A New Routine: Staying Home

November is the month of Thanksgiving and there is hardly anything we're more thankful for right now than the opportunity for Claudia to stay home with Daniel.

During the past 18 months, Daniel has morphed from a baby into a full blown toddler. It goes without saying, but time goes by so fast. In fact, the other day even Daniel made a comment to that affect. While trailing behind Claudia at the zoo, he told her in his child-like voice, "Mommy, I'm tired. My legs hurt. I'm old."

And while the little guy isn't quite as old as he may feel, we want to make sure Claudia is able to enjoy the few years he has before he goes to school by staying home with him.

So the morning rush of diaper changes, throwing on clothes and stuffing something, anything, into our mouths before jumping in the car to go to day care has been replaced with a much more sane routine. Daniel still wakes up early, but now he has a little more time to enjoy the morning.

Claudia is still trying to figure out their routine a little bit, but she's doing an amazing job. She's already found a few story-time activities at the local libraries and zoo. They've done crafts together and played with Play-do.

But the highlight of every day and the best part about being home with Daniel is easy for her to identify.

"It's his talking," she says while grinning. "He says some funny things every day."

I have an idea of what she means. When we went to the beach with him for a week in June, both of us were surprised by how much he could do and say. We felt a little guilty that we didn't know he could do so much. It made us realize how much we were missing because he was in day care and we were at work.

We had a great experience with Susan Gray School for the first year-and-a-half. The staff there was exceptional and Daniel made quite a few friends with kids and staff. If you're in the Nashville-area and looking for a day care, then they are worth considering.

But for us, it comes down to being content with what we have and making sure our little guy doesn't feel too old too soon.

Little D Screams for Ice Cream

While driving home from picking Daniel up at day care, Abuela needed to make a quick stop at Sam's Club to grab a couple of items.

Daniel, who has overnight turned into the backseat navigator despite having never driven a car in his life, immediately picked up on the deviation in routine route home.

"Abu, donde vamos," he asked and she replied, "to Sam's Club."

"Porque," quizzed Daniel; to which she explained there were some things she needed to buy. Then Daniel asked, "Abu, ice cream. Danielito ice cream."

Abuela said she would need to call mommy and ask for permission. 

At two, Daniel has begun to master the basic foundations of language and communication. It's really very fun to witness. But what came next was a surprise.

"Abu, no mommy. No habla Mommy. Solo Danielito ice cream," he said; which basically means don't tell Mommy that you bought me ice cream.

Really? (to borrow a Seinfeld phrase)

At two years old he has already mastered to a certain level manipulation, and now deceit. What type of child are we raising? Where have we gone wrong? Is this a natural-born skill that has just now begun to show itself, or is this new-found-talent something he picked up from school friends?

Of course, I ask all of the above a little tongue in cheek. We know we're raising him okay and these are the stories we don't ever want to forget.

God bless,

For The Love of a Dog

Moments before embarking on a four-hour-drive to visit family, Claudia narrowly averted a crisis.

"Can you get Wow-Wow, please," she shouted to me from the car.

Without thinking a second thought, I disappeared inside the house and began a quick search in all of the usual places. Inside Daniel's toy work bench. Inside the "trunk" of his tricycle. Upstairs in his room. Den. Kitchen. Our bedroom. Okay, now I'm running out of places Wow-Wow could be.

A sickening feeling entered my mind. I recalled the last time I saw his treasured stuffed dog. It was a few hours earlier in Dick's Sporting Goods right after Daniel had ducked under some merchandise to disappear for a few solitary moments to go poop.

After discovering Daniel's dirty diaper we jetted off to the house and left "man's best friend" behind. I quickly accepted this to be the case. Thankfully, we had replaced Wow-Wow with Wow-Wow 2 only a few weeks earlier and still had the original tucked away in a closet.

I grabbed the original Wow-Wow, who smelled like a real dog; which was the reason it had been replaced in the first place. But, it would do for the weekend during an emergency.

I called Claudia while she was en route to family to let her know I had returned to Dick's Sporting Goods, but no one had turned in Wow-Wow. So, I had already ordered another one from Amazon.com and would have it in a couple of days.

Crisis totally averted. Whew!

We've all been children at some point which means odds are good that we've all had a treasured stuffed animal. For Daniel, it's Wow-Wow.

He has developed a great attachment to the stuffed animal. He plays with it all of the time. His daycare has noted that he sleeps during nap time about an hour longer on the days when Wow-Wow is with him. Wow-Wow eats. Wow-Wow barks and licks your face. In Daniel's world the little doll does just about everything a real dog can do.

Which is why we jump through so many hoops as parents to make sure we don't lose Wow-Wow.

Of course, we still feel more than a little silly after Claudia noticed at her sister's house that Wow-Wow was laying on the bed, and Wow-Wow 2 was snuggled in Daniel's arms. Averted crisis. Well, it never really was one to begin with.