Moving On Up

Upon Jayla's return to the day care yesterday, she was placed in the Pre-Toddlers class. She has been in the Wobblers class since Labor Day. Her move up to the Pre-Toddlers class was a little scary to me because the class is intended for 18-24 month old kids. Jayla is only 15 months as of 4 days ago! The plan was to let her transition by spending some time in the Pre-Toddlers class each day. She ended up spending ALL DAY over there yesterday. All of a sudden Jayla apparently knows how to sit still and listen to a story, sit in a circle and review flash cards, and nap on a cot! A cot - no more crib! The day care teachers were all very impressed with how well she did in the Pre-Toddlers room yesterday. So, is this proof that my child really is a genius and extremely advanced for her age? I think so. I was very proud of the report that I got about her yesterday. But, the best part of having her on the Pre-Toddlers side of the glass door rather than on the Wobblers side is the extra $43 in my pocket every month! Yes, our tuition just went down $43 - life is good and my child is a genius!

A Catastrophic Event

A horrible thing has happened - I have misplaced the battery charger for my digital camera! This means that I can no longer take pictures of my Jayla! It must be replaced ASAP. Until then, life as I know it has stalled.

In other news, this is my 100th post to this blog. It just took over 2 years to do it.

Am So Thankful For Her...

Wish Us Luck...

Tomorrow, our little threesome family will embark on a 12-hour trip to St. Lous in a car. We're going to visit the in-laws for an entire week. We'll try to make the entire trip while Jayla is sleeping tomorrow night. If for some reason we don't, then Lord, help us. Her father didn't nickname her the "Screamin' Demon" for no reason!

(Actually Jayla is a really good car baby. She likes the change in scenery and looking around at the other cars, the sky, etc. We just thought that making the trip at night would be easier and more efficient as there is no need to stop to feed her, change her, entertain her, etc.)

Legacy

My husband is so excited about all the many things that he has taught Jayla in the past few days. She is truly a sponge but, seems to catch on to things that have absolutely no educational value so much quicker than say...her ABCs. For instance, in the past 5 days, she has learned the following from her father:

1. When he yells randomly at her, she does it right back and thinks it's the most hilarious thing that has ever happened. My child literally walks around randomly yelling at things now.
2. When he says the word muscle, she points to her forearm. This comes from him bragging about his biceps one day and pointing at them while he flexed.
3. When he says the word snake, she does the dance. This one is admittedly very, very funny to watch her do.

I must also give my baby credit for the genius things that she does. She is excellent at following any direction that you give her. It is amazing to watch her little brain work when I tell her to do something - especially if it's a new thing. She tries to figure out what I am talking about so that she can do it - all in pursuit of a round of applause from everyone in the room once she has accomplished the given task. She's going to be a people-pleaser like her mama.

Bitten

As a first time mom to a toddler, I am relatively unparanoid about most things these days. A lot has happened lately to help toughen me up:

• She's had almost constant ear infections since we returned from our trip to St. Louis for Labor Day
• I've watched her fall from the top of an indoor play structure at the day care
• Despite my generally strict dietary regimen for her, the day care has managed to feed her chocolate chip cookies and candy
• She crawls up the stairs to the second floor in our house whenever the mood strikes her and we have yet to purchase any type of gate for the top or the bottom of the stairs

But, I was so NOT prepared for what I would see when I picked her up from the day care on Friday!

On Thursday night, before she went to bed, I noticed that her right ear was red. It didn't seem like a big deal though. Then, on Friday morning, it was still red and maybe a little swollen, I thought. My husband dropped her off at school as normal Then around mid-morning, I got a call from the day care. They wanted to know if I had noticed her ear was red, hot, and swollen. I told them that I had. We talked a bit longer about how it was probably just an insect bite and Benadryl would probably clear everything up. Well, when I got there and my child looked up at me, I almost didn't recognize her!! Her ear was literally standing out from her head at a 90 degree angle! It was bright red and about the size of her hand! I felt sorry for her but, the truth is, she just looked really, really funny. And the people at the day care said that it had improved over the course of the day. I'd never seen anything like it in real life. Her left hand was also really swollen and red. I stopped by CVS on the way home and got her some Benadryl. On Saturday morning, the swelling and redness of her ear was going away but her hand still looked pretty bad. I took her to the doctor on Saturday morning (for the third of a series of shots for her latest double ear infection). The doctor seemed to think that it was just mosquito bites and nothing was infected or anything. She suggested that we continue with the Benadryl and just give it some time. By yesterday, you could hardly tell her ear had been swollen and it had gone down enough that you could actually see where she had been bitten on the ear. Her hand was still puffy though.

In all this, I'm not even sure my child noticed what has been going on. Maybe she's preoccupied by the fact that she is currently cutting her two top, front teeth (FINALLY!). But all I know is that when we got in the car this morning to take her to school, I saw a mosquito buzzing around the front seat. I had but once mission - that mosquito had to die!!