On The Daycare Front

As you know from previous posts, little man is in daycare officially four to five days a week.

And as I've mentioned it's been hard for both of us. After a couple of weeks of dropping him off every morning and feeling miserable when I leave because he just doesn't want me to go ("mama, stay with me?"), I had a realization one morning that perhaps my tactics weren't good. Here is what I started out doing:

For the first few days, I would take him into his classroom, get him settled, find him toys to play with, engage him with the other kiddos and then when he wasn't looking, I would sneak off quiet as a ninja and out the door. One morning after doing this, I decided to look through the one-way window and see how he reacted.

And my heart broke.

I saw him looking around, walking around, looking for me. And then I saw tears well up in his big blue eyes as he continued looking around for me. What a jerk. How could I leave my child feeling like that?  I could only imagine what was going through his mind. I couldn't take it. I had to walk out right then and there and my eyes flooded with tears on my way to the car.

I decided that the next morning, I would try another tactic. Hopefully one that wouldn't leave him feeling abandoned. Gah, abandoned is such a harsh word. Do you think he felt that way?

So the next day, I happened to drop him off right around breakfast and was hopeful this would be a good distraction. I got him settled around the table with the other kiddos and waited until they handed out his plate of food. I told him I had to go to work, that I wanted him to have the best day and that daddy would be there to pick him up later in his big truck (he has this obsession with Nick's truck, I think because it has a DVD player and daddy lets him watch Mickey whenever they go anywhere...but, I digress).

He said, "mama, no! Mama, stay with me" and climbed up into my lap and wrapped his arms around my neck with turbo strength. After prying his arms off and getting him settled back in his chair, I tried my hardest to talk him through his day and how much fun he would have. Once I stood up, he tried again to get me to stay and I continued to talk him through what they were going to do that day. It ended up, he stayed in his chair and ate and as I walked out, he turned in his chair and his eyes followed me all the way to the door, but then he turned back to his pancakes and that was that.

This new method seems to be working better and I feel better about it, so we will see.

..............

On a happier, more positive note (thank God, I'm sure you're all thinking...) we have officially introduced peanut butter into little man's diet. And I couldn't be more excited. No more sneaking spoonfuls of peanut butter and hiding it from him so he doesn't ask for some...wait, who does that? Oh yeah, I do.

And yes, he's sitting on the counter, in his diaper, owning that jar of peanut butter. Isn't that how everyone does it?? I love how he just gets after it and shoveled fist after fist right into his mouth. Some people say he looks like his daddy, but it was in this moment with the peanut butter dripping off his fingers and covering his face, that he resembled his mama...

Take a look at him lovin' up on some PB&J. Yum.

Who Is Going To Watch My Kid?

You all may remember that back in December/January we were on a full-on nanny search.  After interviews and meetings with plenty, we finally found 'the one' (here).

We have been absolutely spoiled with nanny J. I feel it was meant to be when she contacted us through our care.com profile page and I know I loved her bubbly personality from the moment we met her.

What we loved most about her interview:

• Previous nanny experience, both in Omaha and in her home state of Arkansas.
• Friendly, easy to talk to, great personality. 
• Twenty years old (so none of the bar scene nonsense to cloud her pretty little head). 
• Prior day care experience. 
• Seemed to have her head on her shouldlers at the ripe young age of 20. 
• Going to school for early childhood education. Mmm, hello? Can you say perfect?

What we have loved about our experience with her:

• Convenience. I can't tell you how nice it's been being able to let Little Man sleep in most mornings, while I'm out the door for work. 
• Time saver. No need for me to have to wake up extra early knowing I have to feed, change and get Cruz ready for the day and drag him out into the cold or heat.
• One-on-one time. We haven't had to worry about our guy getting looked over in a room full of other kids. J has had time to really work with him on everything from walking, to talking, to colors, numbers, spelling/saying his name and most recently potty training. It's usually us who have to make sure we work with him on what she has taught him, so he doesn't forget. 
• And we haven't had to sacrifice interaction with other kids. J meets up with other nannies all over town and Cruz loves playing with other kiddos, so we have the social aspect as well.
• Well-rounded. He has been to more places in this city than I have. They go to baby gym, parks, swimming pools, museums (lord knows he wouldn't be getting this from us!), toddler times, libraries, you name it. I oftentimes find myself extremely jealous of my son's extra curricular activities...
• Flexibility. She has been more than willing to change up the days of the week she works depending on my schedule and staying late if something comes up at work. Plus, she has babysat for us on random weekend nights when needed. 

