Potty and Potty Talk

Having the kids back in daycare is both good and bad. 

    Good: Sammy has become remotivated by peer pressure to start using the potty again.  He'd been relapsing the past few weeks but is back in underwear full-time, after only 3 days back in daycare. 

    Bad: He's now napping again (how they get him to nap, I have no clue but they should really sell their method) which means he's up until 9 or 10 at night. 

    Good: Sammy's excited to see his friends again, and it's fun hearing his tales about daycare and his friends.

    Bad:  Said friends seem to be teaching him some naughty things.  Case in point:  Last night, he pointed to his rear and said, "This is my frickin' butt".  Okay, here I have to admit my bad mom moment: I burst out laughing before I caught myself.  Then I found my composure and told him that wasn't a very nice thing to say.  That apparently didn't make much of an impression (or was cancelled out by my earlier laughter), because a few hours later the kids were playing in their room and Natalie came out crying.  Sammy was following behind her and I demanded to know what had happened.  "She pushed me," Sammy tattled.  "Why is she crying?" I insisted, expecting to hear that he'd pushed her in retaliation.  But, no.  "Because I called her a frickin' butt," he said with a grin on his face.  

Sigh.

The Weekend Update

Today was the kids' first day back at daycare, after a two-month hiatus.  I knew Sammy would be  ecstatic to be back.  The entire time he was home with Dad, he would randomly mention how much he missed his daycare friends, and ever since we've told him he was going back he's been chattering about all the things he needed to tell his teacher about, including: Johnny the hamster, potty-training, Chuck E. Cheese visits, and various Lego masterpieces.  Natalie, on the other hand - I wasn't sure what to expect from her.  She had just moved into the toddler room a week or two before their daycare break, so it was still pretty new to her.  She also inherited my introverted personality and is happy to hang out at home.  So I was surprised when 1) Ron told me she didn't even look back at him when he dropped her off, and 2) her teacher told me that she had a great day and seemed really happy to be back.  

In other news, with the recent warm weather we dug our bikes out of storage last week but we haven't yet dusted off the bike trailer.  Ron's bike has a child seat on the back, but that means we can only take one child riding at a time.  Sammy likes bike rides, but Natalie looooves anything to do with the outdoors, and bike riding now is #1 on her list of favorite pasttimes.  All weekend long she drug her bike helmet around, pleading for just one more bike ride.  On Saturday, Ron rode his bike to the gas station for a Sunday paper, and Natalie got to ride with.  It's about 2 miles (one way) to the nearest gas station, but Ron reported that she just happily sat in her seat, enjoying the breeze on her face, and didn't make a peep.  He was so proud of how good she was that he bought her a lollipop at the gas station.  When they came home, Natalie came waltzing in the door, looking blissed out and still sucking on her lollipop.  Sammy's gaze instantly focused on the lollipop and he made a beeline for her.  "What do you have, Natalie?  Can I see?"  When she didn't answer, he persisted, "Do you have a lollipop?  Can I have a taste?" and he crouched down to get a better look.  I finally took pity on him and got him a lollipop of his own from my secret stash.

Ron's first day at his new job was yesterday, so the kids and I spent the day by ourselves.  I had a huge amount of projects to do this weekend, both indoor and out, and I was amazed at how well the kids played and let me get my work done.  Of course, it helped that all the outdoor toys are now new and exciting again.  We got the plastic off the windows (which involves touching up the paint on the trim, since the peel & seel adhesive always manages to peel off some of the paint as well), cleaned out the basement, rearranged some furniture, ran some errands, and cleaned out my potting shed.  By the end of the day, the garbage can was full to overflowing and my back was aching.  But there's nothing quite like the satisfaction you get from a hard day's work and a lot to show for it.

To end this post with one more bit of randomness, right now I am remembering the one good thing about winter: no thunderstorms.  Right now, we are enduring the first thunderstorm of the season and, as usual, it scares the you-know-what out of me.  At least there's one fewer tree to fall on the house now, should a bolt of lightning strike.

