Daycare question

Taylor chills out in his brother's Spiderman chair.

I love this picture!

I'm not 100% sure how I'm feeling about daycare. The good thing is that it tuckers them out! Also, by the end of my work day, I just can't wait to see them and play with them and love on 'em. I think working is good for me. I know they are getting socialization and all that, but my only concern is that there is a little too much free time. Any thoughts? They are at a montesorri, so I know they have a different phylosophy, but for those of you with kids in day care - how 'scheduled' is their day?

PRE-CIOUS!

Look at that smile!!
James and Nathanael closely examine their new baby brother and try decide if they want to keep him!

J and N have gotten used to the idea of the baby, and even ask what Taylor is doing (standard answers: sleeping or eating). When James sings 'patty cake', he now includes Talyor as part of the family, marking his cakes for "daddy, mommy, nate-nate, james, and taylor". A big step, I think.

I took Taylor for his daycare physcial yesturday, and he is 23 1/2 inches long and 12 pounds (at 13 weeks). He's catching up just fine!

Smile

Taylor's smile...really, is it just me, or does your baby's smile just melt your heart? He is so precious. I was reading today about babies his age and realized I should be having him 'play' with objects of multiple colors. I do hav a playmat he lays on and there are these animals that hang above him, but I just want to make sure I am stimulating his brain properly. With him being cocaine positive, I was told that orchestral music would be good to help order his brain functions. I must admit I've been delinguent in that. It's difficult. taylor is on the total opposite schedule of the other 2. James and Nathanael go to bed at 8, and Taylor is wide eyed and raring to go from 8 to about 11 at night, by which point I am so tired. The good thing is though, that when James and Nathanael are the most needy of attention (dinner, bedtime), Taylor is not a distraction from them. Hmmm.... Any suggestions?

Day 2 at daycare went well, and they are obviously keeping them on the go, because James and Nathanael both went to bed right at 8:00, no fussing or anything. They must have been really tired!

Day Care

The boys started daycare yesturday. I go back to work next week, so I wanted to get them settled at the daycare and not try to do work/daycare all in the same week. Although there were tears at the initial "mommy's leaving", they did great. Okay, I admit, I lost it when I was holding Nathanael and had to hand him over. I was pititful. The staff is in love with Taylor of course, the sweetest baby with the biggest smile ever! James brought home art for the refrigerator, so that was very fun.

Today I took James and Nathanael for thier physicals for daycare, and I've found a nurse practitioner that I really like. She's great with them, so they had fun going to the doctor and getting stickers. My plan for today is to CLEAN MY HOUSE!!

Thr first 5 weeks

Wow! What a wild ride! I think the boys have adapted better than expected, and better than Ken and I! We are exhausted! They are energetic, they crave knowledge (what's that?) and stability...even though they 'buck' the rules, they know what their schedule is, and remind us when we've gone astray!

James and Nathanael love to go for stroller walks, which has me wearing Taylor on my front and pushing them in a double stroller - quite the workout. One of our biggest trials has been bedtime, and naptime. the boys have alot of trouble unwinding. We've had to try out several sleeping arrangements. Nighttime has worked out better than nap. We have their beds pushed together, and although we put them down in separate beds, they usually end up sharing one by the time morning comes.

The boys had three scheduled visits with their bio parents. After the first one, James did not talk for over an hour, followed by screaming and kicking. He was fine by the next day. So, the next week, I tried to prepare him to let him know he was going to see his parents. They did not show up, and once again, James stopped talking for awhile. Third visit - again, the parents did not show up. Can you imagine? So the visits have been suspended until at least the court date in November. The boys have been in the 'system' for 9 months, and the state wants to determine a permanent plan within a year, so we'll see what they do. taylor is a separate case, so they may reinstate visits for him. It's a crazy system. So legally, where are we as far as possible adoption? Not really sure. The next court date may shed some light.

Taylor is such s a good baby. Really. And thank God, because nathanael is our wild child. Taylor smiles all the time, and rarely cries. Nathanael however, has alot of temper tantrums, and just plain tests us. But then he turns around with a sweet little grin and you just have to hug him!

When James came to us, he tested as having a 65% speech delay. We had him retested last week, and he tested AT age level! We are so proud of him! He has really come out of his shell and is friendly to people in stores, church, etc. This is the same boy who ran and hid when knew people came to the house. What 5 weeks can do!

We did do a visit with their great grandmother, who had kept J&N for 8 months before coming to us. she is a very sweet lady, and the boys were really happy to see her, but quite confused for a few days afterwards...asking where was granny, and whose house was she at. Poor little thing, James is the only one who I think really understands just enough to be confused.

Gosh, there are so many things that have happened, I guess I'll just leave it at that for now.