September 1, 2011

This has been a tough week for the Campbell family - and while the kiddo has been a trooper, it's definitely thrown him off his game a little bit.

A few new developments for Gage this week:

- I found two new TOP molars tonight - that makes 12 teeth total.

- He no longer wants to eat in the highchair, he wants to eat like a big boy on his own.

- He started daycare this week. It's going to be 2 days a week and he did his second day today.

- He has started to basically put himself to bed, coming up to Jason with his binky in his mouth and one of his stuffed animals when he's ready for a nap.

First things first: daycare! Because of the way the schedule works out, Jason took Gage up there both days to drop him off in the mornings. I packed his lunches the night before and we decided that if I took off to meet them there it may make things harder, so he was the strong one and did the drop offs. There were some hiccups the first morning, but not really with Gage. It was more about some confusion about what kids were supposed to be in what classrooms. According to Jason, Gage was ready to get in the mix as soon as they got there. No tears when he left - little man jumped right in and made new friends. I called to check on him around 11a and the director was blown away at how great he was doing. She said he was laughing and smiling, he had a great time. When I got home I could tell he was REALLY tired and a little fussy, but after his bath it was like a little re-set and he was good. We were nervous that since he would have a little more awareness today that he might cry on Day 2. Nope. Another quick dropoff and he jumped right in again. I decided to leave work early and do the pickup today because I wanted to see him interacting with everyone and see how it was going. When I got there he was throwing balls around with 2 other kiddos and having a great time. I opened the door and when he saw me he gave me a great smile and came running to me. We hung out at the house, he had a snack and a late nap. It was more tough for Jason since he's with him all day, but I was surprised at how comfortable I was. I did call to check on him, but I did not fret about it at all - I just knew he would have a good time. So going forward he'll be at daycare on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ok - the highchair thing: the last few days Gage has been crazy fussy in the highchair. I know he's hungry, but after a few bites he'll throw a fit and not take any more bites. I know he gets to sit in his own chair for lunch at daycare and I usually don't have a hard time feeding him if he's wandering around on his own, so tonight I took him out and sat him in one of the dining room chairs. He sat back, totally relaxed and ate the rest of his dinner - such a big boy. We'll need to get something to help secure him in those chairs - they don't have a solid back OR arms - but I think we are moving out of the highchair. He likes to be independent and sit on his own, and he likes to feed himself when it's possible - finger foods, etc. I need to start letting him work with the spoon himself as well, but I'm not ready for him to be that grown up!!

The "putting himself to bed" thing is actually pretty funny. Jason called me a couple of times last week and was like - uh, the kid is coming to me and basically telling me when he's ready for nap. He'll go put his binky in his mouth and then either bring his singing cow or singing elephant to him and that's the cue. He gives you the big blinking doe eyes and all you gotta do is take him into his room. It's been pretty similar at night as well - he was even getting to where he wanted J to put him to bed for the night, which was new. Such a cute little dude.

Molars? Self explanatory.

It's been a big week in the life of Gage. I'm looking forward to the 3 day weekend so we can spend a little extra time together. We're going to find us something fun to do this weekend!