When you have a free moment, check out this website. This photographer, Chris Jordan, tries to depict the vastness of the impact of the way we live. It's a bit like Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, with less harping and more evidence.
Intolerable Beauty is my favorite, but each is moving.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/
Enjoy. Recycle. Be cognizant of what you consume.
ay
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
The Longest Week Ever
Ada survived day care week two.
I almost killed Rick on Wednesday though...
You see, Rick dropped Ada off at day care in the car since he was driving to a client meeting, and he forgot that I'd be walking Ada home so he didn't leave a stroller at day care for me to do so. I easily could have made the same mistake so I wasn't so much mad at Rick but at the fact that it is six blocks between our house and day care and at the end of the day there is no energy left in Ada's little body to make the trek home on her own. At five months pregnant, with her being 35 pounds and me having herniated discs in my neck, carrying her is NOT an option. I've never wanted to hire a stranger to carry her home so badly in my life (or hers).
In an effort to break up the walk, I decided to take her three blocks to dinner and then four blocks home. That might have worked well but... the ladies at daycare didn't notice her bag on her hook at nap time (her hook changed at some point this week so there was some confusion) which contained our new strategy to encourage Ada to take naps. The bag held not one, but two secret weapons: her bug blanket and her stuffed piggy. Without these comfort measures on her cot, there was no way she was going to nap.
Result: I picked up a cranky, unrested, hungry, exhausted child, with no stroller, six blocks from home.
We started toward the restaurant and encountered a series of fits. She hollered and cried as I tried to sing and encourage her. She'd cut me off and say "up, up" with outstretched arms. I'd crouch down to her level to explain yet again how I can't carry her and it was just a little further. People were staring, their eyes burning me with feelings of judgement as my daughter goes screaming down the sidewalk as I pull her along. After two blocks, I potato sack her over my shoulder hoping that is a low stress way to carry her since putting her on my hip only works for about four or five steps and makes we worry about hurting the baby in the belly. I made it about twenty steps to the corner and put her back down to be distracted by the sliding doors at Walgreens. We eventually made it to the restaurant, ordered dinner, and went to the bathroom to wash up. She cried while I ordered and paid and a nice employee tried to entertain her with a page of stickers and paper but she wasn't having it. She was too crabby by that point and there was no turning back. Once at the table I went to get water and get settled into a booth. Somehow, over a distance of about eight feet, Ada managed to clobber her jaw against the corner of a table and got a bruise on her jawline, causing even more of a scene as she cried from real pain. She was fine during dinner, but the walk home was pretty bad. Again, I had random people stopping to tell her not to cry. She threw a good size tantrum on the sidewalk at one point. And finally I found a trick that worked and motivated her. A new game I call "Do you see a puppy? Let's go find a puppy!" She still broke down every half block since the dogs out being walked were all hiding within a block of our house but it finally paid off once we got to that block and she got to pet four dogs within 100 feet. And I got to commiserate with parents strolling down the street with two infants hoping their children wouldn't throw street tantrums like Ada. I just looked at them and said "Naps are your friend, and strollers are a must."
Moral of the story: ALWAYS have a stroller, or someone--preferably that you know-- who can carry your child a decent distance, with you at all times. Consider keeping an umbrella stroller in the trunk of the car for bad parking days too.
I almost killed Rick on Wednesday though...
You see, Rick dropped Ada off at day care in the car since he was driving to a client meeting, and he forgot that I'd be walking Ada home so he didn't leave a stroller at day care for me to do so. I easily could have made the same mistake so I wasn't so much mad at Rick but at the fact that it is six blocks between our house and day care and at the end of the day there is no energy left in Ada's little body to make the trek home on her own. At five months pregnant, with her being 35 pounds and me having herniated discs in my neck, carrying her is NOT an option. I've never wanted to hire a stranger to carry her home so badly in my life (or hers).
