Well, Sam seems to have settled into his first week of daycare. On Friday, he was happily playing with a big puzzle at one of the tables when I came in. He didn't notice me for several minutes until I said his name. He came over with a puzzle piece to show me... I asked him to put it back on the table, which he ended up giving it to one of the other kids who had taken over it when he turned to walk to me, and then came back and wanted up. It was all very calm and he didn't seem to have the wimpery relief that I was there finally.
We tried to keep the same schedule as school with nap time right after an early lunch, but with a piano tuning going on in the house and me and Sam running errands in the late morning, he got lunch and nap time about an hour late. Aimee said he was asleep before she even laid him down in the crib. He slept for over 2 hours too. It was great.
Oh and he sure has had a great appetite lately. He eats all his vegetables, with minimal fussing by the end, crackers or cereal, and a full helping of a fruit (he loves applesauce but we have been trying mango lately, which he is warming up to.) Oh and tonight Aimee made a berry smoothie with yogurt and a berry mix we get from Costco... we all had them and had no problems finishing them off.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Aimee's workin it
Well Aimee started working again this week. It was inevitable, but I really wasn't ready for it. We had to identify and place Sam in daycare, which has not been our desire from the beginning.
I am tasked with dropping him off in the morning, 8am, and picking him up at 2pm so we get a slightly reduced rate for not having him there all day. I have a pretty easy schedule, so it works out pretty good and I get to give him a snack and try to get him to rest for a little bit before Aimee comes home, we eat dinner, entertain him until his bedtime at 7 when we get to work on other things until we get to bed around 9-10pm.
I would still like to try to find a place, other than a daycare facility, like we have him in now, that may be in some one's home and with someone who could give him more personalized attention. They seem to have a lot of kids at the place we have him at now and with limited teachers, it means that only the fussy ones get the attention. That said, the "teachers", "caregivers", "play coordinators" or whatever you call them at this stage, are great. They do seem to try to attend to each kid, there are just too many to really allow a one-on-one interaction all day.
Sam hasn't been fussy, for the most part, except maybe when I first leave he gets a little pout and wimper. His reports for the day have rated him as content, but when we come to pick him up he is evidently relieved and kinda whimpers about it a little when he sees me. I watched him through the window yesterday before I went into the room to get him and he was just kinda milling around the room at the coattails of one of the main caregivers, Kristin. It looked like he really didn't know what to do with himself. It really made it hard for me to leave him there today.
As a result, I have found it a little hard to concentrate at work. I read a book when Sam was about a month old, well part of a book, called The Science of Parenting. (I should finish that now that he is older.) It talked about the observations that this doctor group had done on brain chemistry of children, through brain scans, as they grew up and were in different situations. One of their conclusions with kids in Daycare was that they were all under stress of being away from their parents, even if they seemed content and didn't fuss during the day. The same stress hormones and indicators were present in the calm, content kids as in the ones wailing and crying for periods of time during the day.
Sam kinda looks at me when I leave with an inquisitive and almost sad look on his face. He seems to accept that he is staying at I am leaving with minimal fuss, but I can just sense that he really just doesn't understand why we are leaving him there with these strangers. I know he will adapt, as kids are very resilient, and Sam seems to take to new experiences well. My crazy analytical, or as my friend growing up liked to call it just anal, mind just can't keep going over what his experience must be like for the two closest people in his life (his caregivers, family, friends, and play pals) give him up for what must seem like forever to his time insensitive mind. He has to get used to new people, doing things in a different way to Mom and Dad.
Please pray that Aimee and I can make the most of our interaction with him in the morning and at night when we are with him that he would be aware that we love and care for him deeply and are only putting him through this because we have no better alternative at the moment. Please also pray God's will with our situation, that if a better place for Sam is out there that He would direct our search to find it and make us aware when we come across it.
I pray that Sam is getting at least some good out of this experience and will come through it with some beneficial life skills and experiences, like making friends, dealing with new experience, how to manage change... I have to trust God will nurture and protect Sam in the way only He can and that Sam isn't too young for it to be beneficial for him.
I am tasked with dropping him off in the morning, 8am, and picking him up at 2pm so we get a slightly reduced rate for not having him there all day. I have a pretty easy schedule, so it works out pretty good and I get to give him a snack and try to get him to rest for a little bit before Aimee comes home, we eat dinner, entertain him until his bedtime at 7 when we get to work on other things until we get to bed around 9-10pm.
I would still like to try to find a place, other than a daycare facility, like we have him in now, that may be in some one's home and with someone who could give him more personalized attention. They seem to have a lot of kids at the place we have him at now and with limited teachers, it means that only the fussy ones get the attention. That said, the "teachers", "caregivers", "play coordinators" or whatever you call them at this stage, are great. They do seem to try to attend to each kid, there are just too many to really allow a one-on-one interaction all day.
Sam hasn't been fussy, for the most part, except maybe when I first leave he gets a little pout and wimper. His reports for the day have rated him as content, but when we come to pick him up he is evidently relieved and kinda whimpers about it a little when he sees me. I watched him through the window yesterday before I went into the room to get him and he was just kinda milling around the room at the coattails of one of the main caregivers, Kristin. It looked like he really didn't know what to do with himself. It really made it hard for me to leave him there today.
