Day #2

Drop off didn't go any better today. He clung to me and cried as I was saying goodbye but I didn't cry today!

I called around 11:20 and spoke with the teacher. She said he's still just kind of watching but he was sitting in the cubby area eating by himself. At least he wasn't waiting right by the door today but it kills me that he would rather sit and eat alone than join the rest of the kids. Allie was right in the middle of her nap so I told the teacher that I would leave him through quiet time and be there right after 2:00 to get him. I also told her that if he freaks out and becomes disruptive (like he does at nap time here at home) to call me and I would just wake Allie to go get him.

I didn't get any phone calls so Allie and I left the house around 2:00 to go pick him up and take him for a golf cart ride at Wild Wing. When we got there he was sitting in the chair by the door again and burst out into tears when he saw me. But Miss Mary said he had just woken up! I was shocked! She said he cried at first when she put him on  his cot but she sat beside him and patted his back and he passed out and slept for TWO WHOLE HOURS! He hasn't taken a nap longer than 45 minutes since the binky went away. I say I'm shocked but in a way it kind of makes sense. He was up for the day at 5:00 AM.... yeah, another lovely side effect of not having his binky!

He wasn't saying "lost mommy" today. Instead he said "JD want mommy. Started crying." Still pitiful but I consider today a minuscule improvement over yesterday. Maybe next week he'll play a little, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm thinking it's going to take a few weeks for him to get used to this.

JD's first day of school

All weekend long I've been telling JD all about school. How he's going to have fun playing with friends and singing songs. The time came this morning to dress him up and ship him out.

We left the house at 8:00 AM. When we got there he practically climbed up my legs. He finally let me put him down to take off his backpack and jacket. Then he busied himself with the nearby play kitchen while I talked to the teacher. When it came time for me to say goodbye, though, he got super clingy and started crying. I had to peel him off of me. I kind of expected that, though.

As I walked down the hall I could hear him screaming "mommy!" Lucky me got to stand at the front desk for a while and listen to him as I waited to give the receptionist JD's immunization records. JD even tried to run out of his classroom once. I quickly jumped behind a door frame so he wouldn't see me! Yes, I cried, but just a tiny bit. I've been told my all of my mom friends that this, too, is normal.

Luckily he stopped screaming as I was paying for this week and I've was able to resist the urge to call every half hour. I did call around 11:15 to see how he was doing and whether the teacher thought I should leave him for nap time or pick him up. I could hear him crying in the background. Miss Mary said he spent the entire day sitting in the chair by the door just watching....So Allie and I went to get him. When we got there he was sitting in the chair by the door eating a hot dog and clutching his lion. When he saw me he burst into tears and started saying "go home!" He got his jacket and backpack and on the way out told the administrative assistant that he would be back tomorrow. She told me that he gave her a big smile earlier in the day so at least he had a little bit of non-crying time....In the car on the way home he kept saying "lost mommy". It was heartbreaking! But, we'll do it all over again tomorrow.

It turns out that tomorrow is picture day. I hope he doesn't have puffy red eyes and a snotty nose. Even if he does, how can I not purchase his very first school pictures?!?

Another Busy Weekend....

Friday was pure hell. To the point that I really, really wanted to give JD one of Allie's binkies so that he would calm down and take a nap. But the thought of going through this all over again stopped me. After I finally got him to bed Dave and I decided we would spend the night at my parents' house on Saturday night just so we would have extra help distracting JD so he would stop picking on poor Allie!

So Saturday morning I packed a bag and headed down to Pawleys. JD was a pretty good boy even though he refused to take a nap. We couldn't play outside because of the thousands and thousands of mosquitoes (seriously, there were seriously thousands), but we brought his race cars and tracks down and he had fun inside and on the screened porch. I put both kids to bed at 6:30 PM. A little early but both were ready. Since they went down early, Dave and I decided to go out to dinner. When we got home I noticed a light on upstairs and knew that wasn't a good sign. As we reached the front porch my dad came out and said "shhhhhhh". JD was conked out on the couch. Mom said he started crying right after we left and wouldn't calm down so she brought him downstairs. He had been asleep on the couch for about an hour when we got back. I carried him upstairs to bed and didn't hear a peep out of him until about 5:00 AM the next morning. Allie slept well too. She woke for a bottle around 4:30 AM but went right back to sleep until about 6:30 AM.

