Here it is Sunday night and I sit here typing with a knot growing in my stomach. Where has the time gone? We are about to close one chapter of our book and start a new one. I can't believe how fast the past nine months has gone by. It seems like just yesterday I was having my last day of work at the VA and starting on this journey of moving and staying home with Jack and Will. Boy have I been blessed. I can honestly say I had many mixed emotions about being a stay at home mom. At first I was happy and excited to not have to wake up to an alarm or miss a full day of fun with my boys, but I was also nervous-would I become bored and lonely and miss having friends and something of my own to do each day? Now I can say that there were many days were I was lonely (and still are), but there were so many more days that were fun and exciting and wonderful. I feel so lucky to have been able to be home with Will for 13 of the past 15 months! (I really only worked 2 months after my maternity leave before we moved) To watch him grow and learn and change. I have loved having Jack home with me everyday too. Certainly there have been MANY challenging days (as there are with 3 year olds), but we have laughed and gone on so many adventures whether in our own backyard or out in our community. He and Will have helped me to break out of my old shell and try new things-new playgrounds, library story time, all that the Y we joined has to offer. We have met other moms and kids together and really created a great routine for ourselves. I am going to miss that so much. Again, I am blessed to have had this opportunity.
Now on to our new routine.....
For the next 4 weeks I will be working almost full time (36 hours/week) for the orientation period of my new job. After that I will work at most 32 hours/week, but most likely only 24 hours. So hold on tight because these next few weeks are really going to be crazy. Tom and I will be alternating (based on my start and end time each day) the pick up and drop off each day. We will be switching car seats around and parenting roles. Whoever is doing the AM drop off will do breakfast with the boys as well as get them ready, while the other will do the dinner end of the day. Up until now I have been doing all the meals with the boys and Tom has only had to get himself out of the door in the mornings. It is going to be a change for us all. We have a good plan set up now with a lot of 'night before' prep. We used this past week as a trial run to start to iron out some kinks and help us (ME) feel less anxious about this first week.
The boys are enrolled at a daycare and spent last week getting acclimated. It was a tough week, but I am so happy that I was able to ease them in before I had to actually be gone all day at work. There were lots of tears (mostly from me) but we made it to Friday. Jack seems to love it although he hates that they have nap time and told me firmly that he "DOES NOT WANT TO NAP." I talked to the teacher about it and it is just a quiet time and he does not HAVE to nap. He still insists on bringing a blanket and his pillow pet with him everyday (and will not leave them in his cubby each night-so we end up lugging them back and forth). He was so happy when I told him he doesn't actually have to sleep, but just be quiet and calm. There is a little mini cafeteria that he has lunch in each day where he sits at a table with 3 other 'friends'. There is outside playground play each morning and Monday and Wednesday afternoons they get time on the splash pad outside. Every Friday they have ice cream for the afternoon snack. What more could he ask for? :)
The sweetest part of last week was on the first day, as we walked into the center, Jack says:
"Mom, I'm going to miss Will today. Can I go and check up on him?"
This definitely got my waterworks started!
Will is having a little bit of a harder time adjusting. But can you blame him? He has just been with me all his life (and my mom for 2 months). He cries when I leave, screams some mornings. He didn't eat the first 2 days except for a few cheerios and some milk and refused to sleep at nap time. AWESOME! By Friday, I packed him a lunch, at the teachers request (there is a cook on site with a full kitchen so all their meals are prepared for them) and he did much better. He started napping too. I was reassured that his responses were all normal and that he IS adjusting fine, but that it will take time. His 2 teachers are very sweet and loving. I can't wait for them to start to see the "true" Will-all then sweetness and stubbornness and funniness that we know and love.
