Baby jackpot

When we decided to send Fay to nursery school, I searched and searched online to see if I could find a back up blanket for Fay. She likes to sleep with her blanket, so I wanted an extra one to send to school for naps. One that I would not have to take home each evening for nighttime sleep.

I couldn't find a new one, so I luckily found a used one on ebay, which was in better condition than Fay's well loved blanket.

Yesterday I brought the blanket to school and at the end of the day Fay was very concerned that I was not taking the blanket home with us. And by concerned I mean she was crying and had a look on her face like her best friend had died (or was taken prisoner by an evil school).

So we brought it home and I forgot that blanket number 1 was already at home, lying around in plain site.

Once Fay discovered there are two blankets, she ran to show me and had a look on her face like "Can you believe my luck?" or "Can you believe it multiplied?" It was total excitement and disbelief. I don't think I've even seen disbelief on a toddler, certainly not on Fay.

This morning, she woke with both blankets in her arms and was just as tickled.

to be a two year old

This morning I gave fay a little tupperware bowl of yogurt. There wasn't very much left and she'd had breakfast earlier, so I just let her hold on to it while she wandered around. She was eating it with one of her toddler sporks. The next thing I knew, she was in her bedroom sitting on the floor with an almost empty bowl of yogurt. She had her toes digging around in the bowl and then proceeded to suck her toes of the remaining yogurt. She was a little monkey, eating with her toes.

Second week of school....sick!

As I expected and dreaded, as soon as Fay entered school she got sick. I don't even blame the kids as school for giving her the cold. I think she got it from the neighborhood kids. What I was dreading was changing our whole child care routine and then not being able to send Fay to school because they don't want your sick kid infecting others. Not to mention, that Fay will get well much quicker if she is at home sleeping it off.

Luckily, our ex-babysitter Deb was available to come yesterday in a pinch. So I was able to go to work as normal. But I don't know who I will call in future months when Deb is working on her new job. My guess is that I will have to take a day off work.

I guess I will deal with that when the day comes. For now, I was really happy I was able to keep Fay at home and still go to work. She ended up sleeping almost 4 hours for her nap. And today she is looking much better.

Second day of school

I feel small sense of relief about Fay's continuing school adventure. Today was her 2nd day of school and I think it went *much* better than the first.

I was afraid Fay would protest leaving the house to go to school this morning, or that she would get upset when we entered school. She was fine the whole way, and I told her where we were going. I am trying to emphasize the word school, so she knows what is going on.

Once we got to the classroom, Fay wanted me to come in with her; she didn't want to be dropped at the door like a UPS package. I coaxed her inside and left rather quickly, and Fay cried in protest.

I picked her up 4 hours later at 12:30, and she seemed to be in good spirits. She looked a little confused when I peeked a look at her before she noticed me. So I think she is definitely still figuring out what this new school thing is all about. There are so many things to watch and learn from, not the least of which are her 11 classmates.

Her teacher said that she didn't eat the school food. She took a couple bites of rice, but not much. She ate a 1/4 of the sandwich I left for her at school.

I asked the teacher if she had enjoyed any part of her day. Her teacher said "oh yes! she enjoyed circle time and in fact she participated a lot. She was the one who liked to jump around when we were jumping". The teacher told me that she was really good during each segment of the day. She liked library time. But, she is still a little off during "transitions". I think she gets a little nervous and disoriented as they move from one activity to the next. Thankfully, I think that will be fixed with time and repetition.

The nice thing is that I *think* Fay is enjoying school. I've asked her if she likes school and she always says yes. But she answers "yeah" to many questions, so I'm not sure when she is really listening or understanding. When I picked her up today, she wanted mommy to come into the classroom instead of asking for Fay to come out. So that tells me that she enjoys it but she just wishes her mommy could be there with her. I hope I'm reading that right.

First day of school

Yesterday was Fay's first day of nursery school. She went for a 1/2 day, from 8:30 to 12:30 so that she can begin to get used to the new environment and teachers.

It was a pretty emotional day. And it was about as difficult as I expected. I think. I'm not really sure what I expected, but I was dreading the day.

I was able to spend about 15 minutes in the classroom with Fay when I dropped her off so she could get used to the room and feel comfortable. She really did seem comfortable almost immediately. She was checking out the toys and books, and she found a nice little chair to sit in. But when it was time for me to leave, she didn't want me to. She cried, and asked to get picked up. And when I finally headed for the door she moved so quickly and silently behind me...I didn't even know she was there when she tried to step out of the gate directly behind me. I think she thought she may go unnoticed if she was quiet enough. It was pretty cute.

