the end of an era

Elian's babysitter is spending a semester abroad in Scotland; her last day was Friday. I thought about finding a replacement for her. But now that the little man's getting older, it feels like he needs more play time with other kids. So now he will be going to pre-school Monday and Wednesday afternoons and one of his favorite sitters, Kim, will come to the house Friday afternoons.

I had mixed feelings about the whole daycare/preschool thing. They take naps there on tiny little plastic "cots" and I wasn't quite sure how he was going to take to that. His naps have been inconsistent to say the least. And I mean, I'd be dropping him off and shortly thereafter he would be taking a nap with a bunch of kids he didn't know. But today was his first day and I'm pleased to report it went really well. One of the teachers called me mid-way through the afternoon and told me he had slept until 2:45. Huh?? Whuh???

They have a "large muscle" portion of the afternoon where they run around like crazy and play with, hold on to your hats, BALLS! They actually have a pretty nice basketball hoop set up and Elian was very excited about that. When I picked him up today, he was all sweaty and drank about four little cups of water before we left the building. He chit-chatted my ear off all the way home about playschool and what he did that day. And I must say, although I say that I work from home, I hadn't really been able to do that. I would always leave when the babysitter got here and work from a cafe. But today I did work from home and man, it was weird being here without my little man.

Because none of my clients seem to get the work to me during my work hours, I often get it done in the evening or on the weekends sometimes leaving some of my "work time" open. That was the case today so I decided I'd take the opportunity to sew -- yes, I said sew -- my little guy a robot pillow case for a little pillow he could use for his playschool naps. And since apparently he told Papa the other day that he wanted a robot t-shirt like the one I made Papa, I made him one of those too.

When I picked him up today, I tell him in the car that I made him a little surprise. All the way home it was, "What is it?.... Can I see it?... What is it?..." That's when I knew I shouldn't have said anything. So we get out of the car and he says, "Where is the surprise, Mama?" We're in the garage. I tell him it's inside and when we get inside I show the pillowcase and t-shirt to him. His face begins to fall. "Is...that...it?...Is...that...my....surprise??" I see the tears welling up in his eyes. Mustering up as much enthusiasm as I can, "Yes, buddy, don't you like it?" "Where's the cool thing?...(now crying)...Is there something else??" I asked him what he thought it was going to be and gasping between the tears he managed to spit out, "a...ball...." Later he told me he wanted a snack (apparently playschool makes him both thirsty and hungry). After he ate his snack he said, "I feel better, Mama...I do like what you made me...I was hungry and that's why I was sad." The end.