In an effort to break up the walk, I decided to take her three blocks to dinner and then four blocks home. That might have worked well but... the ladies at daycare didn't notice her bag on her hook at nap time (her hook changed at some point this week so there was some confusion) which contained our new strategy to encourage Ada to take naps. The bag held not one, but two secret weapons: her bug blanket and her stuffed piggy. Without these comfort measures on her cot, there was no way she was going to nap.
Result: I picked up a cranky, unrested, hungry, exhausted child, with no stroller, six blocks from home.
We started toward the restaurant and encountered a series of fits. She hollered and cried as I tried to sing and encourage her. She'd cut me off and say "up, up" with outstretched arms. I'd crouch down to her level to explain yet again how I can't carry her and it was just a little further. People were staring, their eyes burning me with feelings of judgement as my daughter goes screaming down the sidewalk as I pull her along. After two blocks, I potato sack her over my shoulder hoping that is a low stress way to carry her since putting her on my hip only works for about four or five steps and makes we worry about hurting the baby in the belly. I made it about twenty steps to the corner and put her back down to be distracted by the sliding doors at Walgreens. We eventually made it to the restaurant, ordered dinner, and went to the bathroom to wash up. She cried while I ordered and paid and a nice employee tried to entertain her with a page of stickers and paper but she wasn't having it. She was too crabby by that point and there was no turning back. Once at the table I went to get water and get settled into a booth. Somehow, over a distance of about eight feet, Ada managed to clobber her jaw against the corner of a table and got a bruise on her jawline, causing even more of a scene as she cried from real pain. She was fine during dinner, but the walk home was pretty bad. Again, I had random people stopping to tell her not to cry. She threw a good size tantrum on the sidewalk at one point. And finally I found a trick that worked and motivated her. A new game I call "Do you see a puppy? Let's go find a puppy!" She still broke down every half block since the dogs out being walked were all hiding within a block of our house but it finally paid off once we got to that block and she got to pet four dogs within 100 feet. And I got to commiserate with parents strolling down the street with two infants hoping their children wouldn't throw street tantrums like Ada. I just looked at them and said "Naps are your friend, and strollers are a must."
Moral of the story: ALWAYS have a stroller, or someone--preferably that you know-- who can carry your child a decent distance, with you at all times. Consider keeping an umbrella stroller in the trunk of the car for bad parking days too.
Break Down #2
There was a lot of rain in the forecast last week but that had nothing to do with Friday's flood.
Sometimes, when you are a parent, especially a pregnant, hormonal parent, you just get overwhelmed. Friday was one of those days.
For starters, I'm not sleeping for about two hours right around four in the morning each day. I've got a cold, with an occasional cough, a small bladder that interrupts my sleep with frequent bathroom visits during the night, and my diet is still wonky which tends to result in four am heartburn-like symptoms.
Combine all of that with Rick working crazy hours on deadline after deadline and being stressed out at his work with me not having Internet access for a week and trying to get my work done when I'm short on hours and trying to meet a deadline of my own.
Then you pile on Ada's adjustment to her second week of day care and her new found ability to be sassy and test my limits, with my impatience and short fuse and what do you get?
Waterworks.
A full on meltdown when the AT&T technician calls to say they want to set up a courtesy appointment to check the Internet jack when they come to install our "dry loop" on Monday after they clearly PROMISED me I would have an Internet connection by midnight on Friday (after promising it would be by Wednesday morning originally). Can this big American corporation be more out of touch with its customers? Or any worse with customer service? I think not.
So what did I do after learning I wouldn't have Internet until Monday? I called Rick. I vented terribly, frequently using swear words I'm sworn off of now that I'm a responsible adult and parent, surely sending my blood pressure to the moon and causing my child-in-utero to think his momma has completely lost it, and then I started crying. And boy did it feel good. Poor Rick just listened and probably feared for Ada's well being as I was clearly having an unstable moment as she was mashing a sticky apple wedge all over the couch and coffee table. It was AWESOME!
