New stage

Well I recently got a new job! Yay!!! This means daycare for my son. Thankfully I know he'll be fine once the routine is established because I drop him off at the babysitting room at the gym and he does get used to it when I got regularly. 

I visited 5 daycares and chose Helping Hands because they are closest to my work and they use an app called Himama to update parents via email (or by app if you download it too). This means that I can look at how his day went at home when I'm more relaxed and not in a hurry to pick him up. 

This aside we did a few transitional visits last week to help my son get used to being in this new environment with these adults and toddlers. He was understandably clingy, even though one of our unofficial visits he pretty much ran off without so much as a goodbye (go figure). Our third official visit I left him there for an hour. I gave him to the assistant manager and he wasn't happy but he didn't cry either. He sort of new her as she had been there during every visit and allowed himself to be distracted by her. Turns out he didn't even ask for me and when I returned I felt more guilty that he couldn't eat lunch with everyone than I did about leaving him there to begin with. 

When I came back from my coffee date with my friend my son was sitting quietly on the carpet in the back of the group watching Frozen for the first time. He looked like he was behaving so well I couldn't help but feel pride and a tiny bit of sadness that he is truly growing up more quickly than I would like. Of course I want him to adjust well and succeed but I've always felt that my time with him at his most helpless and innocent was far too short. So while I am so very proud that he did so well, it does mean that he is starting to gain a little bit of independence and does not need me so much anymore. 

My Cheerios: my son can handle new situations in stride and is confident enough to not need me. 

Mother's Day

I want to start by saying my Mother's Day weekend was fantastic. I got my son to sleepcon his own and he regularly sleeps 5 or more hours at a time! We are working on getting him to sleep later than 4 or 5 am but it is such a relief that I can put him in his crib in his room awake and within 20 to 30 minutes he will be asleep.

Now on to the bittersweet reality of blogging and reading the stories of others. Yesterday and today I found and read a blog called Ben Sauer at blogspot. It chronicles the last days of a little boy's life as a brain tumor slowly speards. I won't go into too much detail as I feel anyone interested should read the original blog. It is very beautifully and simply written.

I started to cry as I read it. You can find it here:
http://bensauer.blogspot.ca/p/how-you-can-help.html

It's a reminder to me that nothing is for sure and that it's important to spend our time wisely. My house may not be spotless (or anywhere close to it), but it's important to me to spend time outside with my son, or in the bathtub with him. My priorities are family and my son's happiness so the dishes and sticky floors can be dealt with later.

I pray every night that my son will have a long fulfilling life but I know there's no guarantee. So I try to spend the time I have making him laugh, teaching him new words (in sign language because my husband is way better at teaching verbal language). I'm looking forward to teaching him right from wrong, howcto treat a woman, and what's really important in life.

So I want to say that I love being a mom and know that this is definitely what I was meant to do. To all the moms out there, you rock and I hope you know it!

Toddler Whisperer?

Good Morning!!!

It's sunny out and not horribly cold. We went out for breakfast this morning then drove north a bit to check out Claremont. Our builder might be building there next and we will be needing a bigger home when we decide to have another baby so we thought we would take a look at the next area to see how far it is from the GO Station and how big the place is. It's pretty much a small town, which I love except we didn't see a grocery store so, depending on where the new development gets built, it could still mean a drive to get groceries, but I really liked the area anyway.

I say "Toddler Whisperer" because in January I was on the phone talking to my husband when my son demanded to be given the phone (not in actual verbal communication, but in cute baby sounds). He gave him the phone and for the first time ever, my son talked to someone on the phone! ME!!! He'll talk on the phone when no one else is on the other end, and still I'm the only person he'll talk to. It was the same with my nephew when he about 2.5 years old. I was the first person he would babble to on the phone.

Since I'm the only person they talk to currently I'm calling myself the toddler whisperer. One day I was talking to my dad on the phone and my son insisted on playing with one of the cordless receivers so I took the other one and we both listened to him squeal and babble for most of our conversation. Super cute!

Anyway it made me feel special since at the time my son still seemed to prefer to hang out with Daddy when he can.

