The Academy

Jack has been attending Chesterbrook Academy for about 5 weeks now. Well, 5 weeks very on-and-off as he keeps coming home with one illness or another that requires him to stay home the next day - "he's building up immunities" has become our mantra. Don't let the fancy, dare I say pompous, name fool you Chesterbrook Academy is basically day care. It hasn't been an easy 5 weeks. On the first day, Jack did great. Dan and I dropped him off in the morning and he clung a bit but eventually let us hand him over to Miss Darla. He did great, I was a bit of a wreck though. When we got back to the car after leaving the little guy I started crying. It was just so hard for me to let him go. He looked so small in that big room with all the other kids around and he didn't know anybody and even worse they really didn't know him. What if he needed a snuggle and they didn't notice him or if he got thirsty or scared and they didn't know what to do or did it wrong? What if he needed his Mommy? But I made it through the day, hovering by the phone the entire time just in case they called, and rushed out to pick him up as soon as I imagined nap time was over. He did great that day but sadly it has gone downhill since then. He has started to recognize The Academy when we pull up in the car and starts this pathetic little whimper in the backseat. When we get inside he starts crying and I have to pry him out of my arms and hand him off to a teacher. In the afternoon, as soon as he sees me he starts crying and runs to me. It has been hard on me. I hate thinking that he is unhappy or anxious while he is there. I know that he will get more comfortable over time. In fact, I'm fairly certain that he will love it once he gives it a chance. Until then I'll steel myself every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning when I drop him off and trust that he will be fine in the capable hands of the teachers at The Academy.

Down and Out

It's been a hell of a month here at Washburn central. I've been offline for awhile for a number of reasons, the first being that Jack played a little vigorously with the laptop and broke the screen. But the real reason for the long absence is that the three of us have been under attack by numerous nasty illnesses. The Monkey has really born the brunt of it all. He has had a terrible, and long lasting ear infection. It started in one ear, cleared up there and then moved to the other where it continues to rage. With the first infection we put him on antibiotics which really upset his digestion - or so we thought. He couldn't keep anything in him and finally stopped eating altogether. We switched him to an injectible version of the antibiotic which meant going in to the doctors office for three mornings in a row and Jack getting shots in both thighs simultaneously. Needless to say it wasn't fun for any of us. Finally it seemed like things were clearing up so we packed Jack up and sent him back to daycare. Then on Monday night Jack wouldn't sleep, just kept crying all night. At 2am we finally brought him into bed with us insuring that none of us slept that night. Turns out, Jack had a raging fever so we took him back to the doctor. She thinks that the fever is due to his ear infection. He's been home for the last three days. A sweet and pathetic little couch potato. He sits on our laps or on the couch watches the Street or Jack's Big Music Show and occasionally hoots at a dog or balloon on the screen but that is about it. Of course while all of this was going on Dan and I managed to get sick as well. Dan got it first, a horrible cold that left him barely able to speak. I thought I had escaped it which I did in a way, namely I got a wicked stomach bug that left me immobilized for 2 full days and off food for a week. Then Dan and I swapped, he got the tummy bug and I got the cold. Poor Jack was left with some pretty pathetic parents that week but somehow we managed to make it through. Dan and I are finally feeling better now if we could only get Jack back to normal.