Thankfully, when you have a crazy mom meltdown in front of your two-year-old, her response is to try to cheer you up because she doesn't understand why you are sobbing uncontrollably but wants it to stop so the focus will again be on her. Once I wiped the apple of the couch, table and her face and hands, she was actually quite funny and made me laugh a few chuckles... but... as soon as my tears were dry, she went right back to being sassy by refusing to get her diaper changed or to settle down for a nap. All she wanted to do was play. All I wanted to do was scream.
Moral of the story: When tough days happen, have faith that tomorrow will be a better day.
Sometimes, when you are a parent, especially a pregnant, hormonal parent, you just get overwhelmed. Friday was one of those days.
For starters, I'm not sleeping for about two hours right around four in the morning each day. I've got a cold, with an occasional cough, a small bladder that interrupts my sleep with frequent bathroom visits during the night, and my diet is still wonky which tends to result in four am heartburn-like symptoms.
Combine all of that with Rick working crazy hours on deadline after deadline and being stressed out at his work with me not having Internet access for a week and trying to get my work done when I'm short on hours and trying to meet a deadline of my own.
Then you pile on Ada's adjustment to her second week of day care and her new found ability to be sassy and test my limits, with my impatience and short fuse and what do you get?
Waterworks.
A full on meltdown when the AT&T technician calls to say they want to set up a courtesy appointment to check the Internet jack when they come to install our "dry loop" on Monday after they clearly PROMISED me I would have an Internet connection by midnight on Friday (after promising it would be by Wednesday morning originally). Can this big American corporation be more out of touch with its customers? Or any worse with customer service? I think not.
So what did I do after learning I wouldn't have Internet until Monday? I called Rick. I vented terribly, frequently using swear words I'm sworn off of now that I'm a responsible adult and parent, surely sending my blood pressure to the moon and causing my child-in-utero to think his momma has completely lost it, and then I started crying. And boy did it feel good. Poor Rick just listened and probably feared for Ada's well being as I was clearly having an unstable moment as she was mashing a sticky apple wedge all over the couch and coffee table. It was AWESOME!
Thankfully, when you have a crazy mom meltdown in front of your two-year-old, her response is to try to cheer you up because she doesn't understand why you are sobbing uncontrollably but wants it to stop so the focus will again be on her. Once I wiped the apple of the couch, table and her face and hands, she was actually quite funny and made me laugh a few chuckles... but... as soon as my tears were dry, she went right back to being sassy by refusing to get her diaper changed or to settle down for a nap. All she wanted to do was play. All I wanted to do was scream.
Moral of the story: When tough days happen, have faith that tomorrow will be a better day.
Death of the Home Phone
We finally did it.
We cancelled our home phone service. I've had a home phone my entire life. Back in the day... before cell phones existed... when we had to walk to school uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow... or better yet, when pay phones still existed and took quarters...
The only real reason we had a "land line" was in case of emergencies. It was worth a couple of dollars a month for that "peace of mind", knowing that I could always try to reach whoever was here watching Ada (typically Rick) if their (his) cell phone died or the ringer was turned off by mistake. It was nice to know that they could always make an emergency call if they needed to. And it was convenient when our cell phone coverage in our house was so bad I'd drop 90% of my calls (that's why I don't have AT&T as my cell phone service provider).
Recently, I noticed that our land line phone bill was creeping up a lot higher than I originally thought. Ten dollars a month for that emergency access line was a good deal to me. But when I looked at the actual breakdown of our bill, I learned that it was really costing us $25 a month. And about $18 of that was taxes. We had the most basic, bare bones service possible and never even used the phone (except for that one month our nanny made a bunch of long distance calls and ran up the bill...) So it was time for it to go.
I did some research and learned that for $10 less each month, I could double my DSL Internet speed and drop my home phone. Great! What a deal! After all, I've been getting a lot of wrong numbers, solicitations, surveys, and calls that I just didn't want--all at really inconvenient times, like during naps... mine and Ada's both.
All would be fine in the world had I not been connected with a series of poorly trained customer service staff at AT&T. To make a VERY LONG story short, my phone was cut off a week ago Tuesday and I just now got my Internet connection back at 8 pm on Monday night. It's a VERY SORE subject at my house right now so avoid mentioning AT&T around me for the next twenty years or so -- unless you're trying to push me into labor. At least wait until I get to 38 weeks, please.
