Training Camp

My parents arrived for their bi-annual visit last week, which means Caitlyn has been kicked from her room and is now back in ours. This has led to irregular sleep schedules and resulted in her waking up at least once or twice during the night and getting up at 6:30 in the morning.

This could be a problem because Caitlyn has officially begun her weaning off process at school this week, and a tired, cranky baby is not the easiest thing to manage. But thus far, the wife has been reporting back positive progress.

Right now, the teacher has her sitting in the corner of the classroom while she takes Caitlyn off to play. Every 15 minutes or so, Caitlyn will go back to check up on Mommy, but will then go back to play afterwards. The goal is for the wife to slowly disappear minutes at a time until she's able to be gone for the whole morning. They haven't given a specific timetable for this, but hopefully by the end of the week. I think this is definitely doable as long as Caitlyn is kept preoccupied and busy.

The getting acquainted process between Caitlyn and the grandparents has also been going well. This past weekend, they were able to take her to the toy store and park by themselves without any problems. And they were able to take care of the baby for a few hours yesterday afternoon while the wife and I went to run a few errands.

Our aim is to have them be able to pick up Caitlyn at school and take care of her until 5 p.m. This would give the wife a break and also hopefully create a stronger bond between Caitlyn and her grandparents. It’s a win-win situation for everyone, so hopefully we can convince Caitlyn to jump onto the bandwagon, too.

See, Grandpa doesn't bite!

Piece of cake

We're all smiles!

Ready for a walk

And we're back to being serious

Not a Mommy-approved activity

Double-teamed

Is this how they ride horses in Texas?

I can do this....

In another month

Looking dapper dan

Hands up if you love suspenders!

Second Week

A second week has come and gone at daycare and thus far, I’ve only been hearing negative things from the wife. So it’s surprising to me that she’s still willing to take Caitlyn there. But I suppose the desire to have Caitlyn detached from her hip is greater than leaving her at a place that is not ideal or going through the problem of finding another place.

I find it hard to believe that this place is as bad as she makes it out to be, but she claims other places are even worse. I think the wife can accept most of the school’s flaws because of one reason. She feels that if she’s able to leave the baby at the daycare by herself and doesn’t see what’s going on firsthand, she won’t think so much about it.

It’s kind of like eating at a restaurant. You know the people in the back cooking your food probably didn’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom and probably dropped your burger on the floor before putting it back on your plate, but as long as you don’t see it, you don’t think about it. Out of sight, out of mind.

But therein lies her main problem with the school – their unwillingness to let her drop Caitlyn off and leave. The daycare has been giving her the runaround whenever she asks when she can just drop Caitlyn off. They haven't given a specific date yet.

Currently, they have two other new students who they are training to separate from their mom. Like the wife, these two moms also have to accompany their child to school right now. But the teachers are slowly starting to wean the kids off their mom. They say as soon as these two are acclimated into the school, it’ll be Caitlyn’s turn to be weaned off the wife. Of course, how soon this will be is anyone’s guess. Personally, I think the school just likes having these extra bodies around to take care of the kids, so they don’t have to deal with them.

But to end on a positive note, the wife did say that Caitlyn was able to be by herself for 15 minutes while she went to hide without crying last Friday. That’s my girl! Now we just need to work up to 3 hours.

Play dates

Stacking blocks

 

Make a wish!

You gonna eat that?

 

The cake is making me drool!

Only pudding for you

 

Ready to climb the hill

Almost there!

 

Oopsy!

Taking a break

First Days of School

Caitlyn has just survived her first week of daycare and is now in her second. Starting out, she’ll be going three days out of the week for half the day with Mommy accompanying her the entire time. While I wasn’t there to see exactly what went on, the wife was able to fill me in.

Thus far, Caitlyn seems to be enjoying her time there, albeit by herself. She hasn’t started interacting with any of the kids there yet and prefers to play alone. That seems pretty normal for someone her age and hopefully as she gets more and more comfortable at the school, she’ll be more willing to play with others.

The only one who seemed to have it rough last week was the wife. Personally, I don’t see how taking care of Caitlyn at home is any different than taking care of her at daycare. You don’t get a break either way. But who am I to argue with the wife. If she says it’s more exhausting, then it’s more exhausting.

