Max's Blog

Day 2 of "school"

There are many reasons that Maxwell's parents decided to enroll Max in his new school (we prefer to call it "school" - as opposed to "daycare" because we're hoping they are providing more than child care!).

As with any change - there are challenges In this case - there are many positives. At the same time - I must recognize the challenges. To be more specific: The Car.

Max hates riding in the car. He's good for a few miles or so - but in the long-run he prefers to not be in the car. This is a consistant trait in our child. With the new "school", Maxwell commutes with me 20+ miles in the Bay Area traffic. For me - this cuts my commute almost in half. For Max - this means 60-90 minutes more time in the car per day. In two days, these commutes have been unnerving at times. I love having that extra time with Max, but he hates being in the car. It's tough.

At the same time, I am happy to report that the car ride is the toughest - because I think that this can be overcome. Max will get used to spending time strapped in his seat, and I will come up with better ways to entertain him until he can start talking to me about his day, thoughts and feelings.

On the upside, Maxwell's second day at CCLC was great! See the report for yourself:

    

New Daycare

Today - Max started a new daycare. After 18-months on the waiting list, Max got into the daycare center at Stanford across the street from where I work. It was a difficult decision to pull him out of Rabija's after the terrible experience with the daycare "center" we had over the summer - but we had to think long term (thanks for that advice Amanda! - and thanks to all my other friends and family who patiently listened to me rattle off the pro's and con's over and over!).

After day one - I am immensely satisfied with our choice. I scanned a few documents to share that happiness - starting with this email I recieved from the director of the center:

The next document I want to share is the daily summary report which summarizes Maxwell's day (click to enlarge):

  

The last is this drawing that he did. It warms my heart:

Bye Brows

The other day, Maxwell and I were reviewing body parts. You know – I was having Max point to his nose, ears, eyes, knees etc. He’s got everything down pat. Then I realized that he probably didn’t know what eye brows were – so I pointed to mine and said “Eye Brows”. He touched mine and said “Bye Brows”. Then I touched his and we repeated the same thing. We then looked in the mirror so he could see his eye brows. Then we went about playing.

 

Fast forward 8 hours. It’s the middle of the night around 3am and Max awoke crying. I went to his room to rock him back to sleep. While we are rocking (it’s dark in the room), Max feels for my face and moves his hands from my chin, to my nose and eyes until he finds my eye brows – and he says “Bye Brows”. Then he went to sleep.