Another LONG week

I guess I should start by saying J has been healthy.  No temperatures, no ear infections, no vomiting, etc.  He has the occasional drippy nose and sneezes, but other than that, he's A-OK.  It's been 3 whole weeks without getting a phone call from daycare.  For a while I was getting a call 3 out of the 5 weeks and I had to go pick him up.  I've made more visits to the pediatrician's office than I'd like to admit. 

For the past few mornings J has become very reluctant about going for a car ride.  I've had to try an con him into the idea by bribing him with food.  Lately he's been eating bits of my bagel in the car.  He loves bagels lately.  But even that has stopped working for me.  I should preface that when I was pregnant, I had time to think about what kind of parent I wanted to be, what I wanted to try and be.  It's really great to have support from other young mothers.  But when it comes down to it, when you're in the midst of confronting your toddler, the stress or anxiety or frustration will only affect me at that time.  I decided early on that I would be the kind of parent that treats their kid as a little person.  There is a fine grey line here, but I try to take J's feelings and opinions into account when we make decisions.  Of course these are small decisions.

So when we're getting ready in the mornings and I have to go to work, the big decision we have to tackle is:  Do you want to go for a car ride?  This seems to have been the most simplist question for him to understand.  And he would get very excited to go in the car.  He even talks about how the car goes vroom vroom as we leave the house.  For a while I could ask him if he wanted to go see so-and-so (kids at daycare) and he'd get so excited and respond with 'YAH-YAH'.  But lately that excitment has been extinguished.  I thought maybe he wasn't happy at daycare anymore, but when we get there, he runs off and plays.  He has been there since he was 8 months old, there have been a lot of changes there, but the same kids go there so I didn't think that could be the big issue.

Since I've been having this issue this week I have been finding myself not even approaching J with the question or letting him know what we'd be doing.  In the lack of time in some mornings, we just need to go.  Now.  There is very little time for debate.  I quickly stopped myself from being this kind of person because it's not who I want to be.  I obviously realize that whatever J is feeling in the mornings has to be put on the back burner because we do have to leave.  But I do try to make a concious effort that leaving the house in the morning is part of J's interest too.

We all have days where we want to stay in bed for a little while longer.  I think this week has been that kind of week for J.  It seems he just wants to stay at home a little longer.  He loves playing with Mommy, Daddy, & Marble (our cat).  We have a 3 day weekend coming up, Presidents Day is on Monday and daycare is closed.  Nana & Grandpa will be up to spend the day with J while we're at work, but I think the long weekend at home will be good for him.

J meeting Marble

J at 9 months playing with Marble