This week has been a week of new skills for Rowan. Earlier in the week he learned to locked and unlock the front door, which I discovered after he locked me out of the house. And yesterday he learned how to “pull the trigger.” Yes, Rowan has discovered the joys of sticking his finger down his throat and throwing up.
It all started about a week ago. Rowan was sticking his finger, well, actually it’s more like his whole hand, down his throat. He laughed each time he did it. Apparently the gagging reflects is funny to him. He stopped doing it for a few days but started again yesterday. Now I wasn’t there to see it happen, but the story goes something like this.
Rowan and Melanie were outside playing in the water. Rowan started sticking his hand into his mouth and shoving his finger further and further back. He laughed each time he did it. Melanie asked him to stop and warned that if he continued he might throw up. But the kid found it too funny to stop.
Rowan was wet from playing in the water so Melanie brought him into the house to change his clothes. She stripped the kid down to his diaper. Meanwhile he continued sticking his hand in his month and laughing.
All of a sudden Rowan had an odd look on his face. It was the kind of look one makes when tasting something awful. Melanie noticed Rowan’s belly was covered in vomit, and the kid wasn’t laughing any more. Melanie asked, “Rowan, you going to do that again?” He reply, “Nuh-uh.”
Rowan learned a new skill today, how to lock and fortunately unlock the front door. Mornings when I take Rowan to school I setup the stroller outside. Rowan typically stands in the doorway watching me. Today he did something a different.
Today Rowan closed the front door. “How cute,” I thought. But to my surprise not only had he closed the door but he locked it too. He had locked me out of the house.
I quickly thought about my options. Run to a neighbor’s house and get our spare key? Try to break in through a window? As I thought through the options I knocked on the door and said, “Rowan, will you unlock the door please?” I could heard him giggling on the other side.
A minute and a few giggles later Rowan unlocked the door. I quickly opened it to find him standing there with a really big grin on his face.
I learned a valuable lesson this morning. Always keep my house keys on me even if I’m stepping out for only a minute.
Today was Rowan’s first day skiing. He was very excited when we arrived at the ski shop to rent a pair of skis for him. The sales person handed us the smallest pair they had. Rowan had to immediately carry them around, but when it was time to try on boots, he wasn’t happy.
I’m not a skier so I don’t know first hand, but ski boots look uncomfortable. And judging from Rowan’s reactions he was not comfortable wearing the ski boots. Still, we decided we were going to do this so we didn’t let his new lack of interest stop us.
“Rowan, you want to go skiing?” I asked. “No, no.” said Rowan.
We arrived at the slopes. We let him watch others for a while then Melanie put on her skis to show Rowan how it’s done. He was finally interested again. A few minutes later he wanted to give it a try.
We put on his boot, but he still didn’t like them saying, “No! No!” So we loosened the boots a bit and he was finally happy. Next I snapped him onto the skis and off he went…with a little help of course.
He enjoying going fast the most, laughing as I ran with him while holding his hands. He also enjoyed watching the other skiers and snowboarders around him. He lasted nearly 30 minutes on the skis which really surprised me. I honestly didn’t think we would get him on the skis the first day.
We’re keeping the skis overnight and plan to take him out again tomorrow. Hopefully he will enjoy it even more on day two.
By the way, the “No, no” you hear in the background during one of the videos is not Rowan. It’s a little girl about Rowan’s age who was done for the day.
The title says it all, “A Horrible End to a Near Perfect Day.” Today was Rowan’s first day at school. He did quite well. He ate all his lunch. He took his nap albeit shorter than normal. He played with the other kids. You couldn’t have asked for a better first day.
When I arrive to pick Rowan up, he didn’t notice me. I swear he looked at me a couple of times, but he just kept playing. I walked in with another dad so that might have confused him. The teacher said, “Rowan, look who’s here” and he immediately noticed me and came running. He even gave me a big hug.
The rest of the day was uneventful. We played. He had dinner though he didn’t eat as much as usual. Then it was time for bed. He didn’t want to put on his pjs. He was disagreeable for a brief moment but that was it. After getting his pjs on we started our normal nightly routine to get him ready for bed.
Finally I said, “Rowan, time for bed.” He fought and said in his own way he was not ready. Fine. It happens from time to time. This went on for a little more than an hour. Finally I said “Time to go up to your room.” It was like I had just said the most horrible thing ever.
He started wiggling and fighting to get out of my arms. Then the crying started. The meltdown had begun. I haven’t seen the kid cry like this since Sunday. Yeah, it was that bad.
The crying continued for a while. He really didn’t want to go to bed even though he was sleepy. I can’t help but think this might be what the “terrible 2s” are like. In the end he did finally go to sleep.
Today is Rowan’s first day at school. “School” is what we are calling daycare. He started off the day sleeping in. Yep, first day of school and the kid decides to sleep late. Still, we made it to school on time despite sleeping late and me having to push the stroller with the kid in it through snow covered side walks. “We walked 3 miles, up hill, in knee deep snow, to and from school every day.” Haha, that’s how I felt this morning.
Rowan immediately recognized the daycare, a good thing. The previous visits were paying off. We went to his classroom and he did his little “I’m shy” thing. I put away his coat and other stuff, kissed him goodbye, then walked out. He was interested in what the other kids were doing, another good thing, so I don’t think he really realized I was leaving.
I’m not sure how he is doing right now, but the daycare hasn’t called to say “Come get your boy!” I take this as a good sign. Per the wife’s request, who is out of the country today, I will call the daycare this afternoon to check on the kid. Then I’ll walk back to pick him up at the end of the day. But until then I’m going to enjoy having a quiet house all to myself.
Rowan starts “school” (aka daycare) next week. To prepare I took him to the daycare center for an hour this morning. The idea is to get him familiar with the school before he actually starts next week. But what I learned was the experience was equally as good for me.
During the hour, I got a chance to talk with the teachers. I got to watch the other kids play, and I participated in the couple of activities with Rowan. Before this morning I didn’t really know what to expect. I wasn’t sure what Rowan’s day will be like. But now I have a very good sense of what it will be like for him. I probably got more out of the experience then Rowan did.