But...she's leaving us.

I know I make it sound a bit dramatic, but the truth is I am dramatic. I don't want her to leave. I want everything to continue as is. And I definitely don't want to be thrown back into searching for childcare yet again.

Why, oh why does she need to change her major and have to go to class during the day starting in September?

So now the big question is nanny or daycare.

We have absolutely loved our experience with having a nanny, but on the flip side would it be good for Cruz to get back into a group experience that a daycare can offer? Is the convenience of having a nanny come to our home and care for our son where he is comfortable outweigh the major cost difference? I mean girlfriend isn't cheap...I'm talking more than our mortgage not cheap. But it is the care of our kid we are talking about.

At this point I'm not exactly sure what we are going to do. We have appointments to check out a couple daycares in the area, one very much not in the area but the price is right and a couple of interviews with nannies.

I suppose only time will tell on this one.

Love Our Daycare

Our daycare does way cute crafts with the kiddo and send 2-4 projects home each week. This little darling was hanging up on the wall in the little infant room for a good month...so you can imagine my excitement when it was in little man's cubby to take home the other day. My absolute favorite ever....isn't he the cutest little cowboy in the world?? Our Cowboy Cruz.

Stick 'em up!

This Morning..

This morning while I was dropping little man off at daycare, I witnessed one of the older infants pushing him around, pulling him back by his shirt and not letting up. I'm pretty sure I had a moment of over-protective mama (like a mama bear with her cubs) and it took all I had not to walk over and take his hands off my little guy.

I stood watching it for a while. Cruz was playing with some blocks and this bigger infant (yes, mind you, we are in the older INFANT room) kept pulling on his shirt - pulling him back, pushing him forward and making little man even more unbalanced than he already is, close to toppling over.

I realize now it wasn't a big deal and the other kiddo didn't know what he was doing, but it gets me thinking of how I'm going to react when Cruz comes home from school and tells me another kid was mean to him, called him names, pushed him, you name it. Let me just tell you, it won't go well. I've already experienced moments of extreme sadness (& slight anger) when my sister told me about times her son, Kayden, had been made fun of for a stocking hat he wore to school and came home crying about it because they were so mean - I wanted to find that little kid and teach him some manners. Or the time her daughter, Dayvaney, was basically unconsoleable because her best friend at school told her she didn't want to be her friend anymore. Or worse yet, the time the principal at Kayden's school called him out in front of the rest of the kids in his class and told him he couldn't wear his hair that way (and didn't have the common sense to tell his parents instead) - dude, he was six, its not like he does his own hair. And THEN when Kayden had the sense to talk it through with Tessa and come up with what he thought was a solution and shared it with the principal, he was told "No, that won't work. That's not a good idea." and it made him even more upset.

Situations like this, while small, definitely get me thinking about all of the stuff we're going to have to deal with. What is the best way to handle these situations? How would parents react to being confronted with this about their child? How do I ensure I'm instilling good manners into our little guy so he doesn't turn out to be one of the bad guys? What if....what if...what if...

Primrose Prom

Last Friday, little man has his very first prom at day care. Prior to I was wondering what I was going to have him wear because they mentioned we should dress them up. I figured I could find a cute little tuxedo t-shirt online or something fun. Instead, on Monday one of the other moms mentioned that she was going to buy a couple white onesies and make something for all the little guys in the room. I figured it would be a simple tie drawn on a onesie or something like that....but to my surprise she made a masterpiece...

She had taken a fabric marker and drawn in the look of tuxedo lapels and a tuxedo shirt, as well as a little bowtie which she made different colors for all seven boys in the room. To top it off she added a fabric flower on the front and then stamped "xoxo" on the little booty of the shirt. How cute!

So on Friday, we got little man dressed up in his prom best and took a few photos at home {we absolutely needed a memory of his first prom!}. I dropped him off at day care where they took a photo of little man and I in front of the prom back-drop. This was one of the days where I would miss a midday day care event for our guy because at 10am they invited all parents back to come for music, punch and cookies and lots of dancing with the kiddos. I had to be happy with the fact that most other parents could make it so Cruzer had many teachers in day care to focus their attention on him while we were at work.

When I came back at the end of the day to pick him up, he was still in full gear {no spit up issues!} and as we left they handed each of the parents a bouquet of flowers....I just love this school!

Big eyes!

Staring at daddy

Laughing at daddy's funny faces



"Would you like to dance with me?"