Sunday was the BIG day. As soon as the sun came up, while it was still kind of chilly (that's when there are a lot less mosquitoes) I took JD out to our lot to see "his" new "tractor". Dave bought a backhoe/bulldozer/loader thing so he could clear the lot and the road. The intent is to sell it when the house is built and we no longer need it. Being able to clear the lot ourselves is going to save us a lot of money! This, of course, means that a lot of progress has been made in a very short amount of time! Now that all of the underbrush and small trees have been removed it's easy to picture a house there!

Anyway, JD was very excited about it and took his very first tractor ride!

Yes, I've driven it too and, contrary to what I thought, it was quite easy. I even bulldozed some stuff and dumped a load of logs onto a large pile!

Doesn't he look so tiny next to that huge wheel??

After his tractor ride, I took him back inside and I went back out where Kent and Dave were cutting up trees to add to the woodpile. Dave held the logs, Kent ran the chainsaw and I stacked the wood. We made it through about half of the pile before it was time to clean up for our next adventure.

Kent and Dave working hard....

The woodpile has now doubled in size. We'll have plenty of wood to burn during out first winter....if my dad doesn't get to it first!

This is what was left to still be cut...and there's plenty more where that came from!

Dave's "sawhorse" that he made out of an old stump that was already on the outer edge of our lot. Makes cutting logs pretty fast work!

Once showered, the whole family (Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Kent, Dave and I) took the kids to the Fall Festival at Brookgreen Gardens. We had fun but missed Aunt Sarah who had to work. The kids got their faces painted. JD's pumpkin was cute the but "skull and crossbones" on his other cheek was a little weird. And Allie's butterfly just looked like a big purple blob. Oh well, it was free. Other than face painting, Allie crawled among the pumpkins, wanting only to gnaw on the stems (another tooth is on its way) and JD had fun climbing in the haystack.

Then we ate a quick lunch and headed to their zoo where the mosquitoes devoured us once again!

Both kids fell asleep on the way home after the festival. I put them down for naps when we got home and when they woke it was time for JD's next "first" of the day: a boat ride! JD has been climbing in Kent's boat which is parked in mom and dad's yard. Every time we see a boat he gets excited and says "Kent boat!" Well, now that Kent has the trailer fixed, etc., it was time to take JD out! We just puttered around in the Pawleys Creek but it was a beautiful day for a boat ride and JD really enjoyed it... thanks, Uncle Kent!

Watching Uncle Kent put the boat in the water.

JD and I sat in the boat and waited for Kent to park his car....

We looked at and talked about this old tree. It's been there forever!

After the boat ride it was time to go back to my parents' house, eat dinner and head home. We were all exhausted but what a fun weekend!

Here are a few more random pictures from Friday on:

Mommy's little "helper"...ignore the saggy diaper. This was right before her bath.

JD knows where Grandma keeps her yogurt and he's constantly getting it out of the fridge. He let Allie have a taste...she really likes yogurt.

She likes it so much that she got made when JD stopped feeding her and told him about it!

"Mmmmm. That's better! How dare he stop feeding me!"

Today we had a pretty chill day here at the house. I did take the kids out to get JD's hair cut and then to the neighborhood swings because JD did such a great job sitting still. Tomorrow is yet another big day for JD. In fact, it's a VERY BIG day for JD.....it's his very first day of preschool!!!

JD update...

So this week has been a little tough for JD.... and mommy! He's a little out of sorts without his binky. Probably because he's a little overtired. Not sleeping well at night and really fighting/not taking naps! He's been terrorizing the whole house all week...sitting on Sammy, pushing Allie down, kicking me, etc, etc. It's gotten to the point that I'm having to force him to take naps, even if it involves a little bit of screaming. I just try to do it when Allie's not asleep!  I'm praying that this is just some sort of transition phase and he's back to himself soon!

