I don't wanna go to school!

[kyburg]

Today's the first day I'm involved in the daycare drop off - and it's been a boo-boo morning.

I'm trying to weigh whether what I saw was normal 'I don't want to go to school, I don't want Mommy and Daddy go to work, I want to go home and play with my toys and watch TV!' with something more attachment sinister - and I don't think it was.

It was still big crocodile tears and I don't wanna, though.

Still working out the timing, though. A bit early, but I hesitate to push things ahead too much - less than 15 minutes of wiggle room.

Xander's got his first pediatrician appointment at Kaiser this afternoon, and I'll be missing it. Got work. Glad to have it, too. Kiddo gets ramen tonight - he'll have earned it.

If I'm to believe the bathroom scale (my digital one), he's gained two pounds since we got back. I've got a growth chart on order to put on the wall - hoping he begins sprouting soon. He's about the same size as a kid a year younger - I've been comparing him with the kids at the park, all ethnicities. (Kid, please try saying more English words - it's pretty clear he understands us when we say them now, but we're not getting English return yet.)

The best part about Spongebob is his BRIGHT ORANGE pineapple house. Orange with yellow. Love those colors together. Checking the YOYO Taiwan site, I found that they only started getting the Nick feeds last summer - talk about dumb luck. He's also completely transitioned to Good Start formula - never noticed the change.

It's still a headache to process photos - nothing's changed there, except there is even less time to do any of that work in as it requires the laptop, and that means pulling it out, setting it up - 30 minutes of time, minimum, that right now could mean sleep instead, and priorties much?

I have to feel for Jim, still - this is one of those times when being the oldest of his generation isn't working in his favor. I've had the time with toddlers - and really rambunctious, oppositional ones as that. He's still getting surprised and feeling his way through the 'what happens next' - and then we get a phone call at the beginning of the weekend - his one surviving grandparent is in the hospital with a heart attack (the old fella is 97, DNR) and yanno. Jim's 45 - I'm less than a handful of years older, but place in the generation? Huge difference. (I have cousins and sibs over 10 years older than I am.)

I've got training downtown for bookworming the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which I did last year, tomorrow night. Looong day for me. Kiddo got us all up at 5:00 this morning, which is pretty okay - it was only about 30 minutes before the alarm. I've mentioned what 30 minutes of sleep is worth right now, though? Right. Moving on. I think I know where my binder from last year is - I'll just grab it, and change out the pages. This is a great, FREE event, BTW - and more books than you've ever seen ANYWHERE in your life. PLEASE TAKE ADVANTAGE. (Well, nearly free. You need to pay for parking if you don't transit it in, and if you want to guarantee a ticket, you have to pay Ticketmaster some dough.) (This is also the best place to get more depth in your reading material - the publishers are here, so are the authors, on every kind of book you can name. DEPTH. You want to know about another faith system? This has been the BEST place to get books and books and books on it. Pick any of them.) Pico Iyer is going to be back! *happy bounce* Wow, so's Ray Bradbury. Go go gadget grandpa...Wil Wheaton? I may have to do a drive-by GOOBER run. Amazon's Kindle is a sponsor...that's interesting.

*ahem* Yes, I volunteer for this event. There are reasons.

In other news, I have my copies of Palimpsest and Ravens in the Library - have tried to read them. I've ended up snorting ink and fresh paper instead - sorry guys, working on it. Slowly.

Your Monday, now in progress.

Comments

[caitlin.livejournal.com]

Asian kids are typically smaller...

I can be considered an exception but that's because I grew up in the US.

Sort of wish I could do the FoB, but I'm sorta far away for that yeah?

I don't think there is anything sinister in the "don't wanna go!" thing. Friends locally have a 3 year old (nearly 4) and he pulls the same thing. Adorable little boy and all, but you can tell he's got a mind of his own. =D

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Oh, he knew what was coming - and just didn't wanna. Daycare workers coming in just looked at him and said "Monday!"

[caitlin.livejournal.com]

Mmhmm..

Common.

Been home with Mommy and Daddy all weekend... and now they have to work.