All of this drama for what? Well, in theory, we'll save $120/year and a bit of my sanity since I won't be woken up by wrong numbers and telemarketers anymore -- until they get ahold of my cell phone number anyway. The only call I will miss is Beverly from the Doctoress' office who calls the day before to remind us of our appointments. I'll have to remember to give her my cell, or just remember the appointments myself.
And now that the Internet is FINALLY up and running... (after I've spent 2.5 hours of my life on my (Sprint) cell phone with tech services, most of that on hold)... I will say I already missed my land line for about 5 minutes today when I couldn't remember where I put my cell phone down and I realized, I can no longer used the land line to call my cell phone to help locate it. And I can't call Rick to call my cell phone to locate it, because I can't find my cell phone to call him with and I no longer have a land line. So I just can't misplace my phone anymore. Talk about being thrown into new levels of responsibility I never knew existed.
Moral of the story: Times change, technology changes, but AT&T customer services will always be atrocious.
We cancelled our home phone service. I've had a home phone my entire life. Back in the day... before cell phones existed... when we had to walk to school uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow... or better yet, when pay phones still existed and took quarters...
The only real reason we had a "land line" was in case of emergencies. It was worth a couple of dollars a month for that "peace of mind", knowing that I could always try to reach whoever was here watching Ada (typically Rick) if their (his) cell phone died or the ringer was turned off by mistake. It was nice to know that they could always make an emergency call if they needed to. And it was convenient when our cell phone coverage in our house was so bad I'd drop 90% of my calls (that's why I don't have AT&T as my cell phone service provider).
Recently, I noticed that our land line phone bill was creeping up a lot higher than I originally thought. Ten dollars a month for that emergency access line was a good deal to me. But when I looked at the actual breakdown of our bill, I learned that it was really costing us $25 a month. And about $18 of that was taxes. We had the most basic, bare bones service possible and never even used the phone (except for that one month our nanny made a bunch of long distance calls and ran up the bill...) So it was time for it to go.
I did some research and learned that for $10 less each month, I could double my DSL Internet speed and drop my home phone. Great! What a deal! After all, I've been getting a lot of wrong numbers, solicitations, surveys, and calls that I just didn't want--all at really inconvenient times, like during naps... mine and Ada's both.
All would be fine in the world had I not been connected with a series of poorly trained customer service staff at AT&T. To make a VERY LONG story short, my phone was cut off a week ago Tuesday and I just now got my Internet connection back at 8 pm on Monday night. It's a VERY SORE subject at my house right now so avoid mentioning AT&T around me for the next twenty years or so -- unless you're trying to push me into labor. At least wait until I get to 38 weeks, please.
All of this drama for what? Well, in theory, we'll save $120/year and a bit of my sanity since I won't be woken up by wrong numbers and telemarketers anymore -- until they get ahold of my cell phone number anyway. The only call I will miss is Beverly from the Doctoress' office who calls the day before to remind us of our appointments. I'll have to remember to give her my cell, or just remember the appointments myself.
And now that the Internet is FINALLY up and running... (after I've spent 2.5 hours of my life on my (Sprint) cell phone with tech services, most of that on hold)... I will say I already missed my land line for about 5 minutes today when I couldn't remember where I put my cell phone down and I realized, I can no longer used the land line to call my cell phone to help locate it. And I can't call Rick to call my cell phone to locate it, because I can't find my cell phone to call him with and I no longer have a land line. So I just can't misplace my phone anymore. Talk about being thrown into new levels of responsibility I never knew existed.
Moral of the story: Times change, technology changes, but AT&T customer services will always be atrocious.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
More Teeth? Seriously?
On top of having a kind of tough week starting day care and all, Ada is apparently teething. She spent all day yesterday with everything in her mouth she could get her hands on. I already packed away most of her teething toys and was tempted last night to get her a big stick. I do have one teething ring left in the freezer and we tried to explain that her hand won't freeze if she wraps a wash cloth around the part she holds--which she later went along with.