As a result, I have found it a little hard to concentrate at work. I read a book when Sam was about a month old, well part of a book, called The Science of Parenting. (I should finish that now that he is older.) It talked about the observations that this doctor group had done on brain chemistry of children, through brain scans, as they grew up and were in different situations. One of their conclusions with kids in Daycare was that they were all under stress of being away from their parents, even if they seemed content and didn't fuss during the day. The same stress hormones and indicators were present in the calm, content kids as in the ones wailing and crying for periods of time during the day.
Sam kinda looks at me when I leave with an inquisitive and almost sad look on his face. He seems to accept that he is staying at I am leaving with minimal fuss, but I can just sense that he really just doesn't understand why we are leaving him there with these strangers. I know he will adapt, as kids are very resilient, and Sam seems to take to new experiences well. My crazy analytical, or as my friend growing up liked to call it just anal, mind just can't keep going over what his experience must be like for the two closest people in his life (his caregivers, family, friends, and play pals) give him up for what must seem like forever to his time insensitive mind. He has to get used to new people, doing things in a different way to Mom and Dad.
Please pray that Aimee and I can make the most of our interaction with him in the morning and at night when we are with him that he would be aware that we love and care for him deeply and are only putting him through this because we have no better alternative at the moment. Please also pray God's will with our situation, that if a better place for Sam is out there that He would direct our search to find it and make us aware when we come across it.
I pray that Sam is getting at least some good out of this experience and will come through it with some beneficial life skills and experiences, like making friends, dealing with new experience, how to manage change... I have to trust God will nurture and protect Sam in the way only He can and that Sam isn't too young for it to be beneficial for him.
Sam's attempts at feeding himself
Sam has been attempting to feed himself. Aimee has some more details on her blog, but thought I would mention a couple details here.
Last night when I had to feed him by myself before Aimee got home because he was screaming and trying to climb into his highchair, he was evidently hungry. He wouldn't let me feed him more than a couple bites, so I gave over the spoon and he got a couple good spoonfuls in when he started just kinda playing with it. He also got this, for a better way to describe it, "sinister" look on his face (like when a madman in a movie contemplates his master plan) and was jabbing his spoon into the bowl of food he was eating. I hope this isn't something he is picking up from kids at Daycare.
He then decided to start wiping the mess of food on his face and got it in his hair and chair and essentially everywhere. Aimee and I are quite neat freaks and are having a hard time with him making a big mess, but trying to let aside our inner Monks to let him be a kid and explore and figure it out for himself. We have been successful to this point in keeping him from playing with the bowl too much, like picking it up or swiping it off the table, but have tried to not clean up every little splotch of food he gets on the table and himself. I don't want to give him a complex about having stuff on his hands as I have seen some kids almost have a panic attack if they get messy hands... and I don't want him to turn out like me since I can't continue eating comfortably with sticky hands or utensils.
All that said, it is amazing how well he is doing and how little help he really needs now to feed himself to his content; then he lets us help him finish eating and is fine with it. I guess he is just starting to express his individual space and initiative.
Last night when I had to feed him by myself before Aimee got home because he was screaming and trying to climb into his highchair, he was evidently hungry. He wouldn't let me feed him more than a couple bites, so I gave over the spoon and he got a couple good spoonfuls in when he started just kinda playing with it. He also got this, for a better way to describe it, "sinister" look on his face (like when a madman in a movie contemplates his master plan) and was jabbing his spoon into the bowl of food he was eating. I hope this isn't something he is picking up from kids at Daycare.
He then decided to start wiping the mess of food on his face and got it in his hair and chair and essentially everywhere. Aimee and I are quite neat freaks and are having a hard time with him making a big mess, but trying to let aside our inner Monks to let him be a kid and explore and figure it out for himself. We have been successful to this point in keeping him from playing with the bowl too much, like picking it up or swiping it off the table, but have tried to not clean up every little splotch of food he gets on the table and himself. I don't want to give him a complex about having stuff on his hands as I have seen some kids almost have a panic attack if they get messy hands... and I don't want him to turn out like me since I can't continue eating comfortably with sticky hands or utensils.
All that said, it is amazing how well he is doing and how little help he really needs now to feed himself to his content; then he lets us help him finish eating and is fine with it. I guess he is just starting to express his individual space and initiative.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Legos
I am so excited!!! Aimee found a set of old Duplo lego blocks on Craigslist for really cheap. They don't make this model of Duplo any more and the newer ones are smaller than these blocks. My sister gave us a bunch of the ones my nephews were not playing with any more, like 50 total or so, but we now have over 175 pieces...
unfortunately the majority of them are single peg blocks, but they are still fun to build with.
I made a couple lego towers for Sam that you can see on Aimee's blog. Sam really liked pushing them over and even helped place a couple blocks with help... it was exceedingly hard to keep him distracted with other things as i got taller and taller towers built.
I look forward to when we can build something together.
unfortunately the majority of them are single peg blocks, but they are still fun to build with.
I made a couple lego towers for Sam that you can see on Aimee's blog. Sam really liked pushing them over and even helped place a couple blocks with help... it was exceedingly hard to keep him distracted with other things as i got taller and taller towers built.
I look forward to when we can build something together.
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