Day care update

So things are going better in daycare. Cole is getting more used to the new room and the new teachers. He doesn't cry when Keith drops him off now, and when I leave for the day he is usually not too upset (except for this morning). Likewise, the new teachers are understanding and trying their best to meet his needs. What we're still not happy about:

They ask parents to bring in snacks twice a month. That means every day the parents one of the 10 children provides a morning and afternoon snack. This would be fine if everyone provided nutritious snacks like we do, but some parents bring in junk food like pretzels and cheez-its. Really? That's what you want your kid eating for two out of three of his meals? We've asked them to give Cole another snack we provided when they're serving overly processed crap.

The director buys fruit cocktail and serves it to the kids as an addition to their lunch. She says she rinses it, but I don't care. It's still saturated with sugary syrup and in my opinion holds no nutritional value. We asked that they let us know when it's being served so we can provide fresh fruit for Cole.

Another kid scratched Cole yesterday. And it wasn't an accident either. Cole apparently wanted to read the same book this kid was reading and this kid got mad and grabbed the skin around Cole's eye leaving a nice scratch that he keeps rubbing right underneath his eye. They made the kid apologize etc, but Cole later grabbed the same area around my eye later that evening. Monkey see, monkey do. And when I inquired about the scratch the look on her face coupled with her hesitation to tell me made me pause and wonder if she would have told me if I hadn't asked.

Aside from my various complaints, Cole seems like he's having an alright time there. I say alright because he doesn't appear to be overly happy when I pick him up. But he's not sad either. Maybe just relieved that I'm there to pick him up. It's as if he's saying, "It's about time you got here."

Here's another high chair pic. Taken tonight by Keith while I am at work dealing with Open House #1.

Teething is hell

Not only is teething hell on Cole, but it's also hell on his parents. Poor kid is getting molars, canines, and some new bottom teeth ALL AT ONCE. Cole screamed so much last night, I actually considered calling the doctor. Thankfully nursing -combined with a poor excuse for infant Tylenol- helped. Somewhat. This morning Keith and I are so tired it feels like we're walking around in slow motion. And because I have Blogger on my iPhone now, I decided to post about it instead of complaining about it on the new and (not) improved Facebook.

I'm so tired that I made two cups of tea with three tea bags. Some of you hardcore coffee drinkers are like "yeah whatever that's nuthin'", but for me that's a lot. Plus I had two sips of Keith's coffee (which is like Red Bull in a mug).

And to top it all off tonight I have Open House, which means I won't be home until way past his bedtime. So if those dang molars are still hurting him later....

Meanwhile, here is my all day caffeine fix:

I can blog again!

Who knew that blogger had an App? I didn't until today when Keith emailed me a story about it. Life has been pretty busy for us, so there's a lot less time for me to blog. But the fact that I can do it on my phone with a few quick keystrokes changes everything!

I'm about to hit the hay after a long night of painful teething (Cole, not me) but I wanted to share some pics from this here phone that I'm typing away on.

This kid kills me! He has so much fun with such mundane things. I don't even know why they sell toys for toddlers. Just give them a couple of shoes or an empty water pitcher and playtime is tons of fun!

Transitions in day care

Cole is all about transitions. He does not like abrupt change. In fact, he gets very upset when you take him away from something or something away from him. But if you give him time, do the proper good-byes, he is usually fine with it. We say good-bye to the park, good-bye to a friend's house, we even say hello to the car seat, and I find that that makes whatever drive lies ahead a little bit easier.

Of course, it's taken us many months to figure this out, so in the late Spring, when the director of Cole's day care recommended we place him in the Toddler Room starting in September, I didn't think too much about it. To be honest, as Cole's mother, I felt flattered that she thought Cole was ready for a new room a full month early than the beginning age (Toddler Room starts at 16 months). So aside from a few questions about nap time, I signed Cole up for the Toddler room.  During August, I tried in vein to transition him to a later nap time so he'd be used to it by the time Sept. 1 arrived. He definitely dropped one nap, but he was sort of in between an afternoon and morning nap. He preferred to go to sleep around 10 or 11 and would sleep 1.5 to 2 hours. This is true of most kids his age I know, so I knew it wasn't far from the norm. In addition, he went to day care about 4 times during the summer. And some of those times, he spent in the Toddler room getting his feet wet. I was told each and every time that he had a great time.

However.

There's always a however in a story like this. I said he didn't like abrupt change, right? Well, he never truly said good-bye to the infant room because he didn't actually transition from one room to the next. Would you call this a transition?: spending 10 months in the infant room, two months home with me, and then back to day care in a new room with completely new teachers.