Snuggles at Bedtime

My son is almost 20 months old (wow! he's growing up fast!). Most of the time when I put him to bed now we brush our teeth, I read him a story, and he nurses while I read and sing songs. I let him nurse to sleep then put him in the crib and hope he'll sleep for at least three hours (not a great sleeper). The other night he was a little too wound up to nurse to sleep and kept trying to call for Daddy to come and play with him. I tried to get him to nurse twice (which he did) but he didn't fall asleep so I sat him up and rocked him on my shoulder.

He protested because it wasn't what he wanted, but he didn't protest a lot and then fell asleep. It's nice to have snuggles and not always be nursing.

For those that may be confused I started writing this post in February then got busy and sick and am just now able to finish it and publish it.

Big Boy vs Momma's Baby

My baby's growing up!!!! He's almost 1.5 years old and while there have been times when I have been painfully aware of every minute of it, I'm still so surprised that some much time has gone by. His hair is getting long now.... my husband wants to keep it longish (he calls it the model look) haha. We got the back trimmed at a bit because it was getting so tangled (split ends from his frolicking in his dreams).

Anyway... he's starting to understand a lot. My husband is teaching him hot and stinky (in Cantonese) and a few other words and he's starting to remember the body language that goes with them. He doesn't talk yet but I'm sure when he starts it will be non stop.

So while he's growing up and learning more everyday, my son is still my baby. He'll probably always be my baby, but for now I can't stop thinking of him as my baby. He snuggles with me in the mornings now.... and I LOVE IT. I get more morning snuggles than Daddy does (the only thing I get more of than him... sigh). I hope I get morning snuggles for years to come... they make everything else worth it (and make him my baby).

So Big Boy vs. Momma's Baby.... I guess he's a bit of both but right now he's more my baby than my big boy.

Cheerio: my almost big boy is still my baby, full of free snuggles!
The Honey: that he wants to snuggle with me a little more than Daddy in the mornings

Free Self-Expression

Some musings can be done in the morning, some musings must be done throughout the day over several weeks.... I love children!

The wee little ones that don't understand public opinion and embarrassment. The ones at that age where they are starting to express themselves and learn new skills but don't understand the concept of "what others think"; something quite frankly I wish didn't come into play nearly so often for us adults either. It's fun to watch them, though, and live a little through them. You can't help but smile (maybe watching children should be considered a type of therapy, like dog visits in the hospital).

My little guy is starting to dance and did some singing into a play microphone but stopped that. I'm trying to encourage him to do it again but he seems reluctant. Oh well, I will dance with him and dance for him for as long as he is willing to dance and be entertained. I wish I could take his first years (2-3 of them) and film them in 3D and relive them whenever I wanted. I guess technology isn't there yet, but I'm sure it will be someday. I guess this just forces us to try to live in the moment, be present, and engage with the kids. I have to get all the hugs and kisses I can before he decides he's too old for this much affection. (That will be a sad day!).

But oh the joy of not knowing enough to care about how we look to others! Working in the child minding room at my gym gives me the opportunity to act silly and not feel too conspicuous, but still, to be blissfully ignorant of such social pressures would be wonderful! I suppose brave people are like this too to a certain degree. Leaders must be like this too, as they must lead by example and take those first steps before the crowd follows.

I guess my challenge to myself should be to be silly more often. I find that I can be sillier now that I have a son (society does seem to allow you to be for kids entertainment). But I want to be braver more often. I want to face the possibility of ridicule and social push-back and just go for it, whatever it may be. I'm not sure if I'll ever be as brave as I want to be, but I think I can be braver than I am. That's a good place to start.

Cheerio of the Day: be brave and silly like a toddler! It's more fun than being reserved and afraid.

Rapidly Developing Itelligence

Babies are smart aren't they? I mean the first 6 months doesn't reflect what's happening unless your baby was crawling or doing things but once they start tey just learn faster and faster.... I think my Son may already have a better memory than me.

I also joked with my mom the other day that I won't be able to help him with homework beyond grade four... She joked that I might not even get that far. Scary....

Not only does he figure things out, but he understands a lot of instructions. We are teaching him English and Cantonese and he understands in both languages. He hasn't said a lot if words yet (or signed them which is frustrating) but he really does understand. 

I love watching him play. He loves kitchen stuff- so I'm looking forward to his helping me to cook and bake- he also is really good at focusing on things (like my phone). I hope this continues as he gets older because we can do crafts and I can use his focused attention to really teach him things; at least untils he surpasses me in grade four. Ha!

My cheerio: the wonder of children and trying to figure them out while they figure out the world.