You Bet Your "Bottom" Dollar, I'm Thankful!

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for many, many things: my wonderful son and husband, our amazing extended family and friends, our health, a toddler who takes long naps and sleeps through the night (I just jinxed it), the recovery of my dad after his triple bypass, the fact that I didn't actually get killed by lightning when it hit our house, insurance companies, etc...

But the thing I am most grateful for this week is something unexpected: I am grateful that Miles got booted from daycare. Our new daycare provider is truly a gift from God. She is infinitely patient with Miles. She is kind in her words to us at the end of the day ("We are working on sharing."). But the BEST thing about her is that she says things like "sit on your bottom" and "he had a BM". HA! I haven't heard that stuff since my mom used to say those things to us as kids. Ancient language in my book...but appropriate, nonetheless. We say butt and poop in our house. That's just how we roll. Poor Miles has naughty parents. Maybe she will teach him some manners.

All kidding aside, she is wonderful and the transition has been blessedly smooth. When we dropped him off that first day he just waved and said "bub bye" and that was that. Don't let the door hit you in the "bottom" on the way out, mama. Hmmm. Maybe this isn't going to be so hard?

Well, at about 1 p.m. when I knew he was going to be going down for a nap I had a breakdown of sorts. I had been anxious all day. I had even called once to check in. "Everything's fine." But then at naptime I pictured him looking for me, or anyone familiar really. I wondered if he would sleep ok in a brand new place. I thought about him waking up in that strange new place with all new people and being upset about it. And I thought about me not being there to comfort him, hold him, give him a kiss. OH THE TEARS. Mine, of course, not his. I sat at my desk and cried. I called Grant, and he didn't help any. He said he was missing him something awful, too, and thinking about him a lot. Crying harder now. So I emailed a friend and she said comforting things back...and then I collected myself. *sniff sniff*

Of course all of our worry was for nothing. He was fine. He had a pretty good day. Slept well and ate well. She said he screams when he is happy and we said "Really?" hee hee

So far so good.

The thing that is killing me softly, though, is that each day he asks for his old daycare friends. Ella bub-bye? Josh bub-bye? Cripes. That hurts. I know he will forget. Soon and very soon. But for now it's sort of heartbreaking. The memory of a 20 month old is a lot longer that one might think...

I hope that this time next year we will be able to say how thankful we are that Miles has had a good year at Sharon's. I hope, I hope, I hope.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Let the overeating begin!!!