I would say we threw him in to either sink or swim. And for that I feel really bad. Definite mommy fail. And also one of those times where I feel like I let my ego get the better of me. I should've thought about the consequences of putting him in a new room after two months home with me. (My alternative would have been to have him return to the infant room in September and slowly make the transition to the toddler room until being moved in October.) But to give me some credit, I did not know he would have new teachers. The teacher who was in there in the Spring, he knew really well. She used to work in the infant room, and he had become attached to her. She moved on to bigger and better things over the summer. So they hired someone new. And to fill in a maternity leave, they hired another new teacher. So Cole did not know these teachers from Adam. So this first week? It's been pretty rough for him.  We discovered some changes that were not mentioned at the time of the recommendation. They don't give bottles, so they don't warm milk.  Cole likes warm milk. They only feed the kids one big meal and two snacks - three hours apart. Cole ate more often than that at home. And they don't go out until after 10 a.m. Cole and I almost always went outside around 8 a.m. We gave them a half gallon of milk for him on the first day back and then learned that they only gave him a little milk with his big lunch. So those first few nights home, he was waking up in the middle of the night very hungry. Although he's been eating what they feed him, going to sleep when it's nap time (but not sleeping the whole time), and socializing well with the other kids, he cries often. During the first day or two he kept pointing to the door saying "Door!" He asked for "Doo Doo" a lot, and wanted to be held a lot.  I would pick him up, and I'd get the "He didn't do so well" look from the director.

Thankfully, the new permanent teacher - despite having a completely different parenting philosophy from me (she's of the cry-it-out/don't-pick-them-up-when-they-cry school of thought) - has been supportive.  After a few initial hiccups in the way she approached both Keith and I about Cole's crying, she has since been trying to bond with Cole so that he trusts her to console him when he is upset.  That makes me feel reassured.

Not only has she been trying, but we've also been trying to help make this change a little bit easier for him. We've been talking about "school" more often with Cole, mentioning the teacher's name in conversation. We also brought in a soft blanket that smells like me for his nap time. And finally, Keith remembered the "look" book I put together for Cole when he was an infant. It is a soft plastic and is filled with different pictures of Keith and I. So far, he's looked through it a number of times, including during nap time.

This whole experience has given us pause with regards to day care. It has us discussing other options for the future. I always envisioned Cole at this place, but I'm not sure that that will be the reality. I realize now that she might have recommended Cole for the toddler room - not because she thought he was ready - but because there were a few openings, and if he was moved, the center could take on younger babies in the infant room. The infant room is a little more expensive than the toddler room. Also, bringing someone in while they're an infant is more likely going to result in that child attending for a number of years. It is probably less common that toddlers come in to day care for the first time or switch day care. I truly hope that this was not the case and that she had my son's best interest at heart. But that cynical side of me knows that this is a business. And lately, most business people are just concerned about the bottom line.

And just to clarify, I still think they gave excellent care to Cole as an infant. I felt like he got the extra special treatment from lots of teachers, mainly because he's so adorable and also because he's sensitive, and sometimes needs that extra attention. I'm going to give it some time before we make any decisions about his care there as a toddler.

I think the thing that really bothers me is no one truly understood why Cole was having such a hard time adjusting to the new room. They seemed taken aback. WE had to tell THEM why we thought it was happening.  When you have a 15-month-old shouting "Door!" it's probably because he thinks he's in the wrong room and wants to go to the room he's used to, the one he spent most of his first year when there. He doesn't know any adults in this new room, no one ever told him he was leaving the other room. Just to give us some credit - we did tell him at home numerous times, but he probably needed it explained to him when he was actually AT day care.

It all comes back to those transitions to make changes like this go a bit more smoothly. A few good-byes and farewells might have made all the difference. If only I had known. But I can't change the past. So dear readers, please keep your fingers crossed that he gets through this rough patch.

Poof

I woke up on this day 10 years ago to a phone call from my father telling me the news. And my first thought was - I HAVE to get to work. I worked in a newsroom an hour and a half from Manhattan. Even though it was scary as all hell and who knows what the hell could have happened on the roads - I knew I had to get to the newsroom and help out however I could. I'll never forget my drive to work. I took back roads at my father's request. And on my way as I admired the beauty of the apple-red leaves, I thought to myself - my world, the world, is never going to be the same. Life has permanently changed.