I was ok, with the crying when I left. I expected that. The hard part was when I picked her up, I saw her before she saw me. She had a look of confusion and maybe unhappiness, and when she saw me she burst out with "mommy!". As in...."Mommy, thank God you're here!"

The teacher said that she only cried when I left and at lunch. She did not like the food they served her and threw a little tantrum. She went over to the bookshelf and started throwing books off. The teacher asked me "Does she do this at home?". "NO!, she might throw down a toy she has in her hands if she's mad, but she doesn't seek out things to destroy". I told the teacher I thought she must have been *really* *really* mad.

And I asked the teacher if Fay played with the other kids. She said no, mostly she was clinging to the teacher.

It was the first day, so I'm not going to put too much emphasis on it as far as evaluating if Fay likes the school. The reason we have her there is because we really think she would like being in a stimulating, playful environment all day with other kids. So I hope she starts to interact with the other kids, but I know it will take a little time.

And I brought a lunch for her today, so that if she was starving and mad yesterday, at least we can eliminate the starving part.

A post about Fay's words

New words....

Elmo (clear as day)
eece (Maurice)
ry ry (Orion)
Deeee-ah (Dia)
bee (bumble bee)
[rotating arms] (I want to watch signing time)
[Put hands together and push out and in] (I want to go on swing)
Ah mee (Mommy)
Daddy (Daddy) -- She switched from Mama and Dada

This past weekend I asked if she wanted Blueberries or Raspberries, she answered "as berry"

My fav ABCs

This is one of my favorite sketches on Sesame Street. And definitely my favorite version of the ABC song....

Tilly and the Wall sing ABCs

pre-school

We have decided to change our child care arrangements for Fay. For 2 years now she has had either a nanny at her home or her mommy to take care of her. But as of Sept 14, Fay will be going to pre-school for 3 days a week.

I hadn't anticipated doing this quite so soon, but we found a fantastic school/day care, and the timing is right for a lot of reasons.

Last winter a lot of my neighborhood friends were touring and applying for various pre-school programs. I was a little late to the party because Fay doesn't turn 2 until mid-Fall, and many of these programs have Sept 1 cutoffs. Some of them allow you to start late, on the birthday, but still charge you for the entire season. But, about one month after applications were due, I started noticing changes in Fay and really wanted her to attend one of these programs. She seems ready for that social environment. Since I was so late in applying, Fay was put on several waiting lists.

I think this turned out to be a good thing, because it would have been easy for me to send Fay to one of these pre-schools with all of her neighborhood friends. Instead we started looking at other options.

There is a school in our neighborhood, but further into Chinatown, that is bilingual. They do 2/3 of the day in English and an afternoon segment in Mandarin. They have two teachers in each classroom: one that speaks English and one that speaks Mandarin. They have a high percentage of Chinese children. I'd guess its about 80%.

I spoke to a woman in my neighborhood who sends both of her kids to the bilingual school, and she *loves* it. She couldn't say enough good things about it. So, last week, Ryan and I took a tour of the school and were very impressed. The classrooms were very large -- much larger than the other schools I'd seen. The teachers were all excited to talk to Fay. They paid more attention to her than to her parents which I always see as a good sign. There were a couple of specific concerns I had which were laid to rest:

Q) Would Fay receive one on one attention when she was upset or scared, or just transitioning into this new environment?
A) I saw a 2 year old girl crying her eyes out at two points during the tour (same girl!). The administrator told me that this girl has probably only ever been with her parents at home, and is having a tough time with the transition. Then, one of the classroom teachers scooped her up and cuddled her and removed her from the group for a few minutes. I was so happy to see how gently they were dealing with this girl's crisis.

Q) Can we start off slowly so Fay can adjust to the new school?
A) During the first week we will do 1/2 days, progressively moving up to a full day at school. So, I will pick up Fay after 4 hours, then after 6 (after nap), then after a full day.

A couple other facts that convinced us this was the school for Fay have to do with more adult concerns. They are much less expensive than the other options. And they serve 3 meals a day (the other schools have you send food with your child). We are actually paying for 5 days a week but will only be sending Fay for 3. This is nice for flexibility. If for some reason I need to work different days, I can change Fay's pre-school schedule easily.

Before taking the tour, I thought we might wait until January to enroll Fay in a program. But we realized that many of the children are meeting each other for the first time and going through the separation process together, and it would be best to get Fay in to meet her new friends as soon as possible.

So, we gave notice to our nanny last week. And now I'm freaking out because my baby is growing up. I'm anxious that she is becoming more independent and will go through a major life change without me. And I'm anxious that this is the end of my baby years with Fay. I hope she still will still want some mama cuddles, even after she is a big girl at pre-school.