They Are Totally Worth It!

I spent my morning sitting next to the new trampoline's zipper-door singing the same song over and over with heartfelt enthusiasm…..

To the tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”

We ON-LY jump

when the ZIPper’s ZIPPED!

We ON-LY jump

when the ZIPper’s ZIPPED!

We ON-LY jump

when the ZIPper’s ZIPPED!

So we can be SAFE!

Letting the kids get into it when they are not strictly taking turns jumping, but rather just to sit and play, watch Blue’s Clue’s, or just hang out in there IS a lot more trouble for me to manage, but it’s such a cool place to play – how can I NOT let them?

Teaching anything is so much easier when you start out clear and consistent on procedure (a ‘la Harry Wong’s First Days of School book). I have faith that my short friends will “get it” and we will have many, many happy bouncy times together, learning to cooperate and take turns as well as many other lessons.

P.S. 2 outta 4 of them had a BLAST jumping on the "JUMP-A-LENE" -with the zipper zipped, of course!

Why I Love My Daycare Mommies So Much

If you talk to me for very long you’ll probably hear me say I am thankful for my wonderful families that I serve in my home daycare (or something along those lines). I am super-blessed by these awesome people, but not surprised… God has always been faithful to bring the most awesome people into my life when I needed them the most. I could fill pages with examples of this, but I think I’ll save that for another blog entry. This entry is just about the awesome Mommies who trust me to help them with their little ones while they work.

Each of “my” Mommies is someone who I learn from and look up to in some way, but they also show me that they respect my own hard-won knowledge from years of experience with children, reading, and classes. We often bounce ideas off each other or give each other advice on parenting issues.

They are also very appreciative of my work with their kids and they each show it in their own unmistakable way.

One Mommy wrote a beautiful letter of recommendation for me in which she told all about many of the things I do for the kids which I’d thought had largely gone unnoticed. She listed so many of my ideas that reading it makes me feel very validated and valued. She’s also very artistically creative and makes fun goodies (t-shirts, little pillows, etc) for holidays which make them even more special. She also helps me with craft/gift ideas for my kids and their families.

One Mommy is a great giver of gifts. She often brings good food for me to share with the kids (fruit, chicken, cheese, etc). She’s also WONDERFUL at finding the treasures we need at garage sales or as curb-pickings. I never know what she or her husband will show up with from day to day, but we always appreciate it. A quick look around my playroom, lanai, and backyard reveals lots of things they have contributed.  She, also, makes holidays more fun by supplying fun activities that engage the kids (cookies to decorate, gingerbread house kit, etc).  I have not been good with the thank-you notes, but I hope she knows how much we do appreciate it all.

One Mommy is intellectually challenging to me and I love talking to her. She often stays to visit at pick-up time and sometimes gives me a different way of looking at things. Her perspective has helped me clarify, and even changed, my thinking on several parenting issues. She is very socially conscious, with a tender, caring heart and I always enjoy the time I spend with her. I know I can come to her with any cause or request and she will go out of her way to contribute or to help me.

My newest Mommy is out to make a positive difference in the world, and she absolutely will. I am sure her hard work and dedication will inspire me to be a better person.

Most of my Mommies have brought extended family to meet me and their child’s friends. This seems only natural since I feel related to them all anyway. I really do love their kids as if they are family and I’ve been told more than once that THAT is what makes my child-care so valuable. My MIL says, “They (the parents) know that they could pay someone three times as much money and not get better care for their kids. You can’t pay someone to love your kids while you work, and Diana… you DO!”

I consider all of these strong, beautiful women my friends and thank God for the little problem I had which led me to the lactation consultant at Bayfront (She was also a God-send to my life.), which led me to the New Mommies Group, which is where I met them all!

My dads are awesome, too. I think I write a different blog about them, though. This one’s just for the Mommies. 

Toddlers + A Ton of Rain = "Wahhhhhhhhh!"

The sun did not shine. It was stormy and bleak.

So we stayed inside at daycare all this wet, wet, wet week.

A few stormy days in a row can be hard for adults to get through. The dim light may make you cranky, sleepy or unfocused. The wet roads and sidewalks are a nuisance.  Here in The Tampa Bay area, especially, close lightning strikes and the resulting booming thunder may unnerve you. Finally, It’s just plain NO FUN to have to cancel plans outside or to miss out on fresh air and exercise.

Now imagine you are a toddler. You have to deal with everything that the adults do, but you also have your precious schedule disrupted on top of all the soggy blah-ness. I’m not being facetious here about just how valuable a predictable routine is to these little ones. Knowing what to expect next gives them the security they need to focus their energy on the vast amounts of learning that they must accomplish each day through their all important playtimes.

Is anything more fun than dumptrucks in the dirt and sand?

Up, up, up! Down, down, down the slide.

Trying to catch bubbles in her mouth.

