Gametes In Love

The other day I saw a kid that in about 10 years will be auditioning for the Darwin awards. And it made me angry.

For those of you that haven’t been in my neighborhood, let me describe it to you: we live on a hilly two-lane street. The hill is a notably steep hill. It’s the kind of hill that in my unfit shape, I’ve required to stop at least 4 times to take a break before I can reach my house… and we’re only the 10th house up the street. Needless to say I don’t walk it often, but I admire those that do. So yeah, you have a good image of a steep hill in your head? Good!

Well, the other day, as G and I were on our way out (down the hill), towards the bottom I saw a relatively small object also moving down the street. As I approached it I realized that this was a person… sitting on a skateboard… lugeing down the street. This dude was using his feet for breaks. Unfortunately he didn’t have the best of balance because at one point he started wobbling and swerving down the street. I’m now reducing my speed to a relative crawl, and my car is halfway in the other lane facing opposite traffic, as I try to pass this person. As I do this, I realize it’s a kid. No more that 12 years old. This is where the anger set in.

So why was I angry? I was angry on behalf of his parents. I wanted to pull over, drag him off his skateboard by the ear and demand that we called his parents right then and there. I wanted to call the cops too. At that stage, I wished that all kids wore tags, like our pets do because I wanted to know that someone was going to be grounding him that evening.

I put myself in the shoes of that boys mom, thinking that if that was G, he’d be immediately forbidden from piloting anything on wheels until he turned 18.

Yep, I’ve realized that I empathize with the parents now, and not the ballsy kid… and I used to be the ballsy kid. Apparently about a year ago I passed some invisible threshold where I’ve become one of THEM: the cranky adults. But you know what? I think I’m OK with that.

Remember last May when I was calling daycare facilities only to be put on ridiculously long waiting lists? Well, 15 months later, one of them has a spot for G and we’re ready to take it.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been called up from a waitlist, to be fair, but it’s the first time when the timing felt right. The first call was days before I returned to work and days before G started with his family daycare. It felt strange to switch before we even gave it a chance. The second time was a few months later, by the same facility, which prompted S and I to re-tour. We decided then, that we’re OK to keep G in his current environment until he approached 18 months.

Well, except for last Thu when we got a call from our top pick saying they had a cancellation and G was in the right age group. If we wanted it, they had a spot for him. We talked about it, made some lists (which of course I’m about to share) and decided to do it. So here goes (hours are the same, so no need to discuss those):

Ms. F

Pros:
– Caring, loving home
– Genuinely likes G. G genuinely likes her.
– Too good to be true tardy policy ($10/hr but waived if you’re stuck in traffic. Compare that to the normal $1/min in our area!)
– Provides healthy home-cooked meals for older kids, included in her fee
– Cheaper

Cons:
– Changes diapers every 3-4 hours (but that could be ‘cuz he sleeps a ton)
– Didn’t encourage tummy time, even after asked, and insisted G would do it on his own when he was ready. He did, she was right, but he didn’t find any more appreciation for tummy time w/o the necessary exposure
– Takes 2 weeks in holiday throughout the year requiring to find (and pay for) external care
– McDonald’s is on the way from her house to the freeway, meaning many a drive-through passings due to my complete inability to self-restrain myself from the #2 breaskfast meal 🙁

Fancy Daycare Center

Pros:
– Goes from infant to pre-K. No need to look for a preschool if we continue liking the program.
– The facility is part of the school district, so if we are tracked to go to that elementary school, they provide the after-school care program as well. Sadly, this isn’t our tracked school, but we could petition to move if we like it
– Formalized curriculum program w/ excellent school prep
– Educators specialized in early childhood development
– An environment that will nurture and encourage milestone development
– Formal daytime schedule tracking (have we discussed how much S and I like spreadsheets?)
– Changes diapers at least 2 hours (unless he’s sleeping)
– Closer to my commute in/from work (slightly longer for S, but not terrible as he does pick-ups)
– No McDonalds anywhere en route!!!

Cons:
– More kids = more germs. I’m worried that G will be home sick more
– Sleep area is in the same room as play area. G right now sleeps (at daycare and at home) in a separate, quiet space. I’m worried that he’ll take a long time to acclimate and his nap schedule will go to hell

Yeah, this isn’t really a 1:1 comparison, but having laid it all out made my preference clearer.

