Day 2 at daycare went a bit better. After
last week’s experience I let the subject drop for a few days
and then started mentioning daycare casually in conversation.
Eve also conveniently brought it up a few times (“At daycare
they play RAFFI!!!” she yells), but every time Lex insisted
that he did not want to go back. I was getting a little
worried. Then yesterday I asked him if he would like me to stay
with him at daycare for a little while and he immediately
perked up. “Oh yes mommy, if you stay with me for about an hour
then I will be very happy at daycare.” Ummm… ok. He’s such a
little puzzle. All day yesterday he seemed positive. This
morning he got himself dressed (clothes over pjs, but it was
good enough for me!) and in the car with no fussing. I stayed
with him for about an hour and when I left he said he was sad,
but ok. The teacher called me a few hours later and asked if he
could go on a field trip to find salamanders. She said he was
crying and saying that he wasn’t having fun anymore, so she
thought a field trip with a few other kids would be a good
change of scenery.

When I got there
this afternoon they were both outside playing. When they saw me
they started crying. Both of them. Running to me, crying. So I
held both kids for a few minutes, heads on my shoulders, tears
streaming down my shirt. The teacher said that Eve had been
great all day and that Lex did much, much better. She said he
listened to her very well and didn’t argue or fight. I guess he
cried a lot and kept saying he wanted to go home now, but at
least there was no fighting. Eve said, “Mommy! You came back
for us. You came back to get us!” I really hope this is just
toddler words and not her really thinking that I was leaving
her there forever. And if she does think that, she sure doesn’t
seem concerned in the morning when I leave!

I think mostly they are both exhausted from the whole
experience. Hopefully after a few more times they will get into
the swing of things. Or maybe this is just what daycare is.

We also have to work on our evening
routine a bit too. They are both wound up when we get home and
I try to settle them down for dinner, bath, stories, but they
just bounce and make me frustrated. Then I feel guilty for
being annoyed with them when I haven’t even seen them all day.
This is mostly my problem, not theirs. Last night and tonight
they were awake for a really long time after I put them in bed.
Awake and bouncing. Annoying! Both nights it was shortly after
9:00pm before they fell asleep! So I think I need to work on
the post-daycare evening routine. Apparently its going to have
to be different than our regular evening routine. For all of
our sakes!

I had a horrible headache last night.
After bath I told the kids to pick some stories and I’d be
right there to read. I think I said something along the lines
of, “I need to take some Tylenol before I explode!” Right
behind me came two little ducklings claiming they too were
about to explode and need medicine. It cracked me up. Good
headache relief. I ended up giving Lex some a little later for
his fever and Eve came running along saying, “I am splode! I
need medicine.” Lex just woke up from a nap now (three days in
a row!) and he was hot and crying so I asked if he wanted some
medicine (hasn’t had any since last night) and Eve again said,
“I splode too! I need medicine too!” I love that she doesn’t
fully understand what she’s talking about, just repeating words
and hoping for a positive outcome :)

I think Lex gets spring fever, very
literally. It seems like every spring (and fall, I think, twice
a year) he comes down with a fever for a few days, but no other
symptoms. I remember last year he fevered off and on for a week
or so and I took him to the doctor and they said to just let it
ride. They aren’t really high fevers (ok, honestly I don’t take
his temperature often, but he doesn’t feel dangerously hot and
his behavior is never worrisome) and them seem to go away in
the mornings and come back in the afternoon/evening. Anyway, we
are in the midst of another spring fever. Today is the third
day. He occasionally complains of a sore throat or belly ache,
but not consistently. I have him Tylenol for the first time
last night because he was up every hour crying. At one point he
said his belly hurt and he needed food, so we came downstairs
and had a 2am snack of yogurt and Tylenol :) Poor guy. Luckily
spring fever doesn’t seem to be contagious.

Just
nine more days until the little guy turns four years old! Crazy
kid is growing up. I have once again started thinking about
those days, how tomorrow was my due date and I was soo eager to
meet little zig. But he kept us waiting, and waiting, and
waiting. Now it seems like just yesterday and suddenly he’s
almost four! Smart, active, happy, silly, stubborn, and still a
beautiful boy.

The trains are
always a favorite, and lately Lex has been mixing in other toys
as well. Here he has the wooden track set up, with the tunnel
from the plastic tracks, and his blanket in the middle as a
pond. Poor Thomas derailed and fell into the pond. Not sure
what’s going on with the bunny. Lately his blanket serves as a
waterfall down one line of the tracks. The talented trains
tumble down the waterfall and land, perfectly, on their wheels
and on the tracks :)

A boat. Eve looks
fascinated to be allowed to play in Lex’s game.

Last week Lex
started asking if he could paint these train pieces brown. I
have no idea where this idea came from. I put him off for a few
days (we were too busy for the project anyway), but he
persisted, so after awhile I said “sure, go for it!” These are
pieces of the coaches that came with the wooden train set. Two
coaches, two pieces, two very happy kids painting. They have
been “drying” in the bathroom for a few days now and I’m not
sure what the final result will be. It’s a washable paint, so
I’m a little worried its going to come off on their hands and
the carpet. I guess we’ll see!

