September 2007

She's only three, but all of a sudden I feel that my little girl is starting to grow up.

This month she started attending Preschool at Lakeside Montessori. This was the first time that we've ever left her without an adult she already knew, and the night before Becky got very nervous that the experience would be scary for Kyla. When the moment to drop her off came, they were met on the curb by one of the teaching assistants. Kyla promptly took her hand and headed inside and appeared to have a great time. We know this because there are cameras in the classroom that can be viewed from the Web.

Kyla has also advanced to the "Baby Grads" level at swim class, which means no parents in the pool. This is kind of bittersweet for me because while I love to see her move forward, I really enjoyed being in the pool with her. I was worried that she would struggle with this change, but she showed no reservations getting into the pool with the instructor and relishes the additional one on one attention from her. One of her new classmates is named Zoe, and after Kyla was introduced she explained to her teacher that we used to have a Zoe until a coyote came and took her away. This was really funny to me (in a morbid way) but no one else seemed to get what she was talking about.

As if this weren't enough for a parent to absorb, Kyla further asserted her independence one day at the park when I tried to join her on the teeter totter. She promptly ordered me to leave and then called for one of the other kids to teeter with her. I guess I'm not as cool as I thought I was.

Blake is still his happy little self. He is getting a lot more coordinated with his arms and will peddle his feet if you stand him up (with babies the strength to walk comes long before the balance). We've been putting him on his stomach a lot and he is able to scoot himself forward a bit.

Unfortunately he caught a bad cough, which has had an adverse affect on his sleep. Contrary to the promising four to five hour stretches he would do before, for several weeks he has consistent slept in one to two hour stretches, which has not been good for Becky's mental health (or mine to a lesser extent) since it takes at least 120 minutes to achieve the REM sleep that the brain needs.

He also has eczema that shows up on his skin from time to time. We've been experimenting with changes to Becky's diet and not using soap on him in the bath to try to isolate the cause, but our current theory is that it is the laundry detergent we're using since his diaper-covered areas appear to be unaffected. We've also switched to non-latex pacifiers and that seems to have cleared-up his face.

For activities this month we went to Remlinger Farms with the Neels, we went back to Chelan (again with the Neels), and we went to Ellensburg High School's homecoming game where Lexie was presented as royalty during half-time.

This was also the month of our sixth wedding anniversary, which was also the first time we've successfully left both kids without us for an entire date (the first attempt was aborted because Blake began crying and wouldn't stop until Becky came home). We went to dinner at a Benihana-style Japanese restaurant, went for a walk, and finished with some ice cream.

In the midst of this eventful month, it occurred to me that after a child is born, parenting is basically the process of slowly teaching your children to get by without you. Little by little we become obsolete.