On top of that, she’s come home with a long list of complaints and concerns too. According to her, the teachers there don’t seem to be very helpful. On the first day, the wife and Caitlyn were basically ushered in and then told to find something to do. No one came to check up on them or inform them what was going to happen next. They might as well have been invisible.

Every day, the kids go to the neighboring park for an hour. The teachers said it doesn’t matter if it’s hot or cold. As long as it’s not raining, they’ll be there. On Mondays, they stay at the park the entire morning. When the wife asked whether this was a good idea with the heat and also with winter soon approaching, the answer was more or less, what doesn’t kill them only makes them stronger.

During lunch time, the students are made to eat quickly and independently. If they want more, they have to speak up. However, Caitlyn takes her time and doesn’t exactly make a fuss to let the teachers know she wants more. She usually eats a whole bowl of food, but if the daycare gives her half a bowl, which is enough to satiate her hunger for a bit, she won’t ask for more even though she could still eat a lot more. This has led the wife to worry that Caitlyn won’t get enough to eat as she observed a lot of the students there were very skinny.

The daycare also has a policy of training the kids to stop wearing diapers at an early age. Which means they’ll start on Caitlyn as soon as the wife stops staying at the school with her. Personally, this one disturbs me a bit because Caitlyn’s barely 16 months old. But the wife did say that some of the kids just a bit older than Caitlyn have already learned to let the teachers know when they have to use the bathroom, so maybe it is possible.

And to cap off the week, Caitlyn got a bit sick on Friday at the daycare. But on the bright side, she was able to fight it off and was well enough to make a trip to the park on Saturday.  

Even with all these concerns, the wife admits that sending Caitlyn to this Montessori might help loosen her grip on the baby. After all, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, right?

At the park

Way too hot to be outside

 

Doing some stretching first

Ready to go!

Let's go play, Zoe!

Hat?

 

Hat?!!

Finally!

 

Pelican in the background

Yes, it's huge and unattended to

Disciplinary Action

Ever since Caitlyn became mobile and developed a sense of freedom and independence, she has constantly been testing her boundaries to see what she can get away with. For example, if she throws something on the ground, I’ll tell her to stop. However, she’ll then pick up another object, look me straight in the eyes, and then throw it. She’ll keep this up as long as she has something within her reach or until you remove her from the scene.

Same goes with biting. She might bite your leg, so you tell her to stop. Therefore, she picks up a book or toy, look you straight in the eye and then bite it. Remove everything that’s bitable and she’ll try biting the ground. If anything, I have to give her credit for being persistent.

I’ve been holding off on any form of disciplinary action because babies usually haven’t developed a concept of right or wrong. But now that’s Caitlyn’s 17 months old and judging by her actions, it’s pretty obvious she knows when she's doing something she's not supposed to. Unfortunately for her, she picked the wrong person to test her limits with.

That’s why I started experimenting with time-out this week. I’ve used it twice thus far, once for throwing things and once for biting. The idea is for her to stay on her time-out mat for a minute. While she’s probably not using that minute to mull over why she shouldn’t throw or bite things, she probably understands that she did something wrong to get put there, which is what I want. I want her to realize that those actions will result in consequences that she won’t like.

My problem with time-out is that she tries to crawl away or keeps crying or both. Most people suggest placing the baby in a playpen to fix the crawling away problem, but what about the crying part? Even after her minute is up, Caitlyn is still throwing a fit and trying to make her understand that being calm and quiet is the best way to get out of time-out is above her level of comprehension. In the end, I have to pick her up before she gets so worked up that she throws up.

The wife has a tactic that probably works better. Whenever Caitlyn starts acting up, she’ll just get up and go to another corner of the room or just ignore her. Caitlyn will have her fit and when she’s done, she’ll go find Mommy or Mommy will go find her.

In this case, Caitlyn is also able to put two and two together. Being bad means Mommy will leave or ignore her. The upside to this is that she determines herself when she's ready to behave, no one's forcing her to stay put, and there's no need for a timer.

We’ll probably leave time-out in time-out until she can better grasp the concept of it. But if she even has an ounce of the stubbornness the wife and I have, we’re definitely going to be in an uphill battle for a long, long time.

Git into my belly!

Someone found a new play toy

 

More fun than a hairdryer

Does Mommy approve of this?

 

Windy day at the beach

How to get past this rope?

 

What are you thinking?

Enjoying the water