Sitter: "He hits the other kids with toys."
Me: Uhhhh... sorry?
Sitter: He pulls the little girl's hair
Me: Uhm... sorry?
Sitter: He screams. Not in anger, but in joy. He expresses himself by screaming
Me: Oh - yeah, I knew about that. You don't think that is cute? Uh - sorry?
After spending the last month apologizing, and trying to teach my 13 month old about "nice hands" and "inside voices" I wasn't really getting anywhere. I had only seen him behave like a perfect angel with other little kids - giving kisses and hugs and playing mostly nice.
I guess our sitter finally had enough, because she broke up with us yesterday. Told me I had a week to find a new sitter, and she had enough and couldn't take anymore because she couldn't get Mikey to play "cohesively" with the other babies.
For real? Cohesively with others? Mikey doesn't even fully understand what OTHERS is, let alone playing nice. And my fears of having a 1 year old that could pass for a 3 year old are coming true. Poor fella. I thought it was normal for a 1 year old to behave the way he does, but I guess I was wrong. And this must be some sort of record. My 13 month old was expelled from daycare.
I'm sure some day I will look back on this and laugh. Sure.
And while I get a new sitter squared away, here are some pictures of February, so far:
I finally got Mikey's laundry organized!
Mikey is walking in shoes! (ummm, sort of)
Mikey LOVES reading!
And also, climbing on to things he shouldn't:
And getting booboo's:
You know, you're probably better off having a new sitter, because if she finds him to be the problem, who knows if she'd take her frustration out on him. I'm not accusing her of potentially being abusive, but consider when your mad who you take your anger out on. You are gonna find someone who can help you to teach him not to hit and not to pull hair. Personally Cohen screams in glee and I too think it's cute. He squeals like a little girl when he's a happy boy. Hugs Kerith!
ReplyDeleteLook at all those clothes! Makes a girl jealous ;) Hmm, not sure how hard it'd be but maybe it would be better to find a sitter used to being with little boys. Not sure how the other one was. Boys are naturally more active, and he may end up being one who learns by doing and moving. Kids don't play together when they're that young. They do a lot of parallel play, but they can't play "cohesively" with each other. I hope you find a good sitter soon!
ReplyDeleteBrooke - J and I decided as much - and we already found someone :) A former co-worker who decided to start an in-home daycare so she could be with her two little boys. She is already watching 2 other kids besides her own (2 more boys) and with Mikey she is up to 5 boys! It should be a lot of fun :)
ReplyDeleteVicki - The new sitter now has 5 boys (I was lucky to get her last opening!) We have our fingers crossed that this works out better. Mikey went from being the youngest to the 2nd oldest in the new daycare(ages range from 6 months to 2.5 years). I took him to meet everyone on Friday and he had a lot of fun.
Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. I was extremely upset when this all happened, and cried for hours because I was worried what type of situation he had been in for the last month while he was "behaving badly." The ex-sitter was a big fan of timeout, so I'm worried that he spent a lot of his time in "timeout" with no toys, all alone.
I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. A sucky one, but I do think Mikey will be happier in the long run.