PUPPY!!!

When Beia was born we received a lot of gifts from generous friends and family. Among the gifts was a fluffy, round puppy mat. We used the mat for tummy time starting from when Beia was about a month old, up until the time we transitioned to using her play gym a month or two later. From then on we weren't really sure what to do with the puppy mat. It just sort of hung around. So much so that we eventually positioning it under the Jumperoo as a soft spot for Beia to land her feet.

However, our keen-eyed nanny (Cindy) noticed Beia going straight for the puppy mat—despite it being beneath under the Jumperoo. So Cindy moved the puppy mat out into the open, and Beia has had a love affair with the puppy ever since. It's sort of her "home base" that she runs—er, crawls—to and then rolls around and snuggles on. Here we caught her (and her belly) in the act...

An OK Day

Today was an OK day. The weather here was fantastic, but the day mediocre. It started off poorly with a poor night's sleep for Beia—meaning a not so great night's sleep for us. Since she can't talk (beyond her continual babbling), we have no idea what the issue was. All we know is that a lot of crying and sitting up in the crib was involved, and no amount of intervention from us was helping. We even tried Children's Tylenol. She did eventually fall asleep, but it meant that she was still tired when she awoke today. Then this morning Beia fell backwards and hit her head (and bit her lip) while playing at home before daycare. Sigh. Presumably—hopefully—she had a better day at daycare. Now asleep for the night, we're hoping for a solid's night sleep for everyone and a happier day tomorrow. At least today she looked cute in her new "Sneech" sweater.

Ten Months

Friday not only marked our last day with Cindy, but it also marked Beia's ten month birthday. Beia seems to have fully transitioned into daycare—although we all still miss seeing Cindy every day. I know Cindy was hoping to see Beia take her first steps. Beia has been practicing standing and "surfing" the furniture, so those steps seem imminent. One fun thing that is already happening as a result of being in daycare—Beia is eating more and more finger foods, rather than the purees we'd been feeding her. Also, she now on daycare's set nap schedule, which we are trying to uphold even on weekends. This seems to be making her a better sleeper—knock on wood!

First Full Week

Today marks the start of the first full week of daycare for Beia...and the last week we will be with our beloved nanny, Cindy. It's hard to separate out my feelings for Beia moving into daycare from how I feel about parting ways with Cindy. Cindy has been a wonderful addition to our family ever since she started with us back in February, when Beia was only three months old.

I can't believe that we've only known Cindy seven months...and that Beia will be ten months on Friday and is now old enough to be in daycare. This moment in time is bittersweet, but we believe we are making the right decision for Beia—although we will all miss Cindy terribly. From now until Friday we'll be taking daily pictures of them, as we realize now that we don't have any documentation of their time together. This first one is a good one, and we are also starting off the week right with a great day in daycare today.

Picnic

This afternoon we had an impromptu picnic at Washington Square Park. The weather was beautiful and we had about three free hours before Beia's second nap. Beia enjoyed a lunch of roast chicken with sweet potato, and then did her best to try and drink out of our water bottle. After that she moved on to sucking the camera case and eating Steve's sunglasses. Beia and I wore matching stripes.

Daycare Days 2 and 3

The second and third (and fourth) days of daycare progressed much the same as the first. Beia had moments of great unhappiness—as well as times when she was perfectly happy. I think the challenge is getting her used to the new people, a new place, and having to stick to schedule. Beia doesn't like having to stop playing with the toys to eat lunch—no matter how much she likes to eat! We are now going into our second week at daycare, and are hoping that it will only get better from here (and quickly)! The saddest part is that this Friday will be our last day with our fabulous nanny, Cindy. We've already let her know that we expect her back when the kids go to school and need to be picked up when they are done at 3pm...

A Tough Day

Today was Beia's first day at daycare, and it wasn't an easy one for any of us—including our nanny, Cindy. To ease the transition from our nanny to daycare, we had Beia start at 9.30am and leave after her first nap at 11.30am. The day started off well with playtime—nothing tough about that. Beia seemed interested and happy with the toys there, and sort of interacted with the other kids there (there were six others there today).

Then everyone was moved to an itty bitty table with itty bitty chairs to eat their morning snack of bananas and Cheerios. Somehow just sitting at the table proved to be upsetting for one of the kids, which then had the domino effect of making all the kids upset about being at the table. Beia wasn't sure how upset she should or shouldn't be, but in the end did fine eating her bananas. Until it was time to finish eating the bananas, at which point she was not so happy about the bananas (now banana mush) being taken away. All was resolved by bottle time, which came next.

Unfortunately the day didn't end so well, culminating in a nap in an unfamiliar crib... without her blankie, Hiccup. Thanks to NY state law, the daycare doesn't allow anything other than a paci in the crib until after the kids turn one. It makes sense, but was very upsetting for everyone. Our nanny was there to witness the scene and said that the entire daycare was filled with the sounds of crying kids—all upset for one reason or another.

Sigh. We get to do this all over again tomorrow. And then the next day and then next. Hoping it gets easier and better, for everyone. I'm sure our nanny is wondering how we can possibly be moving Beia from her great care to this—I know we are!