The tricky part, is that the lists above is the logical reasoning behind our choice, but there’s still the emotional attachment. G’s been going to this daycare for the past 8 months. It has honestly felt like dropping him off at a relative’s house this whole time. He was cared for, loved, kept safe — all the things we wanted for him. He’s made friends. Ms. F holds him with such pride, that S and I have genuinely felt like G is her favorite kid in the bunch. It’s just hard to take him away from that kind of environment, and today when we told Ms. F our plans, we genuinely felt like we were breaking up with her. It was sad! S said that most likely that last day he’ll cry, just as he cried the first day G went to school… and probably for the same reason.

The part that also breaks me up is knowing that G has no idea what’s coming. He won’t get a chance to say good-bye to his friends. Does this make us a pitiful bunch or what?

So any advice on what kind of gift we should give Ms. F?

G is learning how to clap. I’ve been working on this with him for a very long time. Shockingly this isn’t quite the easiest thing to teach to a little dude. You’d think “Oh, just put their hands together, what’s the big deal?”, but it’s hard to clap two little fists, believe me. By the time you open one hand up, and then the other, and you go to clap, a fist magically appears!

But he’s been working things out. He now initiates clapping on his own — doesn’t do it forcefully enough to make a sound yet, but he’s getting the motion down.

This morning as I was changing a wet one, he started clapping for me. So nice for my son to recognize that didy changes are in fact a big deal for mommy and should be commended 🙂 So I guess that makes it more of a reclined ovation, not a standing ovation, huh?

Now if he only did the clapping thing on demand — it would make it so much easier to document…

In other news, I’ve been expanding the little dude’s eating repertoire. I’m getting more adventurous with Big People food. Given our eating/weight drama, I’m just experimenting with anything that works for him. I’m not stressing out over missing his jarred food when we go out, because I conservatively have him eat off of my plate. Last night he had bits of an English muffin and bacon. Today he tried tofu, peas (whole), pulled pork and grapes. So far, win on all accounts. He was an especially a big fan of the bacon and pulled pork. I guess he’ll be learning quickly enough that piggies go Oink Oink all the way to the tummy, in a very delicious way!

In other, other news, S is still childproofing our living room. I don’t think he was kidding when he said that G will be in college by the time we’re done. It’s now week 3. I feel bad for the guy: he’s given up 3 of his week-ends now trying to make our home safer for G. The last two week-ends were spent just on  our entertainment unit. I’ve learned that engineering solutions that will keep little hands away from electronics equipment, while still enabling the use of said equipment (in a non-tacky way) is tedious and involves a very colorful dictionary (if you know what I mean) 🙂

I gotta tell you — those baby jails are starting to look better and better every day!

Playing is hard work (check-out that tongue action)

“But I only have 1 soda a day!”

I cut my hair last night. Short.

After 20 months of prenatal vitamins, my hair has been the healthiest and longest it’s ever been. So I decided to donate it. I’d always wanted to, and I figured that what better time to do it, then when I’m hopped up on superhuman vitamins. Besides, this might be the last time that I’ll be able to.

I’m pretty pleased with my decision.

The hair will go towards making wigs for cancer patients, who are loosing/have lost their hair to treatment. If my hair will help someone decide to seek treatment that could save their life (no joke, some people avoid it knowing they’ll loose their hair), then it’s worth it. I’m not in a position to find a cure for cancer, sadly, but this is one way of me helping.

There were two organizations I was looking into: Locks of Love and Beautiful Lengths. I ultimately went with Beautiful Lengths because their charter… plus hair length requirement was shorter (8″ as opposed to 10″). At 9″ I had as much as I could bear of loooong hair and decided I had enough.

Now my hair is resting in a zip-lock bag waiting to be sent out.