The weather had been so beautiful here that our daily habit was to go outside once in the morning and once in the afternoon (sometimes for up to an hour at a time). Just being outside makes toddlers happy. Swinging, playing in the sand, blowing bubbles, sidewalk chalk, running, throwing balls, climbing, sliding, pushing or riding in cars, it’s all just so magical. Who can cry or be cranky when there is so much to do! Airplanes fly overhead, squirrels frolic and birds fly. We even see the occasional lizard! Ah, we love it.

Looking at a lizard See him?

Drat this prolonged rainy spell for taking it from us! Today is Thursday and the fourth day in a row of rain and mud and indoors only for these antsy one-year-olds!  My bag of tricks is running low. We’ve made a fort, used the step-stool for climbing games, used many play-dough items for the first time, made ramps for cars and balls, brought the slide onto the lanai (that means screened porch for you non-Floridians) and eaten a picnic in front of Word World in the Living Room (a sort of off-limits place).

Playing with play-dough

Ramps are fun!

Picnic in the living room

It’s turned into an endurance event. I can manage to cheer up and engage them for the most part, but ultimately we are all a little weary and grumpy. I’m just glad today is the last day of childcare for the week and we can regroup and start next week on a sunnier (figuratively and I HOPE literally) note!

NOTE: This was written a few weeks ago. The weather and everything that goes along with it has improved a lot since then!

Wonderful Day - Take TWO!

After the trying, and loooong, attempt at putting the kids down to sleep on Monday they took a good long nap, awoke refreshed and happy, and we continued to have a wonderful day. Our ten-year-old friend from across the street came over to pick up toys (always a treat for my poor back!) and stayed while I got the kids to do their first ever easel-paintings and some finger paintings.

We turned the pink paper plates into the CUTEST bunnies (pics later), and it was fun to blend red and white paint!

This is a momentous occasion... After Many tries, Mr. C. finally has decided that finger-painting is fun after all!

The way they all took to easel painting - it's like they've done it all their lives! 

We continued the wonderful day with lots of playing, singing, laughing, outside time and silliness.

So awesome to see how they are learning to play cooperatively TOGETHER nowadays. 

After the kids had left that evening I reflected that I should acknowledge (at least to myself) that I am doing an incredible job with them. The amount of energy, creativity, and sheer stamina it takes just to provide them with all they need and some they want, is staggering when I think on it. But that isn't what makes me incredible at what I do. What is incredible is that I manage to be cheerful and, most importantly, KIND to them all, even when experiencing the inevitable snafus in life. This is strength from God, for which I pray daily.

What an absolutely WONDERFUL day – Uh oh! Spoke too soon!!

This morning was a great morning in my home daycare. I had only the three older babies who play together beautifully, are used to my rules, respond well to whatever I say, and crack me up every time I turn around, with their energetic, sweet antics.

We had the usual sippy-cup shuffle. My own girl knows which color cup goes with each child, even if she can’t always name the correct color, and she helped me keep them properly distributed. We went outside and we discussed important things like taking turns, not snatching from friends, being gentle with friends, and only hitting balls with the golf clubs. Lots of active fun was had on the swing, the climber, the slides, in the sandbox and with the cars.

Then the three eagerly came inside for a wonderful snack-time at the table. We had goldfish, fruit, a little raisin toast, and some whole milk. We listened to music, practiced our manners and kind words, while I made lunch. Happy, funny music with friendly words (“I like you. We’re so glad to see you. Etc…”) played and we listened and danced while they ate and I cooked. A few reminders to ask nicely with words or sign-language were met with smiles and compliance. Cooperative little helpers followed my directions to help pick up food and sippy cups from the floor when we were all done.

Did I mention this was a GREAT morning? Well, it just continued to get better and better.  Three little listeners sat rapt with interest while I read, “The Grouchy Lady Bug” and acted it out with a stuffed animal. They had free play inside then and we had some good lessons on putting away toys before we get out new ones. They can’t do it very well yet, but I think it’s sinking in. Then we sat and played a color-sorting game with the blocks and that, too, went very well.

Amid all this busy-ness we had the usual morning routines… diaper changes, my cleaning up, songs we always sing, etc. After a lovely lunch (of salmon burgers, mixed veggies, whole wheat bread with Smart Balance, and strawberries -which I had all prepared and ready and waiting) and lots of help cleaning up, I was feeling pleased and proud of myself for how great the day had been going. They toddled off into the playroom and I gave them each one last diaper change, closed the curtains and blinds, turned on the fan and the quiet music and ...THEN I WENT AND RUINED IT ALL BY CHANGING THE ROUTINE. I attempted to put them to sleep on nap-mats instead of in their usual pack-n-plays and crib.

Cue ironic horn-music, “Whank, whank, whaaaaa!” That’s where the loveliness of the day ended with a jolt!