*wry*

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

And I can't blame him. I'd like another weekend too, please.

[trillsie.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure of the size, but I can tell you that EVERY child goes through the "I don't wanna" phase. All of mine did it and I have been in daycare enough times to see other kids do it as well. Once he gets used to it there and more comfortable with the routine he should settle down.

I know I've said it a few times, but I am so glad that you were able to adopt him. Congratulations Mommy.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I don't really remember a stage of I don't want to with Alan - but he's been in daycare since 11 weeks, I don't think he knew anything else really - in a private home till 2, and a center until he started started school.

Alan still loves Sponge Bob at 6 1/2! It was sponge bob that led us to Nick in the first place - DH was looking for cartoons for toddler Alan and found Nick/Sponge Bob.

I totally understand the photo thing. I have so many on the camera I never get off to print or save.

By the way, I'm sure Xander will pick up more english, but if you have ANY concerns about his development, do take advantage of early intervention - I am still so pleased with what our district did for Alan between age 3 and 5 with pre-k.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Less than six months, less than six months...I'm not jumping to any conclusions before then. *chuckles* I'm just impatient, and I know it.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Agreed - I had a hunch with Alan and asked our daycare about it (figured they'd seen a few more kids than I had). But I was really impressed with how Alan bloomed there. The aide in his kindergarten class this year, was the same aide he'd had in his first pre-k class and she was very impressed with how much he grew from when he left her class (2 more years of pre-k afterwards).

[turandot.livejournal.com]

The "I don't want to go, and I don't want mommy and daddy to go" is pretty typical and expected of a 3 year old, especially if daycare is a new experience. It'll probably be a fairly common occurrence on Mondays, after he's had two days at home with you. It may take anywhere from a few weeks to a year or so to get used to the idea of five days on and two days off when it comes to daycare. Completely normal. I've also seen it pulled by kindergardeners if they hadn't had prior daycare or schooling, so consider it a blessing that you're getting it out of the way early on.

As for the speaking: for some kids who are ELL (English Language Learners), actual verbalization does not occur in small steps, but in discrete bounces, depending on personality. I was much older than he was when I came to the U.S., but I clearly remember that at first I'd avoid using English out of not wanting the embarrassment of not getting it right, and it took a while for me to get over it and realize that making mistakes is part of the learning. He might just be soaking everything in right now, but he might not feel confident to spit anything else out... until he thinks he's going to impress you with it. ;)

When I did daycare (and I was still pretty green about child development), one of kids in the older toddlers (18-24 mos.) group had been raised to speak Chinese only, and one of the main reasons for enrolling him in the daycare was so he would get more exposure to English. He used to follow me around the room with books he wanted to be read, and when I did, he would listen intensely, and you could tell he was working something out. He would barely vocalize anything, though. I'd also have a lot of one-sided conversations, with a lot of nodding on his part. A couple of months later when we were outside, I heard him ask me if I would come play with him in the sandbox. It was almost a whole, complete sentence. I was almost shocked, and he seemed a little proud for having done that. I learned later that it's not unusual for young kids to wait to use a second language until they have figured out some of its simple mechanics, instead of throwing random words out the way they would have done with their original language.

Just be patient, and keep on talking to him, as well as exposing him to other English speakers, preferably of differing language abilities. Daycare is great in that respect. If you're not reading to him at bed time yet, now is a really good time to start reading any and all pre-reading and emergent level picture books you can get your hands on. If you need recommendations, I can give you some (any picture book by Lois Ehlert or Eric Carle can be guaranteed to enthrall a youngster his age, btw).

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Saturday's jaunt to the Farmer's Market produced one really good result - he likes Fuji apples, and was able to ask his for more 'samples' by name before we left. Apple dippers at McDonald's? Not so much.

[turandot.livejournal.com]

Can't blame the kid for having good taste: I'd take a Fuji apple over any kind of cut up preserved apple any day.

Might have a little bit of a sweet tooth. People say an apple is an apple, but there is a gulf of difference between your golden delicious and your fuji apple (even though the latter is a hybrid descendant of the former).

