Injury!

Darcy got her first injury at school today. From what we can understand she was running around in gym class and fell, bashing her chin against the floor. As you can see, it looks pretty ugly.


On the Wesley news, Nick put Wesley to bed tonight for the first time and fell asleep quite quickly. I think we're doing really well. He seems to be adjusting as well as can be expected. I'm pretty pleased about that.

Finished!

I put Wesley to bed tonight without nursing him. It's the first time in his 13 months that has happened. I've been working towards it for several weeks, decreasing his last feeding by a minute or two every night but tonight was the first night he got nothing. I was nervous about how it would go but it seems to have been all right.

Last night I told him it was his last night of nursing. I don't think he can understand that but he cried for nearly an hour before falling asleep. Tonight I didn't say anything, I just read him his book, sang a little song and put him in bed. 15 minutes later, he was asleep. He did stand up in his crib and point at the rocking chair when I put him in bed but I just closed the door and walked away. He seemed to get the hint.

I feel like I should be sad about this chapter of my life being over but I'm really not. I'm so relieved. Darcy was a good baby to nurse, all cuddly and sweet. Nursing Wesley has been anything but a pleasure. Instead of cuddling while he was nursing, Wesley's favourite activity was slapping me. He would change it up sometimes and pinch me or scratch me. There was an occasional kick. This doesn't even get into the biting... Sometimes the slaps would be so loud that Nick could hear them in another room. Not cool. Combine all this with the fact that he never drank from a bottle and has only reliably been drinking from a cup for the last month and it became pretty exhausting for me. I was willing to do it for the well-being of my son, but I am more than willing for it to be over.

We've decided that I will put Wesley to bed for the first couple of nights and then Nick will start doing some nights too. I know it's not guaranteed to be smooth sailing but at least we've gotten off to a good start!

Quick Update

We had to go to Darcy's school tonight for a welcome meeting for new families. It was pretty informal, just to give us some information about some of the school's programs and how we can get involved. We got a bit more information about how Darcy is doing too.

When we pulled into the parking lot there was a little boy and his parents getting out of the car beside us. From the backseat I hear, "Oh, I thought that was the cute boy but that's not him." I just about fell out of my chair. Some might say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree but they'd be wrong!

We saw her teacher inside and she told us that Darcy has cried a few times and that today she had asked for a telephone to call home. She doesn't even know our phone number (I know I should teach her). Darcy told me that sometimes her heart feels like crying so she has to cry. We're just trying to encourage her and remind her that school is fun and that she doesn't need Mommy around all the time. Aside from the couple outbursts of tears though Darcy is doing great in the classroom and is a lot of fun to have around, she said. That's very good to hear.

So we hope the tears will soon be over and that she'll enjoy going to school every day. Nick, Wesley and I took a really nice walk this afternoon while she was gone!

Sailing Along

Things seem to be going pretty well for Darcy at school. We found the shoes we thought she had lost but she still has two pairs at school and we can't seem to get her to bring the extra pair home. She just doesn't seem to have a grasp on the whole "inside shoe - outside shoe" thing yet.

She is starting to make some friends and talks a lot about a girl named Samantha. She also told us today about some boys who were hitting and kicking but according to her, she has been perfect.

We're a little concerned that she's not eating her snacks, though. For the past couple of days they've come home untouched. They can bring cookies on Fridays so I expect we won't have any problems with tomorrow's snack.

We've been asking her what French words she's been learning and she keeps saying none. Then last night I was asking her what she did at recess and she said "Nothing because I had to go get my sac a dos." I asked her what that meant and she said, "My sac a dos!" Then she finally took pity on her non-French-speaking mother and told me it meant backpack. She's also used a few other French words in conversation so we know she's learning some.

I haven't talked much about Wesley in all the excitement about Darcy going to school. He's starting to take a few steps now but of course he stops as soon as I get the camera out. Hopefully we'll get some pictures or a video soon. He's also growing several teeth right now so he's been kind of cranky over the past few days. Not cool. He's drinking a lot of milk and we're trying to feed him lots so hopefully he's gaining weight too. A month ago I was nursing him three times a day for a total of an hour a day. Now I'm down to once a day and tonight that was only for 9 minutes. I'm cutting out a minute a night until I'm done. He's pretty mad at me and isn't settling down to sleep right now because he wants to be nursed more, but he'll get used to it. I can definitely get used to it!

First Day Summary

There were a few bumps in the road but I think her first day at school went pretty well.

The bus was about 20 minutes late coming home at the end of the day. A few buses went by our stop and one even stopped without Darcy getting off, but it was a different bus line than what had picked her up so I was pretty sure that we were still OK. Eventually her bus arrived and she got off with a big smile on her face.

The first thing I noticed is that she was wearing the new shoes we had bought her that were to be designated as "inside shoes". I asked her what happened to her other shoes and she said she couldn't find them. I had put her name on her inside shoes but not her outside shoes because I figured that those would just stay in her cubby hole. Silly me. I hope we can find them.

