Hurray for Nursery!

Sunday was Alex’s first day in Nursery at church. We dropped him off and he ran in and grabbed toys. I left and picked him up 1 1/2 hours later. He was as happy as could be. A few weeks ago we went in for a little while and I stayed with him and he did great. So I knew he was ready. I just had to wait until he did not have a runny nose and general conference and stake conference were over. We hardly went to church this month with all of that going on.

Last week should have been his first day of Nursery. Alex was up in the night and I didn’t know what was up with him- if he was sick or not. It was the primary program so we had to be at sacrament meeting to see the other boys so we decided to let Alex sleep in as long as he could. I sent the other family members off to church at 9:00 and sat on the couch knowing that Alex would wake up any minute. I promptly fell asleep (I was up in the night with Alex- but I didn't get to sleep in!). At 10:20 Alex woke up and I could not believe it. I grabbed his clothes and stuffed some food in his mouth and made it to church just in time for the program. Jaxon and Tanner gave their parts like they are pros. I love the Primary program.

We have two nurseries in our ward (there were 12 babies born the year Alex was) and I am very happy with the one Alex is in. While I was there I noticed lots of structure and activities- not just playing with toys. They sit on chairs and read from the board book of the Book of Mormon (for 1 ½ minutes- they understand that it is nursery). They have singing time and lesson time and do bubbles and snacks and lots of stimulating things that Alex loved. I actually listened to the Relief Society and Sunday school lessons. That has not happened for a long time. I was always trying to keep him quiet during one or both of those meetings. Lately it was basically wandering the halls. I had a hard time sitting still. I am not used to needed an attention span to sit and listen. I have to work on that skill again.

Alex is really growing up. He is trying so hard to be like his brothers. They are teaching him to be crazy-silly just like they are. He is talking more and more. Most of the time he just babbles but I can get him to say his brothers names- “dadon, and nana”. He is also becoming more independent and wants to do what he wants to do all of the time. This involves being outside or watching one of his favorite shows on TV. So if we are not doing one of those things- which is a lot of the time- then he can be a grouch. What happened to my sweet little baby who never cried? We are trying to get rid of the pacifier so it is only for bedtime and church right now. Every morning is the problem of giving it up with out having a tantrum. So I really need to just go cold turkey. It will be a few days of straight tantrums and no sleep but it will be worth it in the long run. I am sure when I get the nerve to do it- it will be blog worthy.

I don’t do many things right as a parent. For example I am constantly giving my children things that they become attached to and then I take them away (bottles, pacifiers, sippy cups, etc…) One thing that I must have done right has to do with teaching my kids their letters. The problem is that I am not sure what I have done- so I can’t really pass that knowledge on. Actually it must be my kids because I don’t think I have done anything special. The other day he brought me a refrigerator alphabet magnet. I wasn’t paying much attention- but thanked him for the W. He kept following me around saying something then I realized he was saying “mmmmm”. The fact that it was a W and not an M means nothing to an 18 month old- they can not tell. He brought me an M and was telling me the sound it makes! I was amazed. Then the other night we were all down stairs and Alex and Andre were looking at the letters. He always knew the sounds for M, J, K, F, S, and B. Sometimes he knew others. That really surprised me. Then I remembered that his absolute favorite video is Leap Frog's “Letter Factory”. He could watch that 5 times every day. During this video they teach the letter sounds- so in reality, the only thing I did right in this case was turn my baby into a couch potato so he could learn his letter sounds.

On another subject that has to do with Alex. For the past 2 months Alex poops in the bathtub about 80 % of the time. This has made it so that he is separated from the other boys during bath time and there is A LOT of bathtub cleaning. I had a friend a few years ago that complained of the same thing. So I know it is not just him being weird. Any suggestions from moms out there? We try to watch for signs of it coming and we have sat him on the potty. Once he even went in the potty but it still continues. I think we will just have to outgrow this phase. It is driving me crazy!