She was like a puppy with a rawhide bone. I've never see her crew so aggressively before.
I'm sure it's her back teeth --2 year molars?- but she is gnawing on the front ones. I made the mistake of putting my finger in her mouth to examine her back molars and she darn near bit it off.
Poor kid. At least she is sleeping better and happy that she has a four day weekend with Mom and two days of Dad.
Moral of the story: Just when you think you've learned how to deal with something, like teething, it comes back and bites you in a different way, so you have to adjust your strategy and start all over.
She was like a puppy with a rawhide bone. I've never see her crew so aggressively before.
I'm sure it's her back teeth --2 year molars?- but she is gnawing on the front ones. I made the mistake of putting my finger in her mouth to examine her back molars and she darn near bit it off.
Poor kid. At least she is sleeping better and happy that she has a four day weekend with Mom and two days of Dad.
Moral of the story: Just when you think you've learned how to deal with something, like teething, it comes back and bites you in a different way, so you have to adjust your strategy and start all over.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Day 2 and 3 - Not so hot
We were off to such a good start, and then it was time to go back to Ada's new day care.
Day 1 went off beautifully. No complaints and a happy, smiley kid greeted me at the end of the day.
Day 2 on the other hand, started with the most awful "No Mom, don't leave me!" face I have ever seen. She screamed and grasped for me while in the arms of her new care givers. She might as well have just ripped out my heart and stomped on it. Ouch.
I thought I'd find a happy child waiting for me at the end of the day... but no. She ran to me and then started crying and wanting to be held in the "How could you abandon me all day? Don't ever leave me again." way.
Which makes it utterly unsurprising that she woke up screaming for us three times last night, first insisting that Daddy watch a movie on the couch with her at 11pm, and then only settling down when Rick tossed her into our bed after her other two wailing episodes. The second shocked me the most as she scurried across the bed and forced her way between me and my body pillow to get as close as she possibly could to me. She's a daddy's girl 100% so this was a huge shocker.
For Day 3, I made Rick drop her off. She did the whole miserable screaming thing again as he dropped her off, got her settled and signed her in. And when my turn came to pick her up at the end of the day, her little face twisted into a cry as she raced toward me, and then quickly became the look of relief as she realized that I'd come to save her. She then did a happy dance, said goodbye to her new friends and bee-lined for her coat.
The staff reported that she did well for her first week. She is eating well, participates in circle time and pretends to sing along even if she doesn't know the words to the songs yet. But she isn't napping well. We're thinking that next week we'll try taking her stuffed animal piggy or kitty with her to see if that helps give her a sense of belonging. Poor Ada.
I've also never seen her so excited to hop into her stroller for the ride to and from day care. She'll sit in it at the top of the stairs before we have a chance to even get out of the house. Either she is that tired, or just realized she could have been riding in the stroller to Will's all these months if she'd only played her cards right.
A tough three days, but it could have been much worse. Next week, we'll try a new strategy with the help of some stuffed animal friends. I'll try to add in a few play dates with her standard cast of neighborhood tots, and we'll just have to see how it goes. Kids are resilient and I think we just have to be supportive, give her a little extra love in the coming weeks, and see how it all shakes out. Hopefully, she'll be eager to go to day care in three weeks time. But maybe it will take four weeks since the 14th is daylight savings time and that just messes everything up.
Moral of the story: Change unsettles everyone no matter how much you prepare. You just have to do your best to adjust and be supportive of one another.
Day 1 went off beautifully. No complaints and a happy, smiley kid greeted me at the end of the day.
Day 2 on the other hand, started with the most awful "No Mom, don't leave me!" face I have ever seen. She screamed and grasped for me while in the arms of her new care givers. She might as well have just ripped out my heart and stomped on it. Ouch.
I thought I'd find a happy child waiting for me at the end of the day... but no. She ran to me and then started crying and wanting to be held in the "How could you abandon me all day? Don't ever leave me again." way.