Changes

Friday was a rough day. It was the last day of work for my coworkers who were laid off, and it was the last day of daycare for my kids (for awhile).

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but Ron lost his temp job back in November. It was supposed to be a long-term assignment, and turned out only to be 6 weeks. Whoopty-doo. Ever since, he's been looking around and not finding anything. After talking with the awesome director/owner of our daycare center, we found out that we could pay an $80 holding spot to take our kids out of daycare for two months. No-brainer there, since we can easily use that $190 a week on something else right now...like food or electricity. So, today is Ron's first day home alone with the kids.

It was really, really hard taking the kids out of daycare, even though I know they'll probably be back within a couple of months. Sammy was sad to leave all of his friends, although I don't think Natalie will care as much - she just transferred to the toddler room, so hasn't had much chance to make friends there yet. Sammy had been doing so good with potty-training, in no small part thank to daycare and the peer pressure of his already-trained and nearly-trained friends there. And he was learning so much - like the day of the inauguration, when he came home and announced that we had a new president, and his name was Barackan Obama (sic). Or Friday, when he told us that there was only one day left of January, and then it was February. Not that I can't teach him these things myself - and I think I do teach him a lot - but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the president conversation with him yet. I guess I wouldn't have thought he'd be old enough to understand or care.

So, allow me this moment of self-pity. I'm not good with change, and to have so much of it in one day is overwhelming.

Fundraisers

A few years ago, I was in college. Okay, maybe it was more like ten years ago. That's not the point. Anyway, I was having a quick lunch in-between classes at a fast-food restaurant near campus, when I was approached by a young child selling fundraiser candy bars. You know, the kind in the special wrapper that the kids sell for $1 to raise money for band or whatever. I pulled out my purse to buy a couple as he was explaining what they were for. When he came to the part about, "my mom has a new baby" and gestured toward his mother and siblings at a nearby table, I realized this wasn't a school fundraiser. It threw me for a loop, and although I did still buy a couple of candy bars, it seemed strange. I suppose it's not a lot different from panhandling, although in this case you actually get something for your money. But still, not something you see every day. (Although, just now I remembered going to Mexico and the children were selling packets of "chicle" on the street to raise money for their families. So I'll amend that to say, "not something you see every day in this country".)

Fast-forward to a couple of years ago, when Sammy started daycare. He goes to a local independent daycare center, whose owner I know quite well by now. She works at the center all day, substituting for teachers, helping out with snack time and recess time, and doing all the things that need to be done to run a business. I like her and the center quite a lot. But I was shocked the first time that Sammy came home with a fundraiser booklet. Not only that, but a suggestion from the owner/director that each family sell $200 worth of stuff. Uh, no - I am not going door to door, or putting up an order form at work, to raise funds for my children's daycare. Public schools need to do fundraisers, I understand that. They're vastly underfunded and teachers often have to purchase their own supplies. I get that, and I'm perfectly okay for buying things to support our public school system. But I already pay a lot - a LOT - of money for my private daycare, and I'm supposed to ask people to help defray my costs by buying some wrapping paper? Honestly, I'd rather just pay an extra $10 or $20 a week, if that's what it takes for the daycare to pay their bills.

From talking to other people, I've discovered this is a fairly common practice these days, but it feels horribly tacky to me. I'm not sure why, because Tupperware/Pampered Chef/etc. parties are basically fundraisers for personal profit, but that feels different to me, somehow.

Natalie's first day of school

I forgot to mention, Natalie started daycare yesterday. I've been back at work for a little over a month, but Ron stayed home with her during December. Besides the fact that it saved us $400 in tuition, it was nice to keep her healthy for that extra winter month. I'm expecting her to come home with her first daycare-acquired illness by the end of the week.

The teachers tell me she had a great day. I knew she would, because she is such a happy and easygoing baby. Apparently she was a big hit with all the teachers & staff. :-)

I could tell she was very excited by all the activity there - she only took a half-hour nap the entire 4 hours she was there, and then only took one more brief nap at home later. She didn't stop talking all afternoon! I guess she just wanted to fill us all in on her exciting day at school.