Journey with You

This is the first week Cyrus at day care. It wasn’t easy but it’s getting better. (Keep my fingers crossed.)

He didn’t eat much anything there the first couple of days. For two days he only had yogurt I brought over for lunch. He didn’t want to drink anything either. We were so worried that he didn’t get enough food and nutrition.

Over the weekend, DH and I did the brain storming and came up with a list of ideas we could think of to help Sharon feed Cyrus. There were simply ideas. He doesn’t always take everything from us every time. He is a quite fussy either now. We are hoping he will change as time goes on. In order to get him to eat, we sometimes need to show him we’re eating the food first, let him play with a bowel or a spoon, or mix the sweet stuff he likes with other food. These tricks don’t always work.

I also tried to bring over a couple of things that I think he may take, such as yogurt and hard-boiled eggs. One day Sharon tried to feed him an egg for lunch but he didn’t want it. I guess it’s not just the food but also who is doing the feeding. We realized it simply takes time for him to get used to the people there and their feeding him.
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Thursday was DH’s birthday. My mother-in-law gave us some money to go to a nice restaurant. Being here for so many year, I haven’t had many chances to go to a fancy restaurant. I suggested to DH that we go to a quite famous French restaurant here. That’s not a family restaurant and we don’t think it’s appropriate to bring Cyrus along so we asked my mother-in-law if she can watch Cyrus for a few hours Wednesday evening so DH and I can go and have a nice birthday celebration dinner. She said yes.

I dropped Cyrus off at her house around 4pm and left twenty minutes after. It felt weired driving home without Cyrus. It was also the first time after Cyrus’ birth that only DH and I went out together.

We’re pretty happy with the food served at the restaurant. One little thing I wasn’t too crazy about was the wait. It took us about 5 minutes to finish each course but took more than 15 minutes for the next course to come. The dinner was dragged way too long and I started worrying about Cyrus and my mother-in-law.

It was eight when we got back to her house. To our surprise, when we walked in, he was having a great time playing with this new toy my mother-in-law bought him. He didn’t seem upset at all. My mother-in-law told us that he ate all the food I prepared for him, which was another surprise. He’s been quite a picky eater these days and we always have a hard time feeding him.
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It’s been a very busy month. DH was on summer break so we tried to take some trips. Cyrus is getting really good at interacting with us. He will clap hands if I said “clap hands” in Chinese. He would dance with me with the music. He can feed himself a lot better than before. He is walking and trying to run, reaching out to touch everything, and handing things over to us or putting them away. We’ve noticed things being misplaced a lot these days.

We took him for a few hikes and they were great. He loves being in the nature and being able to touch grass, flowers, and plants. We went to the Toronto Zoo and though he was still a little bit too young to take in everything, he looked at some animals and birds.

In order to keep him near us, we bought this baby harness. It looks like a monkey backpack with a leash on. It didn’t work as well as we were hoping. Sometimes he fell backwards because of it. But he looked so cute with the monkey on his back.

Two weeks ago we took him to a lake and DH was teaching him to kick a soccer ball. He did! It’s amazing how fast they learn.

I tried to cut his hair again. It wasn’t fully a success and he was crying toward the end but I was pretty happy with the result. I think I’ll do it even better next time.

Also, Cyrus did his first drawing using crayon!

I am going back to work next Friday. Cyrus is going to start his day care on Thursday.

Why start day care on Thursday? So I can see how he does at the day care. It’s a family group day care. People who run the day care are an old couple, Sharon and Mike. They seem very friendly and nice. Their place is very sunny and organized. There are a lot of toys for children. They take children out for a walk or let them play in the yard regularly. The most important thing is that they seem to know what they are doing and they don’t watch TV there. A couple of other places we’ve looked at play TV. I don’t want Cyrus to have that bad habit. Even an hour a day seems too much. Another good thing about this day care place is that they are only 5 minutes drive from my house. It would be quite convenient for me or DH to pick him up.

They usually take a nap between 12:30pm and 2:30pm. Cyrus nap schedule is not really like that now but Sharon reassured me that children adjust fairly quickly. I sure hope so. Another thing I am worried about is nursing. I’m still nursing and not planning on completely weaning. I won’t pump. He doesn’t take bottles anyway. But I want to nurse him in the morning, before he goes to day care, and then in the evening when we come home. I hope he will get used to that as well.

I feel sad that I can’t spend time with him at home anymore. However, I feel pretty excited about going back to work. I finally can “get paid.” I finally can add some new additions to my wardrobe, looking like a “woman” not just a “mom”. I know it’s going to be hard working and raising a child but nothing is going to be harder than being a full time mother: no pay, 24 hours, no break, and no appreciation.

I am so fed up with no appreciation part. I did all the grocery shopping and cooking but all I got is complaints about not reading the ingredients and not buying healthy enough food. After all these days looking after Cyrus, all I’ve got was “you don’t even know what your son wants to eat. He is too thin. I’ll have to cook if I don’t want him to starve” when Cyrus was being a picky eater and refused to eat what I’ve prepared for him.

Further more, they think a stay-home-mother simply sit around, having a good old time with a child. I mean, I need to get his meals ready, feed him, clean up, read to him, play with him, and trying to get somethings done while he naps. It’s meal time again before I realize it. DH always complains that I don’t know how to keep a house neat and clean. He complains that toys are everywhere. Hello, why should I keep putting things away if he is going to get them out in 5 minutes? Wouldn’t it make more sense to do it at the end of the day. I know the house looks clutter because of toys laying around. But what do you expect? You have a little child at home!

So to be honest. I am tired of being a stay home mother without having any appreciation. What could be worse than doing a 24/7 job without pay and no appreciation on top of it. Forget it! I think I better of being a working mom, at least I will get paid and be financially independent.