Another round of babyproofing

So Nathaniel, in the past few days, seems to have discovered the few drawers he can open in the living room and dining room.

The other day, I heard him rustling around while I was emptying the dishwasher. I looked around the corner to seem him nonchalantly holding a small light bulb in one hand while shuffling through a door with the other hand. Definitely a little scary.

So we've managed to clear everything that might be of danger (pretty much just that one light bulb at this point) out of the drawers, and he's taken to ransacking them.

There's always something new, isn't there?

Terrible Towel waver

Nathaniel is a Steelers fan. Let's just make that clear from the beginning.

Sure, he might choose differently as time goes on, but there's no question that he's a Steelers fan for now.

And, like any good Steelers fan, he has a Terrible Towel. That's one of those yellow (gold, really) pieces of cloth the fans were waving madly last night. The Terrible Towel has been around since the early- to mid-1970s, so it's a real piece of Pittsburgh tradition.

Which is why my mother recently bought Nathaniel an official "Terrible Toddler Towel." (As my mother pointed out, the "terrible" seems to be modifying "toddler" instead of "towel" ... but she was sure that wasn't the case with Nathaniel.)

Since the towel arrived, I've been teaching Nathaniel the proper waving technique ... and he's definitely picked up the style. I start waving my Terrible Towel, and he grabs his and starts waving madly ... generally until he falls over. Now that's a fan. I just have to get him to start yelling "Go Steelers!" and we'll be well on our way.

Mr. Personality

Nathaniel is developing such a little personality ... it's really cute to see this happening. He completely understands how things work, and you can tell when he's pleased with himself.

Moments ago, he saw me getting ready for work. When I went to see what he was up to a few seconds later, he had picked up his shoes and was trying to put them on his feet. When I leaned over to help, he had such a big smile and started to kick his feet a little in excitement.

This isn't the kind of stuff nonparents understand or that I would have understood two years ago, but it's really amazing to me now.

Potty time?

The confusion with the new classroom continues.

They asked us if Nathaniel has done anything with potty training. At 18 months? The doctor thought that was crazy talk.

Nonetheless, we decided to get a potty for starters. The choices were limited, but my wife and I went with the "Go Diego Go" potty (from the Dora the Explorer show).

We find it extra fun because Nathaniel has an uncle named Diego. Hope he doesn't associate the name with the act of going potty too much.

The change continues

Of course, Nathaniel's moving to a new class hasn't turned out to be as easy as expected. Among the big issues are things Amanda and I have to get used to:
-- They asked whether we wanted Nathaniel to wear a shirt when playing in the sprinkler outside so the other kids wouldn't see his chest scar. We had never ever begun to give this a thought, but now we're worried he'll get self-conscious about it.
-- They asked whether there was any potty training yet. He's only 18 months! Isn't that way too early? (His doctor said yes, it was too early).
-- The snacks. In his first week, he had far too many days involving Munchkins and cheese curls. As far as I'm concerned, he'll eat those later in life whether we want him to or not. At this age, we should be encouraging good diet habits.

Then there's his issues: He's definitely a little scared of the change ... sometimes. When Amanda drops him off, Nathaniel clings to her like crazy. He cries and refuses to be put down and just grabs on. In the end, Amanda is left giving him to a teacher and getting away quickly. Conversely, when I drop him off, he generally takes a couple of seconds to let go of my hand (I squirm out of his grip a little), then he runs off and starts playing. (Little boys and their moms, huh?)

Anyway, by the time we pick him up (and it doesn't matter who picks him up), he doesn't want to leave. Even if it's Amanda picking him up (like yesterday), she has to pull him away from the toys and the kids all having a blast together.

I'm sure we'll all get into a better pattern soon enough.

So much for the smooth transition

Things looked like they were going as easy as can be with Nathaniel and his new room ... but no more. Amanda says Nathaniel has been more clingy and was very clingy at dropoff on Friday.

And now, to make matters worse, we're assuming it's some new germs from the older kids that have made Nathaniel sick and, by extension, Amanda and me as well. We're all home from daycare and work today, sick as a small pack of dogs.

Hope this thing is gone soon ... I took off work this week, and now my vacation is disappearing into sickness.

Graduation week

All this week, Nathaniel has been moving from the 1st class in his day care (Ducks) to the 2nd class (Lambs) because he's now 18 months old.

As you might imagine, this created a certain amount of nervousness, confusion and tension ... in Amanda and me. Amanda and I were concerned he'd be afraid of the new room and refuse to go there after going for his entire life to a different room with different teachers.

Well, that's not the case.While Amanda notes he's been a little clingier than usual lately, he also seems perfectly happy to run into the new room and just start playing with all the new older kids, barely noticing that we're leaving. And the way they transition at our day care involved Nathaniel coming back to the younger room for a couple days for the standards (eating and nap), but he apparently didn't even care much about that.

So, in the end, it hasn't been that big a deal. He's happy to be playing with more active kids who are doing this wild new thing -- talking! And we're happy that he's happy.

In other news, he's doing a lot better in terms of health right now, and the nebulizer treatments are almost over. We discovered fairly early on that he's happy to have a nebulizer treatment if he gets to watch Thomas the Tank Engine while it's happening (and Mom is giving the treatment). The result: I now wander around humming the Thomas theme song in my head. ARGH!