Making it Easy

My child loves me...and he wants me to be happy. He knows the anxiety I've been feeling about leaving him next week and he's taken it upon himself to make it easier for me to go...

Today I put Camden in the Mother's Day Out program at our church from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. He normally naps early in the morning (around 10:30ish) and then again around 2 or so. Since he was at MDO, he got off his typical schedule by having just one nap around 12:30. Knowing that he'd be rotten this evening without another nap, I gave him a banana and some chocolate milk around 4:30 and decided to put him down for a late afternoon snooze. Since he'd managed to get banana everywhere but in his mouth, I left his sticky banana covered shorts off after his diaper change and I stuck him in the crib with just his t-shirt and diaper on.

About 10 til 6 I hear him stirring and when I open the door to his room I am met with the foulest of smells. Today is trash day which means the diapers in the DiaperGenie have been there for several days so I didn't think much of it. I continue into his room, turn on the lamp, and there stands my sweet little angel...naked from the waist down. I walk over to the crib where I find an enormous steamy pile of poop right in the middle of his bed. To make matters worse, as I go over to lift him out of the crib to keep the poop from getting anywhere it isn't already, I promise you, he looked straight into my eyes, smiled, and then peed through the slats on the crib rail all over the carpet below.

Once it's all contained and we've moved on to another snack, I call Ryan - who I actually been on the phone with when I discovered the pile of poo and immediately hung up on - to tell him that everything's okay and that I was sorry to drop his call like that. I proceed to tell him all that's just transpired...complete with a change of diaper, clothes, changing pad, sheets, blankets and all...and I get no sympathy - I can barely get the story told from having to wait for him to stop laughing so he can hear the next part. All Ryan had to say was that this one is even better than the one from June 2nd of last year - if you haven't read it, it's pretty good too. And I have to agree...today's events were pretty funny.

I am just so thankful to have a child that is willing to go the extra mile in order to make it easier for me to leave him here with his Granna for a week. I'm pretty sure I'm ready for a vacation!

One small step for man...

Many of you know that Ryan and I are heading to Hawaii this Saturday on our first "child-free" vacation since Camden's arrival almost 14 months ago. Many of you also know the immense anxiety I am trying to fight off with leaving Camden here. Now, before you jump to the conclusion that I don't have faith my mother-in-law's child care abilities, let me remind you that I know what a fine job she can do taking care of little boys...I am married to her first attempt at child rearing and I'm pretty satisfied with the finished product. I did leave her a seven page (single spaced) document outlining every piece of information I could possibly think that she might need to know. Don't give me any grief, most of that is about how to program the coffee maker, use our gas range and activate the alarm system. It's not Camden or my MIL that I am worried about...it's me...

Along with all of the "normal" fears (that something will happen to Camden that would require a visit to the hospital for stitches or a cast...or a stomach pumping after all of the junk food he'll probably get while I'm gone) I also just had a fear of being disappointed... Meaning, I was afraid he'd accomplish some developmental milestone while we're away and I would miss it. I know, it's a selfish fear...but we've been working hard on certain words (ball, dog, bath, love you, etc.) and trying to take more than one step before face planting in the floor...and I was afraid that I would miss the fruits of all my labor.

Yesterday as I gave Millie a haircut and a bath Camden kept repeating "dog, bath...dog, bath" so I am pretty sure I can check those two words off my list. And (drum roll please) we've made the transition from the "one step-face plant move" to several steps with even a little balancing act in between. I wouldn't say he's "up and running" just yet - he's still much faster when he crawls so he'll opt to do that if he has to cover a long distance and sometimes his upper body is moving faster than his legs can go, but we've definitely hit a milestone in the fact that he'll even let go and take the 5-7 steps that allow me to comfortably get on the plane and take off.

Once he put his mind to this, he caught on really quick and went from the one step-face plant to the 5-7 steps in just a day and a half. I'm sure that as quick as he caught on to this, he'll be running circles around the house by the time we get back on the 31st...that is, if my MIL will put him down long enough to give it a try! :o)

One small step for man... from Mandy Jo on Vimeo.