Which makes it utterly unsurprising that she woke up screaming for us three times last night, first insisting that Daddy watch a movie on the couch with her at 11pm, and then only settling down when Rick tossed her into our bed after her other two wailing episodes. The second shocked me the most as she scurried across the bed and forced her way between me and my body pillow to get as close as she possibly could to me. She's a daddy's girl 100% so this was a huge shocker.
For Day 3, I made Rick drop her off. She did the whole miserable screaming thing again as he dropped her off, got her settled and signed her in. And when my turn came to pick her up at the end of the day, her little face twisted into a cry as she raced toward me, and then quickly became the look of relief as she realized that I'd come to save her. She then did a happy dance, said goodbye to her new friends and bee-lined for her coat.
The staff reported that she did well for her first week. She is eating well, participates in circle time and pretends to sing along even if she doesn't know the words to the songs yet. But she isn't napping well. We're thinking that next week we'll try taking her stuffed animal piggy or kitty with her to see if that helps give her a sense of belonging. Poor Ada.
I've also never seen her so excited to hop into her stroller for the ride to and from day care. She'll sit in it at the top of the stairs before we have a chance to even get out of the house. Either she is that tired, or just realized she could have been riding in the stroller to Will's all these months if she'd only played her cards right.
A tough three days, but it could have been much worse. Next week, we'll try a new strategy with the help of some stuffed animal friends. I'll try to add in a few play dates with her standard cast of neighborhood tots, and we'll just have to see how it goes. Kids are resilient and I think we just have to be supportive, give her a little extra love in the coming weeks, and see how it all shakes out. Hopefully, she'll be eager to go to day care in three weeks time. But maybe it will take four weeks since the 14th is daylight savings time and that just messes everything up.
Moral of the story: Change unsettles everyone no matter how much you prepare. You just have to do your best to adjust and be supportive of one another.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Day Care Day 1 = Success!
Whew!
What a load off. Ada started day care today and the transition could not have been smoother. I've been a little nervous since she really liked being with Will and Alison these past few months. And I'll admit that, even though I mentioned to Rick that we should take the umbrella stroller, I still forgot and the walk is 2 blocks father than she is used to. Luckily we were able to distract her with puppy dogs and a round of the ABCs.
Once we arrived at the daycare, Ada was ready to start her day and absorb all of the new experiences. We were there maybe five minutes, likely less, when she ran off to play and left us to do our thing. We had enough time to take off her coat, hang it up, sign her in, see her new classroom, and walk her into the morning gathering room. That's when she ran toward the other kids and Rick and I decided it was best to just let her play instead of doing a long drawn out goodbye. Then we left. On the sidewalk, I almost teared up, but then I reminded myself that I was just so darn happy that she seemed happy and this might work out after all. AHHH!
Then I walked to the corner and thought I was going to miss the bus that would take me to the el but as it turns out, the stop is about half a block from the corner and there was a long line of people waiting to board the bus. Yeah! A quick kiss to Rick and off on our separate ways we go.
I admit that I thought about her at 2 and hoped she was taking a nap and ate her lunch. And that was it. I really didn't worry about her because she is so outgoing that she really thrives in that environment. When I went to pick her up, she was in the back with the "leftover" kids as I call them -- they consolidate the rooms after 5pm once the parents start to pick them up and the numbers dwindle. I headed back to see her and got a glowing review from the staff. They were very impressed that she joined in the circle for story time and acted like she's been there all along. They noted how surprised they were that she knew how to say "No, no, no," and wag her finger when "the Dr. says, 'No more monkeys jumping on the bed!". And she participated during the itsy bitsy spider too. I wonder where she gets her extroverted nature? Couldn't possibly be from me...
And the biggest shocker was that they were able to get her hair up into a half ponytail. Amazing. She will barely let me touch her hair let alone put it up for her. I got it into a full ponytail this morning but she was not happy about it and let me know it.
So the day was a great success. Yippee!