Here's what I remember when I arrived early to work: I remember talking to a woman who thought she lost her boyfriend. I remember talking to a construction worker who witnessed the whole thing from a rooftop. I remember call after call to the newsroom of people who saw, saw, saw and wanted to tell, tell, tell. How hard must it be to keep such horror inside? I remember staying away from the television. I could not bear to watch people jumping from buildings. I knew if I watched it, I would cry. And I wanted to hold it together so I could do my job. I remember everyone huddled around the televisions in complete awe and helplessness. Who could help those poor people stuck at the top of the towers? No one. So the world just watched instead.  Those firefighters and police officers tried. They really did. But with two fell swoops those buildings just dropped. One widow I interviewed was told that when the towers fell, her husband's body was vaporized. Poof.

Now, ten years later, it sometimes feels like "Poof" that day is gone. We have gone back to our complacency. We have forgotten. And I think it's important to remember.  We don't need to partake in a "nationwide sobfest" as one of my friends on facebook referred to it, but we can remember those who died, and think about the loved ones they left behind. We can also remember the goodness that came out of 9/11 and how people came together and were kind to one another. I remember that too.  I don't think there's anything wrong with memorial services or monuments, because if we don't remember, future generations will forget. Our children will forget if we don't talk to them about our memories.

Dada's Day

On Sept. 2, Keith stayed home with Keith since Cole's day care was closed, and I had to work. I gave Keith the lowdown on Cole's summer schedule, which gave Keith a good idea of when to feed and when to nap Cole.  Keith had a fun time with Cole. Being the awesome photographer that he is, he took some amazing shots of Cole's morning exploring outside (which was always my favorite part of the summer day).

Achoo!

Hmmm, how can I open this?

What's over there?

Summer's last week

So the school year is here. Summer is over, and September seems to be washing away.  My last week with Cole was fun. The fact that it was the last week was not on my mind as much as the fact that we had no power, so I wasn't too sad most of the time. It really hit me as I was driving away from Keith's car on that first day back. I had just said good-bye to a waving Cole and the realization that my summer was over and I could spend my days with Cole no longer hit me like a ton of bricks.

I have 143 students and still counting this year. That's the most amount of students I've ever had. It will be a fun year of trying to maintain balance between work and family, especially with all of those projects and essays I will eventually have to grade.

But this summer was a nice imbalance of play, so hopefully I can look back on these blog posts and smile at the good memories my summer with Cole (and weekends with Keith and Cole) brought me.

The one thing I have to apologize for is my lack of recapping capabilities. I was able to provide you with as many pictures as possible, with some captions, but to tell you what happened on what particular day is beyond my ability now that a bit of time has passed. My memory is like a sieve lately, and I only remember specific details of specific dates if something monumental happened. And thankfully (besides another power outage on Labor day) not much happened.

These pictures are from one of our cameras...

"I'll push this damn thing myself, thank you very much."

Cole and Hailey

This kid LOVES the swing

Mama and Cole on the day before the first day back

These are my favorite iPhone pics...

Visiting "elsewhere" pics...

Our visit to The Bakery in New Paltz. They have the best kids toys there.

Visiting the CSA (before the massive flooding). Going through the mud puddle. FUN!

Inside during the day pics...

Cole loves the doggy his Dada gave him

Outside in the morning pics...

This is a combo inside/outside pic

Cole problem solving to retrieve the ball.

Hurricane Irene: Wherein History was Made

Well it has been a hell of a week! And a good diversion from the worries and sadness I normally would have had if I’d allowed myself five minutes to think about something other than the moment and dwelled on the fact that my glorious summer was coming to an end.

What’s a little wind and rain, you say? Well, wind and rain can do some serious damage, even if it’s from a tropical storm and not a hurricane. Essentially, Hurricane Irene wreaked havoc on the Hudson Valley. It was SUPPOSED to wreak havoc on NYC and Long Island, which is what sent my family fleeing to my house after a mandatory evacuation in their area. And it did cause power outages and flooding in both of those areas. But the three hardest hit counties were Ulster, Delaware and Greene counties. We live in Ulster County, and Delaware and Greene counties both border Ulster, one to the west and the other to the north. So you get the drift. On Sunday Aug. 28, almost 70% of our county had no power. By mid-week, 36,000 people still had no power. Our power company hired another power company from Kansas City to help with the extensive repairs.

My weekend (the last weekend in August) was supposed to be a baby shower bonanza. I had two showers – one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I couldn’t go to the first and the second was postponed because it was in the hurricane’s targeted path. Keith was going to have two fun-filled days with Cole. Instead, we had a historic event take place. As I mentioned before, my family was evacuated from their Long Island home. The historic event is that they spent three whole nights at our home. They rarely spend more than four to five hours during a visit because of the length of time it takes to get there and get home. But wait – that’s not the half of it. My grandmother came to High Falls. It took a hurricane for her to come to my home!

