Here is a quick update.
- Maeve loves daycare! We definitely had a rocky start. Picture screaming, turning purple child at the hand-off for the first week and a half - not a pretty sight, and hard on everyone. Luckily, Tonia (she runs the daycare) is wonderful and took it all in stride. She proceeded to "razzle dazzle" Maeve (as she calls it), showering her with attention and affection. She had prepared the other children in her care for Maeve's arrival as well. Thanks to Tonia, they were all so excited to finally meet her and help out in the "razzle dazzle". Now Maeve is fine at the hand-off, even "knocks" on the door when we arrive and is full of smiles for everyone when we go inside. Of course, I have three young girls all arguing over who gets to hold her first and then she is promptly swooped (don't think that is a word, but that is what happens) out of my arms and carried into the play area. The transition was tough at first for Maeve, but I could tell she liked Tonia and the rest of the children there the first day after I picked her up. After that just the hand-off was tough for a week or so, while Maeve learned to trust that I was coming back for her.
- With childcare and work, our schedule has changed and I'm just going with the flow. I originally didn't think we would have any changes, but that was when I was home and she was going to bed no later than 8pm. Now I work evenings and pick up Maeve around 10:30pm. Did I mention that she waits up for me? :) The first few days I just thought were a fluke, but she does her best to stay up and I usually arrive to pick up a wide awake baby. Tonia has tried, but she will not go to sleep, so we just let her stay up now. Besides, when she comes running, laughing and smiling at me, when I arrive, how can you say "No". It actually is working out for now. She goes to bed as soon as we get home, I still have an opportunity to read her a quick story and tuck her in (something I thought I would miss out on) and we just sleep in a little later in the morning. We had to quit our exercise class, but I joined the l local gym so it is all the same.
- Eating is progressing. She was actually down to 1, maybe 2 bottles a day (small ones) and eating all meals with me (& a very balanced diet), but of course one step forward, two or three backwards. The change to going to daycare really threw her for a loop the first couple of weeks and she started refusing to eat solids and was back to almost all bottles each day. Slowly, but surely we have been working to change that (again Tonia is proving so helpful and valuable here). Maeve still loves her bottle, but now about half her meals are solid foods. And she is starting to eat with a spoon. First she learned to feed the dogs her food on the spoon (tons of fun), then she learned that she could actually use the spoon to feed herself (yes, I changed out the spoon from the "dog" spoon). While she still prefers her hands, she likes to have her spoon handy.
- Talking, or should I say babbling. Maeve says a couple of words like Mama, Oggie (doggie), Hi & Bye. She signs for "book" and "eat" (that's my girl), and she babbles non-stop. She can have a full conversation with you, complete with appropriate pauses and looks in different spots. I swear she is waiting patiently for me to learn her language. I just chat back to her and she is happy. Maeve even "hums" at times. It is so cute. One day, we were walking the dogs and I realized that she was sort of humming some tune in her stroller as we stolled along. She'll do it in the car and I've caught her doing it while sitting in her little chair looking at her books.
Of course there is so much more, but I would be up all night typing it in. I'll just leave you with one last milestone...PIGTAILS!!
Yes, she is finally letting me put her hair up and keeping the pigtails in. This is a picture from the first day that she didn't take them out two seconds after I put them in. Now, in my defense, I really didn't think she would keep them in and wasn't going for style and/or neatness that day. :)) I had just been putting them in each day, hoping she would get used to them. Now, her pigtails are perfect every morning and she is pretty patient for a 16 month old while I put them in. Yeah!! 2 comments