Hard at work
painting the coach top brown.

After a nice solitary trip to the grocery
store this afternoon I took my double stroller and walked over
to pick the kids up at daycare. Sweet, huh? I got lots of funny
looks for walking with an empty double jogger, but that’s ok. I
got there to find Lex sitting on the steps and on the verge of
tears. Everyone was outside playing and as soon as he saw me he
said “Oh!” and walked over to get his shoes. I sat down, he
crawled into my lap and started crying. He said he was too
tired and needed me to put his shoes on for him so he could go
home. I think he had a tough day. They daycare teacher said
that he was pretty stubborn about following their schedule and
argued about not wanting to go out, or come in, or lay down, or
play here, etc. She said he threw a pretty big tantrum and one
of the teachers held him in her arms until he calmed himself
down. I felt bad for him and bad for her and secretly a little
happy that I had a day off from it all.

Eve noticed me a minute later (still sitting with Lex) and
she ran over and said “Mommy! You came back for us!” Not sure
what she was expecting, but she seemed pretty surprised and
happy to see me again. Then she proceeded to tell me all about
how I left and they played and I went to work “at daddy’s
office” (nearby, really) and then “You came back for us!” She’s
cute. The teacher said she did awesome all day. I think it
caught up with her though. About half way home she started
crying and couldn’t control herself. When we got inside I
cuddled her and asked why she was crying and she said, “I don’t
know, I can’t stop crying.” (words I think she learned from
Lex’s tantrums) They were both pretty exhausted from the day.

At dinner I asked Lex if he had fun
today and he said yes, he had a lot of fun. Soo… I guess
we’ll see how next week goes. I hate to see him having tantrums
and being so upset, but he’s going to preschool in the fall and
he’s going to have to get used to other people’s schedules
sooner or later. I think it would be better to have this
adjustment in a daycare setting instead of a school setting.
That makes sense, right? Sometimes I think he’s like a delicate
flower and when handled well he thrives, but put in a situation
he’s not used to he just rebels. I try to be accommodating to
him (maybe too much so) but it’s draining on me and Alan and
probably even Eve. I also know that he won’t get those special
accommodations in school and part of growing up is learning how
to handle yourself in situations outside of your control.
Right? Anyway, I think (hope!) he’ll adjust after a few days
and I’m still confident that this will be best in the long
run.

Today is their
first day of daycare and it went really well…. drop-off
anyway, we’ll see how the whole day went at pick-up. But I’m
sure it’s going really well. Lex was a little apprehensive and
gave us lots of tight hugs this morning, but when we left he
was building a block tower with the other kids and had already
tried out the bathroom. Eve ran in and started playing and when
we left she was sitting with the other 2yr olds for circle
time. Such great kids! I went in to work for a few hours and
will be grocery shopping on my own this afternoon. Better get
to it! (The picture of
took of Lex came out very blurry, but this cute picture of Eve
and her group should hold ya.)

We did some cleaning upstairs
today and in the process put away the pack-n-play. With a
little encouragement Eve decided that would be ok. She’s sweet
because she always talks about what a big girl she is (“I a big
girl, I a strong girl”) or that she’s a toddler, but if you ask
if she’s a big girl or a baby she always picks baby. Then she
pokes me in the arm and says “I your baby.” :) So I put away
the pack-n-play. At nap time she fussed a little bit, but
settled pretty quickly and fell asleep. After a good long nap I
heard a few thumps up there and went in her room and found that
she got the pack-n-play out of the closet and was trying to set
it up. When I walked in she said, “I need help. I need to nap
in pack-n-play.” I laughed :) Then I told her that she already
had a nap and could get up now. That made her happy. At bedtime
tonight she put up more of a fight, throwing herself on the
floor in a tired baby tantrum. Luckily doggie and giraffe
beckoned to her from the bed, making her giggle and climb up
into bed to cuddle her. I stayed with her for a few minutes,
but left her still awake and she fell asleep on her own. I hope
she’s able to make this transition without too much struggle.
I’m tired of having the pack-n-play in the middle of the room
and she is getting too big for it! Stretched out her head and
feet touch each end. Time for the big girl bed :)

A few days ago I told Lex
that I was tired of answering so many “why?” questions. We also
talked a bit about how he was using the word “why” when he
probably meant “how” and a bit about the difference between the
two words. Funny boy has now taken it to the other extreme and
asks me “how” questions a million times a day. “Mommy, how did
you stop talking to me until we got to the post office?” “How
can I not have more milk?” etc. Know what I mean. Too many
questions and now they don’t even make sense. Serves me right
for trying to get him to ease up on the “why” questions :)

In other news, Alan bought a new door
handle for Lex’s door on Sunday, and we can now lock him in.
This sounds awful, but it’s been very helpful. We have only had
to use it twice and both times the tantrum has dissipated
quickly. Better yet, Alan and I escaped relatively unscathed so
we were able to stay sane for the rest of the day.
Yay!