They (my father, my step-mother, my grandmother, my step-sister, and her cousin) arrived at 1 a.m. on Saturday after escaping Long Island. Fortunately, they were smart and left on Friday night instead of waiting until Saturday, so they didn’t hit much traffic. We spent Saturday gearing up for the storm (shopping, cooking, contacting relatives) and tracking its whereabouts. My step-sister and her cousin couldn’t bear the thought of one more night in my cozy (Read: Small) home, so they booked a room in a hotel in Kingston and flew the coop Saturday afternoon. My grandmother read my blog book and looked at my wedding album. Cole played with his great-grandmother and his grandparents. Definitely a stimulating day for him. Saturday night the rain started. By early Sunday morning, after several hours of flickering lights, back-up batteries beeping on and off, we lost power for good.

By late Sunday afternoon, the storm had calmed down a bit, but the winds were still going 20+ mph. We left the house for a brief foray out and saw just how much the wind and rains had affected our area. The NYS Thruway was closed. Apparently some parts were under 3-4 feet of water. Lines were down, literally on the ground. High Falls itself looked more like Niagara Falls. It was a little surreal. I was quoted in an Associated Press article about the effects of the storm and the irony of my parents escaping Long Island only to get stuck up here in this ravaged county for three days. Finally, on Monday morning, part of the Thruway reopened and my family made their way back home. It took them 7 hours (in what should have been a 2.5 hour ride), but they made it. Their home was unscathed, and they had power. Go figure.

We went to a very poorly organized Central Hudson dry ice distribution on Monday, even though I stupidly thought we’d get our power back sometime that day. So much for being optimistic. Having no power was not horrible because we still had running water. It was kind of like camping in that regard. We used the camp stove and the grill to cook. We used headlamps, a big loaner lantern (from my dad), and candles (only when the baby was asleep) to see in the evening and during the day in parts of the house that had no windows. And all the while our food in the refrigerator perished. We managed to save just a few things in our cooler, but when the dry ice melted by Tuesday night, all was gone. The whole experience was doable (albeit extremely challenging) until we lost our water on Wednesday. I noticed the pressure was really low in my shower that morning, and by the end of the day there was just a trickle in the faucet. Wednesday was by far the hardest day to get through.  I started my first day of work on Thursday with no shower and breakfast with the family at a bagel shop. But by Thursday afternoon, we had excellent news – we had power, running water, and even our cable! Who knew it would all come at once?

I’m sure you noticed that the tone of this post is non-complaining (at least I hope it is). As I said before, there was devastation in this county and the surrounding counties that brings tears to my eyes. I was lucky that my home did not get damaged by water in any way. Many homes became swimming pools, or their basements were swimming pools, and more were simply washed away by the swelling mountain creeks and rivers. Roads were destroyed; bridges were washed away. If you want to see a video of the destruction of northern Ulster County, check out this YouTube video.

Local farms were also devastated by the flooding of the Wallkill River. Our own CSA, Taliaferro Farms, suffered severe flooding on 14 acres of their farmland. Click here to watch a video of the devastation on the farm. The host may be a little corny, but it's the farmer, Pete, who really tugs at your heartstrings.  I am counting my blessings that all we suffered was a power outage. In the grand scheme of things, it was just a minor inconvenience. And if anything, the hurricane gave us two things we are grateful for: first, a fun weekend with my family and, second, the motivation to clean out our fridge for the first time in a few years.

I hope you enjoy the pictures...

My grandmother reading my blog book

Papa brushing Cole's hair

This temporary home of our cats

First phone, then coffee

This kid LOVES bouncing on the air mattress

A lot of hurry up and wait for the storm

Keith reads up about the storm

My father plays with Cole and Cole's first day care craft

Our source of new: the battery powered radio (above the non-functioning tv). Notice the baby in the left hand corner locating his battery powered toy

Cole shows Buddy his guitar

Cole gasps as Papa comes in with a REALLY big guitar

Look at that neck! I want it Mama!

Safely in his chair admiring Papa's guitar (hooked up to a battery powered mini-amp)

The stream normally runs under the road, but here it's running over the road (and roaring on down) 

Four generations!

This was Cole's favorite thing to do all weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't Buddy's.

Cole gets one last bounce on the air mattress

Cole patiently waiting in the car for dry ice

The line for dry ice

Keith "This is what you call a 'clusterfuck'"

On line for dry ice

The Rondout at the highest it's ever been since the Army Corps of Engineers remade the banks of the creek,

High Falls a ragin'

The power crews try to figure out what's wrong with the electric lines.

Another one totally stumped

Lunch at Olive Garden

Endless breadsticks= endless fun

Dinner at HF Cafe with the sun setting in the background.

our "kitchen"

our "computer room"

Kiwi caught in a headlamp