He does have some periods where he's still a pleasant child. Last night for example...he started "pretend play". We have a small play kitchen that was given to us in the garage. He likes to hide/store stuff in the oven. Last night he was baking cakes for us. It was so cute. He would shut the door, turn the knobs, open the door, reach in and carry the cake to us for us to eat. Then he started serving coffee out of a pen cap! Dave and I had a lot of cake and coffee before bedtime!

Since we've been so crazy here at home, I took JD to visit a day care this morning. I had stopped in by myself a few months ago to get information and liked it so I decided to let JD see too. He did well. He stuck pretty close to my, which isn't unusual for him in new situations but he eventually let go of my leg and ran around a little bit with the other children. I left him during circle time to go fill out paperwork and pay his registration fee and when I returned he was sitting in the teacher's lap crying. She said he just started crying right before I walked back in the door and he did fine otherwise.... I'm sure it was just because of the overtired thing I mentioned before. I noticed he was yawning when we got home so I put him down for an unusual early nap. But he only slept for 45 minutes (not nearly long enough). He started terrorizing Sammy and Allie again so he's down for "rest time" again right now... only he's in the hall calling for me instead of resting.

Anyway, JD's first day of pre-school is Tuesday. And he even has school pictures on Wednesday! They said I could leave him there for up to 10 hours, 2 days a week, but I plan to start with just a half day at first until he gets used to it. After a couple of weeks I'll let him go the whole day.

Manic Monday (and Allie's 9 month stats)

So where did we leave off? Oh yes! I met my mom half way and sent JD to her house around 10:00 AM so I could take Allie to the doctor in peace.

My mom said he was a good boy all day and only asked for his binky once while he was down there but he refused to nap. She delivered a sleeping toddler to me later that evening. She also said the he found one of Allie's binkies lying around. He picked it up, looked at it, said "Allie's binky" and handed it to my dad without putting it in his mouth!

Allie had her doctor's appointment yesterday at 2:30 PM. Usually I'm out of there in about an hour. Sometimes faster. I knew when I pulled in that wouldn't be the case. The parking lot was packed! And it was time for Allie to have a bottle and a nap. My plan was to give her a bottle in the exam room while waiting for the doctor and have her sleep in the car on the way to get JD a half hour later. Not so much. The bottle part worked out OK and we didn't wait to see the doctor long but waiting for the nurse to reappear for immunizations took f-o-r-e-v-e-r! Poor Allie was a mess and finding ways to entertain her while she was so sleepy was hard!

Anyway, she's doing well. We have one little thing to keep an eye on.... her left leg is a half inch longer than her right. The doctor looked closely at her hips, saying that usually indicates a dislocated hip..... but her hips looked fine. I told him JD must have stretched one leg by holding her foot as she tries to crawl away (he thinks it's funny but it pisses her off!). The doctor said we'd check it again at her 12 month visit and, chances are, it'll even out by then.

So, she weighs 16 pounds, 8 ounces which puts her in the 13th percentile. That percentile is down from her last visit but he said we should expect her growth to slow now that she won't let me spoon feed her anymore. If you go by her right leg she's 27 inches long but if you go by her left leg she's 27.5 inches long (which is in the 57th percentile).

We left the doctor's office at 4:30-ish and Allie conked out in the car almost before we got out of the parking lot! When my mom got to our meeting spot JD was snoring in the back seat. He barely opened his eyes when I transferred him from mom's car to mine and both kids slept the rest of the way home.

Allie went down easily at 7:00 but JD put up a fight. He asked for his binky, of course, and refused to stay in his bed. He ended up lying on the floor in the hall with his pillow crying. Just as I was getting up to try to calm him he fell asleep. That was at 7:36 PM. He only cried for about 10 minutes which is better than the 1.5 hour fight he put up on Sunday night! He woke at 9:45 PM and I went and put him in his bed. He asked for his binky again but only half-heartedly. Then he put his head down and I haven't heard from him since. It's now 5:54 AM and he's still asleep.

I hope nap time goes OK today. He was pretty miserable when he got home last night - he cried through his entire bath, which is something he usually enjoys. He certainly isn't anywhere near ready to give up his nap so we'll have to work really hard on that!