The walk home on the other hand... let's just say it was slow going, she looked like she was drunk at times the way she staggered and stumbled (I think she's exhausted from having too much fun all day) and, I ended up having to carry her two blocks when I ran out of milestones for her to walk to (like dogs being walked up ahead, kitties in store windows, etc.). She gave up completely when the electronics store down the street had Finding Nemo playing on the plasma screen. Insta-zombie. And then she saw kids with balloons coming out of the playgroup next to our house and just lost it. Ba-loo, Ba-loo. We walked over to see the balloons but they were all tangled and the mom couldn't stop to give her one since it was cold out and she was trying to get her 2 and 4-year-olds to the car after a birthday party. I didn't blame her at all. And once we got inside, Ada was just fine -- after she ate her second full banana of the day that is. And you won't be shocked to know that I quickly popped in cartoons for her to unwind after a long day. She'll get used to it and then her days with me are going to be so boring.
Moral of the story: You just have to go with the flow of things. Try to make transitions as easy as possible. Talk to your child beforehand to let them know what's going on and hope for the best.
What a load off. Ada started day care today and the transition could not have been smoother. I've been a little nervous since she really liked being with Will and Alison these past few months. And I'll admit that, even though I mentioned to Rick that we should take the umbrella stroller, I still forgot and the walk is 2 blocks father than she is used to. Luckily we were able to distract her with puppy dogs and a round of the ABCs.
Once we arrived at the daycare, Ada was ready to start her day and absorb all of the new experiences. We were there maybe five minutes, likely less, when she ran off to play and left us to do our thing. We had enough time to take off her coat, hang it up, sign her in, see her new classroom, and walk her into the morning gathering room. That's when she ran toward the other kids and Rick and I decided it was best to just let her play instead of doing a long drawn out goodbye. Then we left. On the sidewalk, I almost teared up, but then I reminded myself that I was just so darn happy that she seemed happy and this might work out after all. AHHH!
Then I walked to the corner and thought I was going to miss the bus that would take me to the el but as it turns out, the stop is about half a block from the corner and there was a long line of people waiting to board the bus. Yeah! A quick kiss to Rick and off on our separate ways we go.
I admit that I thought about her at 2 and hoped she was taking a nap and ate her lunch. And that was it. I really didn't worry about her because she is so outgoing that she really thrives in that environment. When I went to pick her up, she was in the back with the "leftover" kids as I call them -- they consolidate the rooms after 5pm once the parents start to pick them up and the numbers dwindle. I headed back to see her and got a glowing review from the staff. They were very impressed that she joined in the circle for story time and acted like she's been there all along. They noted how surprised they were that she knew how to say "No, no, no," and wag her finger when "the Dr. says, 'No more monkeys jumping on the bed!". And she participated during the itsy bitsy spider too. I wonder where she gets her extroverted nature? Couldn't possibly be from me...
And the biggest shocker was that they were able to get her hair up into a half ponytail. Amazing. She will barely let me touch her hair let alone put it up for her. I got it into a full ponytail this morning but she was not happy about it and let me know it.
So the day was a great success. Yippee!
The walk home on the other hand... let's just say it was slow going, she looked like she was drunk at times the way she staggered and stumbled (I think she's exhausted from having too much fun all day) and, I ended up having to carry her two blocks when I ran out of milestones for her to walk to (like dogs being walked up ahead, kitties in store windows, etc.). She gave up completely when the electronics store down the street had Finding Nemo playing on the plasma screen. Insta-zombie. And then she saw kids with balloons coming out of the playgroup next to our house and just lost it. Ba-loo, Ba-loo. We walked over to see the balloons but they were all tangled and the mom couldn't stop to give her one since it was cold out and she was trying to get her 2 and 4-year-olds to the car after a birthday party. I didn't blame her at all. And once we got inside, Ada was just fine -- after she ate her second full banana of the day that is. And you won't be shocked to know that I quickly popped in cartoons for her to unwind after a long day. She'll get used to it and then her days with me are going to be so boring.
Moral of the story: You just have to go with the flow of things. Try to make transitions as easy as possible. Talk to your child beforehand to let them know what's going on and hope for the best.
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