I know that these next few weeks are going to be challenging. I am mourning the loss of my endless days off, of playground adventures, poolside afternoons, zoo trips, museum afternoons and library story times. I am excited to start a new journey with work. I am excited to start to use my brain again. I am nervous to meet new people and get to know a new hospital. I am sad to lose my awesome gym ritual but know I will find a new way to incorporate what I have come to love. I will miss my boys immensely each day but look forward to seeing their smiles when I pick them up. I can't wait to hear about their days and see what they have learned. I know that this crazy time will pass and a new crazy will step in.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Sunday, July 15, 2012
A little Rhody vacation: Traveling with Preschoolers/Toddlers
Time is flying by, as it typically does in the summer months. Since I received a start date for my new job it seems like the days just tick by so fast. We have had a trip to RI planned for a few months and it ended up being a great way to end my 9 months of not working. After much research we decided to drive back to RI. Tom was able to take a full 2 weeks off from work and we knew that we needed more than 7 days to drive and have adequate time to visit RI. As the day of departure approached I was becoming more and more anxious about our drive up to RI. We decided to take a new route and we planned to drive roughly 8 hours each day for 2 days, stopping to spend the night in a hotel. When we drove down and back from Florida in March, the boys did great. They did as well as expected for such a long ride. We did not plan as well and there were definitely a lot more stops and a lot more tears.
Here are my tips for what worked for us during our long ride.
Travelling with Toddlers/Preschoolers:
When I try to remember the specifics of that drive I mostly remember that I spent a majority of it sitting in the back seat and that I didn't want to do it again anytime soon. This is where my anxiety was coming from. This time I set out weeks before preparing for the journey. I found a lot of great ideas on Pinterest and was able to put together a survival basket for us. This site I used the most from, but a simple "traveling with preschoolers or toddlers" google search yielded lots of fun ideas for this trip and the future. The biggest hit came from the dollar store. I went out and bought a bunch of silly little toys (matchbox cars, a wiggly worm, Cars crayons, coloring book, and sticky bugs for the windows) and a few candy treats (M&M's and a ring pop). I wrapped each item individually in different color tissue paper and had them hidden in a basket in the front seat with me. After a long stretch in the car or after some really good behavior (no whining, no crying, etc). I would reach in and pick out a treat for Jack to open or give him a choice between 2 to pick one. He LOVED it! The best part-he didn't know how many there were so he never asked for more (until the ride back when he knew that there WERE more). I made up a bunch but only need to use 4 for the ride up and so I had a bunch left over for the ride back. It was perfect. I even ended up giving him quite a few in the last 2 hours before home, just to use them up and at a time when we ALL were getting so sick of being in the car.
I also added 3 new apps to our iPad that kept him busy for 4 hours each day in the car. It was crazy! I would allow him to have the iPad after lunch each day. I wanted him to learn that there were other ways to keep busy in the car and that looking out the window was one of the best ones. I will say that in the end, the iPad made the trip and I was so happy with the apps that I added. The best app I added was actually free too! It is called the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally appisode. It is an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse but it is interactive and responses to verbal cues by the child as well as has them counting and shaking and moving the iPad. Jack literally watched it on repeat for hours. The other ones I added were called "Press Here" and "Bloki" (they were each under $2.00). Bloki was a fail, but Press Here got some good play time.
We used "The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band" only once during the ride and I acted out each song for the boys and Tom. I think Jack and Tom shook their heads in disgust at me, but Will ate it up! Whatever works!
I made up a canvas bucket of toys for both Jack and Will and put it on the seat in between them. This way they each could reach it and get toys on their own and change them when they were bored. Giving Will his blankie ended up being his saving grace and he sat quietly holding it, rubbing it and snuggling it while looking out the window or watching Jack be silly. We made sure to make adequate stops along the way and packed our cooler with good, nutritious food. We had a picnic at the rest stops and let the boys run in the grass.