Bye Bye Binky!

Oh how I've dreaded this day! JD is a die hard binky addict. Before Allie was born we had him down to just naps and nighttime. After Allie was born he went back to requiring it 24/7. It has been driving us crazy. Not only has it started to affect his teeth, but he begs for it all day long. When we tell him he can have it at nap time a huge tantrum ensues. Not to mention you can't understand what he's saying with it in his mouth.

So Dave and I decided it's time to get rid of the binky. Here's the problem. He has no other comfort item. He never attached himself to a blankie or lovey. His binky is his sole source of comfort. If he's having a hard day and being a pain in the butt, I can give him his binky and it's like I've given him a sedative or something. He calms right down! So I've dreaded this day partly for my sanity but also because I know he'd be upset.... very upset.... when we take it away. No mother likes to see their child crying inconsolably for any reason!

So here's our plan: We called the Binky Fairy and told her that JD has some binkies to give to the babies who need them. We told JD for a week or so that the Binky Fairy would be visiting soon and if he could help the babies then she would leave a big boy surprise for him!

On Sunday, after the Porsche brunch, Dave and I headed to the toy store.... this is what happens when Dave goes to Toys-R-Us. I was thinking we would get him one new toy.... Dave had other plans.... but his plan was much better than mine!

Sunday evening, while I cooked dinner, Dave and JD (and Allie too) used stickers and markers to decorate a bag for the Binky Fairy.

After dinner and jammie time, JD carried his decorated bag around and hunted down all of his binkies.

Here is the last time you'll see this big boy with a binky in his mouth!

After we found all 3 binkies we put the bag in the mailbox and put the flag up so the Binky Fairy knew JD was ready and we went back inside.

We had a little bit of play time after that and, around 8:00 PM, it was time for bed. We had the neighbor kids come over a play hoping to wear him out but he wasn't worn out enough to just go to sleep. He cried from 8:00 to 9:30 PM when he finally passed out in bed next to me. It was a horrible experience for both of us! I carried him to his room and put him in his bed.

After that, we got the binky bag out of the mailbox and replaced it with an envelope from the Binky Fairy with a note that said "Dear JD, Thank you for helping the babies. You are such a big boy! Have fun playing with your new race cars. Love, the Fairy". Also in the envelope were 5 Hot Wheels cars. We also set up a couple of really cool Hot Wheels car tracks in the garage.

After making sure the Binky Fairy's gifts were properly delivered, Dave and I went to bed. But that was short lived. JD woke crying at 11:45 PM. I went in to talk to him but he just screamed and screamed so I left him for about 10 minutes. When I came back he calmed down enough to talk to me. In between him crying we talked about how the binkies were helping the babies and how he was a big boy now who could sleep without a binky. Finally, after 17 minutes of talking to him about it, he agreed to lay his head back down and he conked out. I didn't hear from him again until 6:00 this morning.

When he woke this morning the first thing out of his mouth was "binky, mommy". So I just reminded him how he was helping the babies and asked if he wanted to check the mailbox to see if the Fairy had come. He agreed so out we walked in our jammies. He was very excited to see an envelope in the mailbox for him. We read the note and dumped out the cars and forgot all about his binky. Then we took him to the garage and showed him the race car tracks. He was so excited. I wish I would have filmed it!

It was a while before he asked again for his binky. When he does I ask him where we sent his binkies and he says "babies" and then I ask what he got for being such a big boy and he says "cars. vroom vroom!" and he's happy again.

I dropped him off with my mom around 10:00 this morning because I have to take Allie to the doctor for her 9 month well visit. I hope he takes a nap while he's there. He was pretty tired this morning.... we'll see how the following days go. My hope is that it gets easier and easier for him, of course.

And if you're wondering, we did not take Allie's binky away too. In fairness to JD, she's now only allowed to have it in her crib. I'm thinking that when JD stops asking for his binky she'll be allowed to have it in the car too.... maybe. In any event, we plan to get rid of hers too shortly after her first birthday in January. We don't want her to get to the point JD did!