An Adjustment

Peyton has started his new school, and he's doing pretty well. His teacher told me that he had one of the best first weeks she has ever had with a new kid. Patrick told me she tells everyone that, but I'm going to believe that she was telling me the truth. But he seems to be doing well there. They have a different theme each week and they focus on different topics within that theme each day. One week they did music, another they did sports. Last week they did feelings. Now, when he's mad about something, he tells me he's "grumpy." They have lots of toys and trucks to play with and a big yard outside where they play twice a day.

While things were going pretty well at school, we noticed that he started waking up super early in the morning and waking up in the middle of the night, which he very rarely did before. He came in our room one night around 2:30am talking about the blue airplane outside his window. He went on and on and on....in my incoherent state at 2:30am, I kept putting him back in his bed, and he kept coming back! Patrick had a little more sense about him and finally rocked Peyton back to sleep. We came to the conclusion that he was missing all of the hugs and cuddle time that he got with us, and Mrs. Lauren when he was with her. He just seemed to want to be held a little more, which was totally fine with me!

However, all the hugs in the world wasn't preventing him from coming to our room at 5am to tell us that he was awake and ready to watch cartoons. We'd bring him back to his bed and he'd come wandering back to our room a few minutes later. At a more appropriate time, we would just get up. In his mind, if he was persistent enough, we would just give in. For him, he didn't seem to be grasping the concept that there was an actual time when it was time to get out of bed.

We decided that he was a little too young to tell time, but started looking for something that would help him understand the difference between night and day. And it was time to be drastic. $35 for a freakin' night light seemed a little extreme to me, but I decided that if I could sleep until 6:30am (I've stopped dreaming of ever sleeping until 8am again!) it would be worth every single penny. So we invested in the Good Nite Lite and crossed our fingers that this would help him understand the difference. We set the timer in the back so that at 8pm, the night light looks like a moon. At 6:30am, it turns into a sun. Well, by golly, it worked! He gets so excited about waiting for the sun to come up. There have been several mornings where I can hear him in his room talking to himself or singing, but he stays in there until he sees the sun. And then he throws his door open and comes running in our room to tell us that he sees the sun!

Our master plan backfired slightly this weekend, however, when it was time to take a nap. He informed us that the moon wasn't on. Right. We wondered at that point whether we would have to buy another one of these lights so that he would take a nap. Luckily, we convinced him that it was ok to take a nap without the moon. The pleasant part was that when he woke up from his nap, he stayed in his room because he didn't see the sun. Hee hee. I was tempted to use this to my advantage, but decided that I didn't want to push things, so I went and got him up.

This morning, I was afraid it had all come to an end. He woke up about 5:45am and came to our room to tell us that he needed to potty, which is fine, we have no problem with that. But my concern at 5:45am was that I had 45 minutes more to sleep and I figured I could just kiss those precious minutes good-bye. After he went potty, I told him that the moon was still on so that meant it wasn't time to get up. I explained that he needed to go back to bed until he saw the sun. I figured he would come back 15 times in the next 45 minutes. But back in his bed he went and he stayed there until 6:30am. Now, of course I didn't go back to sleep because I expected that at any minute he was going to come running back into our room. But I'm ready to sing the praises of this night light because it actually works!

Taking the responsibility off of us as to whether he's supposed to stay in bed or get up has made things much easier. He's willing to listen to the sun and the moon. Is there another light out there to tell him when to pick up his toys? Or when to wash his hands? Oh, the possibilities!

Peyton's New School

Peyton will be starting a new daycare on Monday - Children's Campus at Southpoint. Today we stopped by to introduce him to his new playmates and teachers and visit for a little while. I explained to him before we went that he was going to be going to a new school with new teachers next week. I told him that we were going to visit today and that I was going to stay with him while he played but that next week he would go by himself. He seemed a little apprehensive at the thought of being left there but I explained again that I would stay with him today. Then he wanted to bring his backpack. I'm still wondering how he knows that kids bring backckpacks to school. Although not necessary, the teacher did say that he could bring his backpack and put it in his cubby everyday if he insisted.

We arrived to his classroom and all of the other kids were eating their snack. He took advantage of all of the toys being available and dove right in to play. With what, you ask? The trucks, of course! The teachers kept the kids at bay for a little longer and let Peyton explore the room and get used to his surroundings. After about 10 minutes, Peyton put his hand on my cheek and sweetly said, "Mom, you go home now." I think he's going to do just fine on Monday. Me, on the other hand, that's a whole other story.

Peyton the Musician

We were recently at our friend Jason and Rebecca's house and Peyton was watching "The Princess and the Frog". Its a great movie, based in New Orleans, with fantastic music. Peyton has always been a fan of music, tapping his foot to the beat and shaking his booty. Recently, he has started to play air trumpet when he hears a trumpet playing.

Patrick and I met in marching band, of course, and so its only natural to assume that Peyton would play music one day too. Its not to say that he won't be a linebacker too, because he seems to be on a trajectory that makes him large enough to be a successful one. But if he's going to be a football player, he will need to have full appreciation of the band nerds that provide the entertainment.

It turns out that many of our friends here in NC also played in band in high school. We've joked that we could probably put all of our friends together and have a pretty decent band. Anyhoo, our friends Jason and Rebecca are exact replicas of me and Patrick. They met in high school, they both played in the band, went to college together, Rebecca went to graduate school with me, and she even had a dog named Zack growing up. Jason whipped out his trombone while we were there and started out by letting Peyton play with the trombone slide to make different noises while Jason blew into the trombone. Then he started letting Peyton blow into the trombone himself. I think he does pretty well for a two year old. Check it out!