Dear Gray: Month Thirteen

Dear Gray,

So, daycare is killing us all. I am bleary eyed and snotty right now, which pretty much describes you as well. After getting over the croup extravaganza, we have now entered a constant state of snottiness. You started daycare on the Monday after your first birthday and ended up in the ER by Saturday. It probably took you ten days to recover from croup, then you had a couple days of relative health and now we are sick again. Your poor nose is red and raw from wiping it all the time. And it is impossible to avoid your germs, particularly when I am yawning and you cough right into my mouth. Hooray, togetherness! Unfortunately this is also affecting how well you sleep. You, my champion sleeper, are having a tough time with this new nap schedule and it is affecting your nights as well. I'm so sorry, I know how much you loved your 3-4 hour daily naps when you were at home!

But daycare isn't all bad. You are exposed to lots of things that you wouldn't be if you were at home (not including all the GERMS), and the daily reports from your teacher make us laugh every night. "Grayson is learning about ballet." "We learned today about money and that pennies are copper colored." Today we got your pictures from "picture day" and they are hilarious. Unfortunately they are also extremely expensive ($50 -ARE YOU KIDDING ME?) but we might be able to color copy them. Your teacher brushed your blonde afro so your hair looks kind of odd but they are cute nonetheless.

You learned to walk about two weeks ago and we love watching you stagger around with your arms up in the "stick 'em up" position. Your language is exploding- you learned how to say "cracker" last weekend and just tonight you learned how to sign "shoes" and "hot." You learned how to sign "water" the other day as well. We are working on cutting down on bottles and at this point you just get your nighttime bottle. You are such an awesome eater and you will eat anything I give you- hopefully we are creating a non-picky eater! You have progressed past knowing your ears to also knowing your nose, eyes and mouth. Your love of books has exploded and you want us to read, read, read to you. Current favorites: Very Hungry Caterpillar, 10 Little Ladybugs and There's a Wocket in my Pocket. The hair: it is curly and the eyes: remain a murky greyish greenish brownish blue.

It has been a hard month for all of us. My normally sunny, silly little boy has been tired, sick and cranky and it has been so hard to watch. I know this is temporary and we have to get through being exposed to all these new germs but it is just hard. It breaks my heart to have to walk away from you when you are crying and I feel like I've done it almost every day this month. I keep reminding myself that you won't remember this but it doesn't make it any easier.

I love you, sweetheart.