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Jim says the apple dippers are Granny Smiths, and sour.

I've got some Fuji apples on hand - problem is, they're huge. Maybe with dinner tonight -

[malibrarian.livejournal.com]

The teacher at the preschool once told me to look in the door after I left. Sarah stopped screaming for me within moments of me leaving and started playing with her friends. Xander will get there soon as well.

Are you doing his shots over again? Our first peds appointment was a nightmare for that reason (but it was good that the dr. had done some research, using the sites I had provided). But ow!

And Wil Wheaton? Things are going well for you!

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

No, we decided that the immigration records were good enough - sometime in the future, I may pull a titer to see how effective they were, but for a kid who was followed as closely as he was, we didn't see the need.

He *did* get started on his hep-A series, so he got one shot - but nothing more than that.

I've asked Jim to tell the folks today he's had a blood draw recently and see if they can't skip that step - it's worth asking. Poor widdle kid.

Speech and other things

[grammom.livejournal.com]

On the speaking issue: My eldest daughter, American mutt, really didn't speak at all before she was two. She would mostly pull at my clothes and then point at whatever she wanted. I really was getting a bit worried because I knew she was quite intelligent because of what she wanted me to tell her about--the ants crawling in and out of a hole in the sidewalk--she had a great questioning look she used!

Then her sister was born when Princess #1 was two years old. Princess #2 was about three months old when we went to visit a friend and her kids for lunch--a fairly frequent visit, usually we took turns fixing lunch. When the cooking got to the good smelling stage, Princess #1 came into the kitchen with her blankie, stood in the door, and said, "Are we having hamburger for lunch today?" Both my friend and I just goggled at her for a minute before telling her yes, we were. Would she like hers as soon as it was done? She tucked her thumb in her mouth and nodded, then went back to the other kids to finish what she had been doing! We decided that she had not had anything she considered important enough to say before!

My twin grandsons, now eight, spoke twinspeak as soon as they figured out how to make noises--other than crying or grunting. They were also almost three years old before speaking discernible English! By then they were in daycare and pretty much had to speak English in order to be understood by the others there. Riley still does most of the talking, and Casey puts in the bits that get left out. Sometimes they switch roles on us. They also are American mutts.

By the way, I don't know how you may feel about harness and leashes for small kids. I highly recommend them for under four or five. I used harness and leash on all three of my kids because they would get interested in something or other wherever we went. I did not have to keep yanking on their arms to keep them with me and possibly dislocating their shoulder, and I did not have to worry about their getting lost and then frightened because Mommy was lost. I know there are different kinds of harnesses and/or leashes now so there's better choices then fifty years ago. The only thing, if you use one on Xander, be prepared for someone to come up and give you a bad time for treating your child like a dog on a leash. I used to rebut their diatribes by saying that I loved my child enough to ensure that she would not get lost and frightened. And the girls themselves never objected. They knew if they found something really interesting, I would stop and we would discuss it, at least briefly then, and probably more later.

YMMV

It sounds as if Xander is doing very well very quickly. He is one very lucky little boy!

Grammom June

Re: Speech and other things

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

He is just a total chatterbox - but I can't understand what the heck he's talking about.

When we were at AIT, I had someone tell me what he was talking about - playing with a peg game, she said he had named all the pegs after people, and was grouping them together in families...now who wouldn't want to know what was going through his head, neh?

Can't wait.

[muimi07.livejournal.com]

Ditto the Asian kids are smaller thing, especially from Asia. Though I'm curious as to why he's on formula? Is he unable to drink whole milk? That would help him gain weight for sure.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

He gets a bottle morning and evening, more on demand than for any real need...but until he accepts vitamins (Fruit flavored! Nasty!), I'm not arguing - it's a great place to get supplemental support.

Milk in a cup? Not so much. I have thought about replacing the formula with straight milk, but see above - no hurry on this one. Matter of fact, with new adoptees, they don't recommend ceasing bottle support for the first year.

Considering that all the reports I got for a year had him at the same height/weight...for that whole year, including his first doctor visit...and now he's up two pounds? No problem.