was sitting in a highchair 3 seats down.  I asked questions but got very vague answers that day. I went home skeptical.

I have remained calm, but I am confused about how this happened in an infant classroom. It's true that kids bite. Kids get bit. That's the sad and frustrating nature of daycare. I had really hoped that I wouldn't have had to sign a biting incident form until he was in a classroom where biting was more consistent with the age. Or ever, in a dream world. But in this instance I started to feel like I was on the wrong side of a cover up. By law they can't tell the "bitee" who the "biter" was, and that's understandable.

When I asked the lead teacher more questions, I got more vague answers. To the question: "How old was the child who bit him?" I was told, "Oh, you know... they are all about the same age... about 2 to 3 months apart." "Did you clean the wound?" "Yes. And put ice on it." "What were they doing when he got bit?" "Oh, it was about a toy."
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Here's what I think happened:
A child who is misbehaving in an older classroom (almost the age of two) is being sent to the infant room some days. I've seen him there a handful of times, standing around waiting for his mom. I think Adam was going for a toy that he had and the older kid bit him, hard. Hard enough to draw blood. I don't think that a 13 month old could have caused that type of wound over a toy. Maybe bite to chew or teethe... or maybe because they didn't know any better . . . but not because they were so angry that they took a chunk out of my son's arm.

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On Friday, Adam had a sinus infection (and two black eyes because of it), an ear infection, and horrible cough, and was still smiling… We went to the doctor and he smiled at her the whole time she talked – giggled because he’s ticklish on his neck when she checked his glands, and sat there cheerfully as if nothing was wrong. She politely marveled about his advanced mobility.

I told our pediatrician about the bite and she looked at me, half-confused, and asked what age group he was in at his daycare. I immediately felt validated in my concerns. She checked out his bite said that it’s highly unlikely that a baby at or under the age of 12 months could have caused that particular bite on Adam, and that biting behavior typically doesn't start until about 18+ months. She said that I'm most likely correct that a one year old didn't do this.

After the appointment, I called another daycare and asked about the laws, about their policies, and about whether they had an opening for him. It's not illegal to have an older child in the classroom as long as they are not more than 18 months older than the youngest child there. But, as she said, "There is a difference between what is illegal and what is right for the child."

On Monday I talked to the office manager at our current daycare and told her that I had concerns about getting vague answers, and fears that I'm not getting the whole truth. I asked about the older child in the room (and never got a real answer). She pulled the incident report and said, "oh, well I can tell you that the child who did it is in one of his classrooms and that it can sometimes happen at this age . . . but I'll need to talk to them about the incident and make sure we are taking steps to prevent it in the future." I told her that I'm in no way saying that it is impossible, but that I'm highly skeptical. I explained that the bite drew blood and that it simply doesn't look like a bite that a 13 month old could have caused, and she seemed to get concerned and said she would definitely talk to them tomorrow when they returned.

When Shannon dropped off Adam this morning there was a laminated note on the infant room door that said that for safety, older children should not be allowed in the infant room. Suspicious. I'm now starting to wonder if the infant teachers tampered with the incident report so they wouldn't get in trouble.

No matter where we go there will be biters. There will be bumps and bruises and hitting and fights... it's part of being in a room with a bunch of kids. But I don't like being at a daycare where I worry I'm being lied to, am unable to get any direct answers about what goes on with my baby all day, and where I'm unhappy with the attitude, curriculum, and amount of turn-over.

In the end, the decision is that we're leaving. I'm leaving because I am unhappy for many reasons, not because he was bitten. This was just the event to force me to finally make a decision instead of continue to "wait it out" with no real results. After talking to some smart girls about their experiences with their children in daycares, I finally was convinced that this isn't "just how it is."

The daycare I've chosen to move him to separates the babies into infants, mobile infants, and 12-18 months before being sent up to the "toddler" classroom of 18-24 months. They do sign language and start literacy programs early. They have posters right on the door that tell you what they are doing that week and that day, what songs they sang, what books they read, what art they did, what games they played . . . the teachers are cheerful and seem to like their jobs, and the Directors are professional and available. I may not like everything about them someday or have issues in the future, but I know that I'm miserable where we are now.

This new place has many of the things I feel we've been lacking, and maybe now I'll walk in to pick him up and get to hear what he did that day - not that the highlight of his day was that he had 5 dirty diapers and threw up on one of the teachers.

I'm going to put in our two weeks notice tonight, regardless of what they say - I'm not angry, but I'm done. The only part that I have to worry about is me dealing with the change. Adam is social and bright and cheerful. He'll do fine anywhere. It's me we'll have to worry about.