After my pony tail was put in a bag, my stylist said “What do you want to do now?”. My response? “Whatever you want!” But I had one condition: it couldn’t require styling, product or hairdrying of any sort because let’s face it — I like to sleep in the morning, and sleep wins over hair in my book any day. I wake up at 6 these days, do “G chores”/basic hygiene for the first 30 minutes, feed/change/dress G and then we’re out of the house on our way to daycare and work. All this in 50 minutes. There’s no time for hair in there. The result was the epitome of the “mommy hairdo” (a Bob in my case), but it’s working for me.  I feel lighter, although running my fingers through my hair makes me feel like something’s missing (or a lot is missing ;p).

So that’s the story of the “Mommy Do”. Hope G will be proud!

Today’s theme: When the crib’s a rockin’, don’t come a knockin’

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qszL2h3dL3Q]

For those of you curious what those things are at the base — that’s the Lullabub (see post here). One of it’s side-effects is that now as an older baby G gets to rock himself to sleep, or into a party tizzy. Either way, self entertainment is good — gived us a few more minutes of sleep on the week-ends 🙂

G’s about to get a Nutritionist added to his team of health care providers. Why, you may ask? Well, let me tell you.

If you’ve been following G’s story for awhile, you know that I am very sensitive about his weight. I’ve reconciled that he’ll be a 3rd percentile, babe as long as he stays on the visible curve. I jokingly call him my Skinny Minny, but given his history of weight-loss and my supply drama, I’m really watchful over how much he eats. This is why for the past two weeks I’ve been on “Orange Alert” as G has brought home half of his food each day from daycare.

G normally nurses morning and evenings and gets 24oz of milk, bottled through the day. In addition he’ll eat 1-1.5 jars of Stage 2 solids. Instead, he’s been nursing only once, taking 12-16oz and at most half a jar of solids. As this coincided with his crawling, at first I thought it was normal (you know, wanting to move around instead of eat). However the fact that this has gone on for more than a week paired with the fact that he hasn’t gained any weight in over a month, made me decide to call his pediatrician.

Honestly I expected a conversation with an advice nurse with some reassurance that this is normal for G’s age. Instead I got an appointment with G’s doctor, a lengthy conversation, and a referral to see a nutritionist. I had the preliminary nutritionist phone interview yesterday (where they filter the overly paranoid parents from the ones that really need an appointment). The specialist informed me irregardless of food intake, it’s not normal to not gain any weight as for as long as G has, and the food reduction was not normal for his current age group. So, she recommended a feeding study.

I’m waiting for the scheduling people to call me so that we can book an appointment. I’m also going to need to call Aetna to confirm that it’s covered by insurance (and if not what this will cost). I’d like to think that this is covered, but lactation consultations aren’t, even when G was loosing weight back in Dec. Who knows what excuse they’ll give me for the nutritionist referral. Ugh, I’m so not looking forward to more insurance company drama.

I’m glad that we’re getting this attention, but really, all I wanted was some platitude and a pat on the head telling me I’m being too paranoid. Stay tuned…

New toys are awesome

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!

Window Hi-Fives

Man, has this been one very eventful month? And it’s gone by q.u.i.c.k! Let’s see, in the past few weeks G’s:
1. gotten more teeth
2. started crawling
3. said his first word

Our little man is now getting into everything and childproofing is turning out to be a much tougher (and longer) job than we imagined. Meanwhile, G is a determined little dude who has a much better memory than I give him credit for. I try to redirect his attention beyond just saying “No!”, but the kid knows what he wants and is already figuring how to get around my legs. I think my mother is finally getting her wish: for me to have a little terror just like the one I was to her. The sad part is that I see myself in G’s mischievous smile and know that we’re in for a world of trouble.

G is now also an expert at saying “Uh-oh!” Yeah, there are no consonants in that word, but he says it well and he uses it in context. I could have sworn his first word would be “dada”, but apparently he’s already showing us that he’ll be bringing words from school. I can’t wait to hear some of the more colorful language he’ll bring home (although knowing my potty mouth, he’d be the one teaching others bad words). And no, it’s not lost on me that my little trouble maker has selected this for his first word.

As a whole he looks so much different to me now than he did a month ago. Maybe, as S likes to say, he’s growing into his head. Either way, he’s looking more and more like a little boy than a baby.

Meanwhile preparation for the big 01 party are underway. The theme? Little monsters… you know… in honor of my little monster.