Update on me: I started therapy 2 weeks ago and it’s going well. An hour feels like 5 min, but we’ve accomplished a few things. My fears and anxiety definitely stem from my childhood (something I already knew), but the therapist is helping me make sense of it all; how it’s affecting me now as an adult. Interesting stuff - and it’s making me feel more at ease.
On to writing about Javier. He will be 18 months in a couple of weeks! Unbelievable.
I was driving him to daycare the other morning thinking that I’ll be leaving him once again for 8.5 hours. Even though I’ve become much more comfortable doing it, it’s still difficult to wrap my brain around the fact that he is out of my sight and hands for that long each day.
I started to think about the concept of time and realized that until Javier starts to tell time, his concept of it now is less...threatening. When I drop him off he says good-bye (just a week ago started to wave) and enthusiastically runs to the toys. I, on the other hand get back into my car and say a little prayer that his day goes well and I think, gosh, we’ll be apart this whole day. Once I get to work, it goes away, but I “check in”, look at the clock, and count down the hours. When I pick him up, he looks at me and it’s like, “oh yeah, I know her” and gets excited, but he has no idea that we’ve been apart for that long. I love that! It’s like time flies when you’re having fun and to him being apart is totally okay.
He is getting to be such a big boy. He’s transitioning into the toddler group at daycare and he looks so grown up next to the others. Sometimes he’s sitting at the table building with legos or putting stickers on a piece of paper. He’s eating with a spoon and fork at times too, and is learning how to drink without a cover on the sippy-cup. He enjoys listening to music and calms down when he hears us singing to him. He already has favorite books he likes to look at and it's so nice when he sits on our laps to read one. I have favorite children books now too : )
One thing he isn’t liking very much are his swimming lessons. Grant it, he’s only been to one so far, but he wasn’t digging it. He hung on to me like a wet baby monkey, but I’m hoping it gets better. My husband is with him this morning for the 2nd one and I’m crossing my fingers it’s going well.
What I love seeing about Javier right now is watching him take in everything around him. When he’s in a good mood (which is for the most part) he’s funny, playful, and content and takes time to stop and look at things. I'm totally encouraging this too as we hardly do it as adults - hopefully it'll stick with him. He now points to trees, planes in the sky, squirrels, dogs, and birds. The other day he was intrigued by the bright yellow and orange leaves that were floating in a puddle. He pointed at them each day for about 3 days. He remembers things that I wouldn’t think he’d pick up on. He knows how to point the remote control towards the t.v. The other day my husband wacked the remote with his other hand b/c it wasn’t working and now Javier does it too before pointing it to the t.v! It’s so funny.
We’re going to introduce the potty to him soon. It’s on our bathroom floor now, but he stands in it… We’re going to be more intentional about now and our daycare lady said to just try once a day. We’ll see how it goes. I can’t believe I’m talking about potty training already!