I attempted to lie next to, and nurse my own baby to sleep on her mat, while pretending to sleep and watch the other two. One decided it was the end of the world and wailed pitifully and loudly. They stayed on their mat and cuddled Winnie-the-Pooh, all the time adjusting the covers and getting comfy, so I had high hopes, even though the wailing continued. The other baby who wasn’t nursing, started out well, by quietly singing to themself . Then that escalated into talking loudly and laughing at private jokes (very private, as they were told by themself to themself in their incomprehensible baby language!).  This one, too, stayed on their mat, but didn’t seem to be settling down any better than the one doing all the wailing.  I got up and turned up the soft music to try to drown out some of the baby noise, which caused mine to join in the wailing. Then the baby who’d been laughing began to make wailing noises, as if to mock the other two. I got a little bit hopeful again when they all started to quiet down and settle themselves at one point. Then the music station on the t.v. played a rousing rendition of “The Entertainer” and THAT got them squirming!  “Easy Instrumentals”… my FOOT!

Ay ay ay ay ay! So by this time my baby was done nursing. I positioned myself and the nap-mats so I could comfort them all and pat backs as they drifted off to sleep. I think I could have succeeded at this with the two who aren’t mine, but my own child was having NONE of it! I could not keep her on her mat, which of course was disrupting for the other two to see the struggle I had with her!

So that was it. I surrendered. My own baby got placed into her wonderfully restful crib with her buddy, “Dog-Dog,” and all her familiar nap-time noises. I got the pack-n-plays back out for the other two, cozied them up and then they were happy as clams and went right to sleep.

I had a lot of good reasons for trying to transition them to nap mats, but they told me in no uncertain terms that they are NOT YET READY! After today, I am in NO HURRY to try this again, so they’ll have plenty of time to mature and develop their readiness before they are asked to try the nap-mats again!

 Now, however, I am having a wonderful time during my lunch break writing this. I will be refreshed and ready to go again when they are! Bring it on! It will be a WONDERFUL day!

Thank God I Am a Little Smarter Now!

I've been thinking a lot lately about a book I read about 20 years ago that had a huge influence on me and the way I treat all children, but especially my own. It's called Your Child's Self Esteem, by Dorothy Corkille Briggs. I was teaching preschool at the time and my son was in my class. He was a very well-mannered and easy-to-direct child, who was mature and smart beyond his years. I was young and dumb and thought that he should be an example of good behavior, and I expected things of him that I frankly did not expect of my other students. Thank God this book came along at the right time for us.

I read with growing interest and inner conviction about the "Phenomenon of the Mirrors." She makes a good case for how our children figure out who they are, and how worthy they are - by what they see reflected back when they look at our faces, and when they experience our reactions to them. I thought about my own critical nature toward my son (who I was convinced was half-grown by the time he was 4 - told ya' I was dumb thrn) and then I had the most enlightening dream.  

In my dream I was on a field trip with my preschoolers to the skating rink. My son had fallen and was really hurt. He was crying for his mommy. I went to him and tried to help, but he didn't want me. He said I was NOT his Mommy, I was "Miss Diana." He kept crying for his Mommy and I woke up in tears, crushed with guilt!

Dreams' meanings are often obscure to me, but not that one's! My subconscious or The Holy Spirit or however you want to look at it, came through loud and clear that night and I immediately made some changes in my behavior. I had been trying so hard to not give special treatment to my son and not to be "unfair" to the other kids that I'd even asked him to call me "Miss Diana" at school, like everyone else, instead of "Mommy." After that, I made a point to be his preschool teacher AND his Mommy. When I thought about it I realized that it wasn't unfair for him to get special treatment, when he had to share his mother with 15 other little kids! I did always try to keep any special treatment minimal and really private so as not to incite jealousy among the class, but I didn't bend over backward to eliminate it as I'd done before either. We both were happier, more relaxed, and my classroom was a more productive place, because of my new attitude.

Many years and many students later, I now understand very well, that fair treatment for all children does not mean exactly the same treatment for them all. But that sounds like another blog entry to me.

See me see you seeing me....

As I go about my tasks in the kitchen, whether cooking, loading/unloading the dishwasher, or whatever, I am blessed to have a cute little inspector who comes in to check on me periodically.  I'll notice that the happy sounds and electronic sounds of her playing in the playroom have ceased and start in that direction to check on her, only to find her on her way into the kitchen to check on me (maybe because she noticed that I got quiet for a moment, who knows).

She often brings what she's playing with and shows me, or wants me to interact in some way. For example her much-loved, "Dog-Dog" has wanted LOTS of smootches from me lately. She just learned to say, "Hah-ay, Mah-MEE!" as she finds me and she always repeats this each time as it gets such an enthusiastic, smiling, "HI BABY!" right back from me. How can I not smile at that?