Seton Baby Talk

Owen is now a pro. He’s made 180 degree turn and instead of clinging and screaming and writhing and begging me to stay, he carries his lunchbox into the school, and walks down the hall to his classroom without even looking back. No goodbye. No hugs. No kisses. Nothing. Sadly, I honestly can’t tell you what hurts worse: the hearing him beg me to stay or him not needing me at all.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This growing up thing is going by far more quickly than I’m really ready for. I spent some time looking through the millions of pictures I’ve taken over the last year and a half, and just cannot believe how much he has grown and changed in such a very short time. Looking at pictures of him just a year ago, and he’s a completely different person. A year ago he was just learning to sit up on his own. A year later he is walking, feeding himself, learning to talk, and the saddest loss for me? The baby chub. My sweet little chubster with the rolls that you just wanted to nibble cause they were so cute, is now a lean string bean of a toddler. With all of the running he is doing, I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise.

I was called to pick him up early on Wednesday because he had a “fever.” When I got there, the director of the school informed me he had a fever of 99 degrees. He seemed completely fine to me, but before walking out the door she reminded me of the 24 hour rule. “Owen cannot come back until he is fever free for 24 hours.”

Sigh.

“So he can’t come back until 4:00 tomorrow then?”

“He must be fever free for 24 hours.”

Now I get the reasoning behind this rule. They don’t want to get the other kids sick and I wouldn’t want Owen to get sick from anyone else either. That being said, it’s a “fever” of .3 degrees. He is currently on antibiotics for a sinus infection, which as far as I have been told is not contagious. I got him home and monitored him for the evening and just as I suspected he was completely fine. Nothing wrong with him at all, no fever, and yet, I had to stay home from work to ensure that his .3 degrees of fever would not infect anyone else. The only problem is that I get paid hourly, don’t have sick or vacation time, and if I’m not at work, that means I’m not getting paid, but even if Owen isn’t in school, the school is getting paid. It’s a frustrating situation.

So, I stayed home with my little guy yesterday. He picked out books for me to read. We practiced saying words. (He added “credit card” to his vocabulary.) He vacuumed and swept with mommy. He showed me how he can stack blocks. We dumped them out and put them back in the box 5 different times. We played fetch with the dogs. We laughed. We took a nap.

Just like every other time I’ve been at home with him, when I lay him down to sleep at night and just look at him while he curls up and gets comfortable for an evening of sweet dreams, I thank my lucky stars I was able to spend what sweet little time it seems we have in these baby years. They go by way too quickly.

I took him back to school this morning, and boy was he excited. He babbled all the way there, and I couldn’t get him out of his car seat fast enough. When we walked in the door he took off down the hallway with the director chasing after him. Once again, there was no good bye, no hugs, no kisses, nothing. I just get to watch my little boy as he walks away from me and towards his independence. I couldn’t be more proud of the big steps forward he is making, but I can’t help but wish I could just slow him down…just a little bit.