Well, 2013 arrived with relatively little fanfare on my end. For me at least, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were days like any other albeit with a shorter work day on Monday and no work yesterday. Our government averted our so-called fiscal cliff that we were barreling towards, although I fear that they did precious little to actually make meaningful changes despite raising the taxes on the wealthy. There were no big cuts to any government programs that would make a difference and all that essentially happened was a postponement of serious changes that need to be made. In all honesty, I haven't even been following the debacle as I didn't want to get turned into a holiday grinch. And seriously, we all know that there are at least three things amongst the many that are certain in life; we will be happy, we will be sad, and we will pay taxes. With that said, it is now time for me to move on to the more important things in life, namely, my family. Today is the beginning of a new chapter in our son's life, a chapter involving daycare. I have a feeling that he will do perfectly fine there, especially since I won't be dropping him off most mornings (to be explained later). While I don't necessarily like the idea of daycare and wish I could stay at home to watch him, there is the whole issue of finances that come into play and the fact that we can't afford to have me stay home all day watching our son. To be honest, we also can't afford the daycare, however, my wife's mother has graciously offered to pay for it. For that we are eternally grateful. In this day and age where the cost of living goes up and the income remains relatively the same, it takes two incomes in most cases to make ends meet. Such is the case with us. I am just glad we found a place that is warm, inviting, nurturing, and most of all, fun for our son. I know that if I was a little kid who had to go to daycare there, I would absolutely love it. On top of that, our son is a very independent person for the most part and when we went to visit on multiple occasions, he got right down and started exploring the toys and seeing what kind of trouble he could get into. All in all, I know it will be good for him, especially when it comes to socializing with other children.
Between my wife and I, she has been stressing out a little more over daycare than I have. She is worried, as she should be, that he will get what he needs, not so much in terms of attention, but more in terms of food, diaper changes, and having enough clothes. She also knows that he will do fine there and as she teaches one of the daughters of the owner, she knows that he will be fine. While I would love to drop him off at day care, which I will probably do at some point, the daycare is really close to my wife's work and it makes more sense for her to drop him off on her way to work, especially since my main mode of transportation for work is a cargo van which does not have the capability of having a car seat in it. There is another reason that it will be more beneficial for my wife to drop him off than for me to. Over the past week, our son has become more "clingy" and affectionate than he has ever been before, especially with me (I am really not joking here, you can ask my wife). If I am in the house with him and standing up, he comes running over to get picked up, held, and consequently have everything around him explained to him. The only way my arms get a break from holding him is if I sit down. While I absolutely love the fact that he comes running to me whenever I am standing, or whenever I am in the house, my arm gets tired after holding him non stop. It goes beyond that though, especially over the past week, to the point where even if I have to go to the bathroom and I put him down, he will follow me and start whining if I disappear behind the closed door. Even when I would leave for work in the morning, he wouldn't want me to go and would start a mini crying fit upon my leaving. (The crying fit only lasts a few seconds, but still, its adorable). So due to his being excessively clingy with me, it is a good thing that my wife will be dropping him off at day care as he might not appreciate being left there by his daddy. If I think about why he comes to me more right now than he does my wife, it makes sense when you consider our different affinities for different age groups. My wife loves working with older kids, mostly teenagers, and while she loves our son, she has never been overly fond of other little kids. I, on the other hand, would much rather deal with younger children than teenagers any time of day. Perhaps our son senses the different mentalities that my wife and I espouse and gravitates towards me now and will gravitate more towards my wife as he grows up. In the end, it is all conjecture on my part and only time will tell how he will grow and develop.
Speaking of growing and developing, our son is understanding more and more of the English language and responds to questions posed to him. On New Year's Eve day, we decided give him a simple quiz. (Trust me, it was very simple and was just to see how much he understands). With my wife and I sitting on the couches in our living room, we proceeded to ask him where our different pets were in the house. We have three pets, 2 dogs and 1 cat, and he knows their names very well. The first question we asked him was, "Where is Princess?" He proceeded to find our older dog and looking at us, point to her and say "Doe" (his response to everything still). We then asked him where our other dog, Aspen was. As he did with Princess, he went over to where Aspen was laying, looked at us, and pointed saying "Doe". The last one was a little more difficult as the question was where our cat, Spice was. She is usually hiding somewhere around the house, and yet, it posed no problem for our son. He walked into the kitchen, looked for her by her food bowl, then in another spot she likes to lay in the kitchen, and finally saw her in the dining room at which he looked at us, pointed to her, and said "Doe". While he doesn't know every object in our house yet since he is only a little over 14.5 months old, he is slowly learning what everything is and I am sure working on putting everything into words (which have yet to come). He is one cute bundle of joy, a growing bundle every day that loves to eat and run around like a maniac. In any case, we shall see how today goes with his first day of daycare. For now, I must run and get ready for work and make sure that everyone gets out of the house on time.
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