She cried when she got home when I asked her the names of some of the other kids in her class and she didn't know any of them. She also said she didn't have anyone to play with at recess. I encouraged her to find another little girl tomorrow and introduce herself and ask the girl if she wants to be friends. I told her there were probably other girls who felt lonely too and that she'd have lots of friends soon.

We were asked to send two snacks but she had only eaten one. We'll see if she does better in the future.

She told me they had learned a new song today called, "Bonjour samalama". I'm pretty sure that's not the right second word but that's what she told me. She also told me that when they were learning the song the teacher had asked if anyone knew what bonjour meant and she put up her hand and the teacher called on her. She said it meant hello and she was correct. She kept saying "correct" over and over. It cracked me up. She was very proud of herself for getting a right answer.

The rest of the evening went well until I was turning out the light for bed. Then she started to really cry, saying how much she missed me during the day. She asked me to lay down with her and although I won't usually do that I made an exception tonight. I told her she could remember our faces when she felt lonely at school and that would make her feel better. Then she started rhyming off all kinds of faces she could think of (me, Nick, Wesley, her cow, things like that). Soon she was ready for me to leave so I said goodnight and closed the door. I was in my room for a few minutes when I heard her door open. I went to see what was going on and she said, "Mommy, can I think of my toothbrush's face when I'm sad?" Her toothbrush has Belle from Beauty and the Beast on it so I told her she could. That put a big smile on her face and she closed the door and went back to bed. I haven't heard anything else from her.

So, there were a few perfectly normal worries but I think we're on the right track. I'm sure that by the end of the week she'll forget that there was ever a time when she didn't go to school!

And She's Off!

Darcy is at school as I write this. We had a pretty fun morning at home and then an early lunch and off to the bus stop.

We were told the bus would meet us at the corner of Pillette and Ontario, quite near our house but we didn't know which corner to wait at. Nick was off then so we all went together to wait for the bus. When we got to the corner we saw the boy from across the street and his Dad waiting on the other side of the busy street from where we were so we crossed to wait for them. We waited for a few minutes with a couple of false alarms with other school buses going past but finally our bus came and stopped but it was across the street from where we were so we all had to cross back to get on the bus. We moved quickly so we weren't really thinking but I had the stroller and the camera and Nick had Darcy so we nearly didn't get a picture of her getting on the bus. She was so excited to get on the bus that she didn't kiss either of us goodbye she just got right on the bus. I managed to get a picture of her halfway up the stairs though. The driver had a checklist and knew Darcy and Quinn would be getting on there so we knew she got on the right bus. Wesley and I will go at 4:00 to see if she gets off where she's supposed to.

I was much stronger than I expected to be and I didn't cry at all, even after the bus drove away. Nick, Trevor and I walked back toward our houses together and chatted a little so that helped keep me from crying. Then when Nick and I were walking up our driveway our neighbour was getting out of his car. This guy is well into his 70's and is an interesting character. He got out of his car and said hi to us, but he was clearly wearing women's sunglasses (really glamourous ones at that) and didn't seem notice. If he did notice, he didn't seem to mind. Well, by the time I got into the house I was laughing so much about that that there were no tears.

We were eating lunch and the phone rang just as the class time was supposed to be starting. We thought at first that it might be family calling to see how she made out, but then I panicked and thought it was the school calling to say something was wrong. We should have known that it was just a solicitor!

So I'd have to say so far so good. We'll see in an hour if she's home in once piece. I'll update later with her account of how the day went! I'll also be putting more pictures on facebook and flickr.

What, Me Worry?

Darcy seems to have been having trouble sleeping lately. She's always been a great sleeper but over the past week or so she has been waking up in the night and coming into our room for a different reason every night.

The first night she just needed a snuggle. The next night she had lost Heidi, her cow that sleeps with her every night. The next night she lost her pillow and on a different night she woke up twice for drinks in the night. When she saw I was serious about telling her to stay in bed that night she then suddenly had to go to the bathroom.

I tend to overthink things. I had just read an article about dealing with pre-school stress and it said that sleep disturbances could be the result of anxiety about the changes to come. I was always scared about starting a new school and I remember being really freaked out just as school was about to begin so I thought this could be the problem. Here is the conversation we had at breakfast after the two-drink night...

Me: Darcy, are you worried about starting to go to school?
Darcy: No. Why do you think I'm worried?
Me: Because you keep waking up at night and saying you lost Heidi, or you lost your pillow or you need drinks.
Darcy (looking at me like I'm crazy): No Mom, that just means I lost stuff or I'm really, really thirsty.

I had to laugh at myself.

She doesn't start school tomorrow. Kindergarten doesn't start until next Monday. We go for an interview with the teacher on Thursday and then that's it until the bus picks her up on Monday.