January 17, 2012
Dear little Nicky,
This month has been full of challenges for you, little one. The biggest and scariest has been starting a new school. Taking you out of your old daycare was in some ways an easy decision and some ways a hard one. You were so comfortable there and had so many little friends that you had been with since you were 5 months old. That said we didn’t love the teachers or the quality of the preschool as you got older, so we decided to move you to a real preschool. It’s a Montessori, which means you still pretty much play all day and get to decide what to do with your time, but you now have experienced and qualified teachers guiding you through what you can learn from each of the activities. You have a really good friend in your class who has been so sweet showing you everything about your new school and making you feel more comfortable, but it’s still be a pretty scary change. The first week was so hard – the minute we would mention school in the morning you would start to cry and it would keep going the whole way to school and at least until we dropped you off. It breaks my heart to see you so scared. But every day you’re crying a little bit less in the mornings. I can tell you love playing at school too once you’ve calmed down. When I pick you up in the afternoons you’re always happily playing with something and excited to show me what you’ve been doing. I think it will take a few more weeks, but pretty soon you’ll be happy to go there and see all your new little friends. I wish I could make it easier for you, but I keep trying to remind myself that it’s good to do the hard thing sometimes and step out of your comfort zone. This will definitely be a growing experience for you and will help you get ready to be brave for all the new experiences you will have later in life like your first day of school or your first day at college or your first day at work or any other first you decide to try.
Our other challenge has been sickness this month. Even before you started your new school you were sick. We’ve had a handful of colds, a stomach virus and now RSV. I could probably count the number of days you’ve been healthy this month on one hand and the stomach virus and RSV were real doozies. The stomach virus hit us out of nowhere. It was the night before Christmas Eve and we were out to dinner before going to look at Christmas lights. You didn’t give any indication that you weren’t feeling well, you just suddenly stood up in the booth at the pizza parlor and with no warning at all vomited ALL OVER. Several times. We struggled through Christmas in survival mode and took a couple days after to recover fully. Later in the month we were thrown right back into survival mode when we had to make a trip to urgent care for a high fever. I’m afraid we’re in for more sickness over the next couple months too as you get to know all the new winter germs at your new school too.
But it hasn’t all been bad. You have very suddenly started being a really big helper this month and have gotten really good at listening to mommy and daddy. Your comprehension seems to be taking off, which helps when we ask you to do something or give you choices. It’s a subtle difference but you suddenly seem so much older and being able to communicate with you just that extra little bit makes our days so much easier. You love to practice writing. You can’t actually make any letters yet, but when you’re “doing QRS” (by the way, these are your favorite letters in the alphabet – they were the first ones you sang when you learned the alphabet song and now you sometimes call the ABCs the QRSs) you make very small precise strokes in a line like you know exactly what you’re doing. You LOVE working on puzzles, which you do all day long at school and when you come home. It’s so much fun watching you do these big boy activities! I can’t believe you’re getting so big!
Love you!
Mommy