All in all the trip went very smoothly and rejuvenated my confidence in traveling long distances with them. I only sat in the back seat for the last hour on the first 2 days and not at all on the ride home. Don't get me wrong, our trip did not go without ANY hiccups. Jack asked to stop to poop twice in the first hour the first day, the second stop leaving him and I in a Bojangles bathroom for the better part of a half hour. Tom actually was getting Will out of his seat when we emerged to come and check on us. It seemed like we would never get moving. On the way back to SC, just an hour shy of our stop for the first day, Jack got car sick and we had to do an emergency stop on the side of I-81 to clean him and the car seat up. As he stood behind the car with Tom in only his crocs and underwear he cried "Why am I standing here in crocs and undies.....I NEED PANTS ON!" Meanwhile I scrubbed the car seat down while crouched on top of the cooler with the wind whipping by me as tractor trailer after tractor trailer whizzed by. We managed to get everything cleaned and situated quickly and we were on our way again, Jack feeling much better!
Here are my tips for what worked for us during our long ride.
Travelling with Toddlers/Preschoolers:
When I try to remember the specifics of that drive I mostly remember that I spent a majority of it sitting in the back seat and that I didn't want to do it again anytime soon. This is where my anxiety was coming from. This time I set out weeks before preparing for the journey. I found a lot of great ideas on Pinterest and was able to put together a survival basket for us. This site I used the most from, but a simple "traveling with preschoolers or toddlers" google search yielded lots of fun ideas for this trip and the future. The biggest hit came from the dollar store. I went out and bought a bunch of silly little toys (matchbox cars, a wiggly worm, Cars crayons, coloring book, and sticky bugs for the windows) and a few candy treats (M&M's and a ring pop). I wrapped each item individually in different color tissue paper and had them hidden in a basket in the front seat with me. After a long stretch in the car or after some really good behavior (no whining, no crying, etc). I would reach in and pick out a treat for Jack to open or give him a choice between 2 to pick one. He LOVED it! The best part-he didn't know how many there were so he never asked for more (until the ride back when he knew that there WERE more). I made up a bunch but only need to use 4 for the ride up and so I had a bunch left over for the ride back. It was perfect. I even ended up giving him quite a few in the last 2 hours before home, just to use them up and at a time when we ALL were getting so sick of being in the car.
I also added 3 new apps to our iPad that kept him busy for 4 hours each day in the car. It was crazy! I would allow him to have the iPad after lunch each day. I wanted him to learn that there were other ways to keep busy in the car and that looking out the window was one of the best ones. I will say that in the end, the iPad made the trip and I was so happy with the apps that I added. The best app I added was actually free too! It is called the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally appisode. It is an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse but it is interactive and responses to verbal cues by the child as well as has them counting and shaking and moving the iPad. Jack literally watched it on repeat for hours. The other ones I added were called "Press Here" and "Bloki" (they were each under $2.00). Bloki was a fail, but Press Here got some good play time.
We used "The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band" only once during the ride and I acted out each song for the boys and Tom. I think Jack and Tom shook their heads in disgust at me, but Will ate it up! Whatever works!
I made up a canvas bucket of toys for both Jack and Will and put it on the seat in between them. This way they each could reach it and get toys on their own and change them when they were bored. Giving Will his blankie ended up being his saving grace and he sat quietly holding it, rubbing it and snuggling it while looking out the window or watching Jack be silly. We made sure to make adequate stops along the way and packed our cooler with good, nutritious food. We had a picnic at the rest stops and let the boys run in the grass.
All in all the trip went very smoothly and rejuvenated my confidence in traveling long distances with them. I only sat in the back seat for the last hour on the first 2 days and not at all on the ride home. Don't get me wrong, our trip did not go without ANY hiccups. Jack asked to stop to poop twice in the first hour the first day, the second stop leaving him and I in a Bojangles bathroom for the better part of a half hour. Tom actually was getting Will out of his seat when we emerged to come and check on us. It seemed like we would never get moving. On the way back to SC, just an hour shy of our stop for the first day, Jack got car sick and we had to do an emergency stop on the side of I-81 to clean him and the car seat up. As he stood behind the car with Tom in only his crocs and underwear he cried "Why am I standing here in crocs and undies.....I NEED PANTS ON!" Meanwhile I scrubbed the car seat down while crouched on top of the cooler with the wind whipping by me as tractor trailer after tractor trailer whizzed by. We managed to get everything cleaned and situated quickly and we were on our way again, Jack feeling much better!
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