First Days

What a wild and wooly week it's been, and it's not even over. Tuesday was Chris's first day back at Preschool. He was thrilled to get back at school. On the way home, I asked him what he did at school. I ask him every time, but mostly I get no answers, and I have to use the paperwork they sent home as prompts to ask yes or no questions, or questions with one word answers. Open-ended questions don't really work with my three year old. As I drove, he told me "Mr. Rates sabba sout." After some minutes of diagnosis, I deduced that his teacher Mrs. R got the toys out. Once I got that part of the discussion, he told me, "I play Elmos." apparently, he played with the Elmo toys she got out. I would not have gotten that from the worksheets. I was very proud of Chris.

About to get prouder. Yesterday, Chris went to Developmental Preschool for the first time. On The Bus. Chris was thrilled. He literally bounced out of bed when I told him he was going to go to new school on the bus. The bus came for Chris and we were ready, he with his new Cars backpack, and us with camera and videocamera, and we played it up like getting on that bus was the best thing since sliced bread. And he was so excited. He had to have help climbing up the steps, they were taller than his knees. He turned at the top, told us bye bye, he smiled and he was gone.

Mommy blubbered as soon as the bus started moving, and for a good hour. I don't know why it was so hard, I've been dropping him off at preschool at the church for months, but this time was different. This time, strange busdriving men came and took him away, and for a minute I couldn't even remember the name of the school. Eagle by the way. It was so quiet around here....the waiting for the afternoon bus was so much harder than dropping him off and picking him up ever has been. Three is so young, it feels too young to be putting my sweet boy on a bus. But he did great. How uncool is that? Mommy was a basket case and Chris came home, thrilled and happy. I had to Trust in a higher power that he would be fine, and he was. His teacher sent a note home telling me how he played with dinosaurs, and sand, and how he spilled water all over his pants at snacktime. Details he wouldn't have told me. But he did tell me his "pants mess". We talked about it over lunch. He kept asking me if he could ride the bus again. Even again today. He will, tomorrow. How fast he grows.

Though he seems to think he is growing a little faster than we seem to think. He came home from school yesterday, and I fed him lunch, and put him to bed, normal routine things. His response was not routine. He didn't want to sleep. For 2 hours, I tried to get him to sleep, while I tried to sleep. It didn't work. He just kept calling for me, I was laying on the couch yelling, GO TO SLEEP! He did not. At one point, I started counting him into Time Out. When I asked, Do you want a timeout? "Yes! I wanna Tempe (timeout). Tempe! Tempe!" What kind of crazy boy wants to be pulled out of bed to be put into Time Out? My Crazy Boy. And I did. Couple times. But after 2 hours, and it was 4 p.m. I surrendured the fight on trying to get him to sleep. I suspect he must've fallen asleep on the bus. He didn't arrive home until a full hour after school got out. He is the last one on in the morning and likely the last off. I asked if he'd fallen asleep, when they pulled up, and they said, no, but I beg to differ by his behavior.

Today, we had preschool again, and then when i picked up Christopher we had to pop down to Riley. He had an appointment with Sara from the feeding team, for a weight check. I knew going in it wasn't going to be good news a. because of his recent illness he hasn't been eating and drinking, and b. his weight on Monday was 24 pounds, 10 ounces. Given his intake this week, I didn't think that had changed, which was going to be about half a pound down from where it was a month ago. And so it was. He clocked in at 24 pounds, 12 ounces. Now, it looks like he gained 2 ounces this week, and that's possible, truly, however those 2 ounces could also be variety in scales within the hospital since the weights were done on different scales. It's such a pain in the butt to be counting every single ounce that there a difference is made when he wears a sweatshirt or uses a different scale. I've been working on finishing his baby book in an effort to prepare for the new baby, and I realized today that Chris has only gained 4 pounds in a year and a half. It hurts my heart.

However, Sara, expected it. We had warned her was sick, that he wasn't eating, she wants to see us back in 3 weeks for another check. I was relieved that they didn't want us to start up the Feeding Tube again. We're going to start the peri-actin that Dr. M prescribed this weekend. One of it's side effects can be drowsiness and we wanted to be with him, if that is a possiblity rather than any changes missed because he's at a new school. Sara agreed wholeheartedly with this plan. It felt good, almost a good appointment amongst all the sad feelings of the last couple days.

And if all that wasn't enough, he fell asleep for 10 minutes (10!) in the car on the way home from Riley, and woke when I took his boots off. After requiring a diaper change, he was entirely too awake to take a nap today either. Today I only fought him for an hour and a half before surrenduring. But Mommy needed a nap, I'm not ready to give up naptime yet!

So, although he's not been sleeping by day, he's been sleeping great at night. Sunday, when we ventured out for the first time, we bought Chris some new sheets. Lightning McQueen Sheets! We decided to pull the air mattress from his big boy room, because he needed something a little warmer, like a real mattress, and a real pillow. He's now on sleeping on the floor with a real twin size mattress(covered in 2 waterproof, allergen free mattress pads) with a real pillow. Gotta give Lightning McQueen his kudos, he made the transition REAL easy. Chris saw those sheets come out of the laundry, and couldn't even wait for us to make and prep the bed. He demanded to use a sheet for Monday's nap! One would think he wouldn't be able to nap in the bed at all, since he's been passing the nights in it, but no. He's not been sleeping soundly, he's merped a couple times, but nothing real serious, just blanket arrangement stuff. He also found a new favorite book this week, Goodnight Gorilla. But the way he says gorilla, it's hysterical. "Do-willa-walla." So he calls it "Do night, Do-willa-walla". We've been reading it all week, he's even reading it himself. He loves it, and there's only like 10 words in the whole book. He loves saying goodnight to all the animals, and the look on the 'mommy's eyes' when she realizes she has an entire zoo in her bedroom, it makes him giggle every time. See, sometimes, he's still my baby boy. Doo night, do willa walla.