Tell Us About Your Baby...

Tomorrow marks Winston's first official day at day care and my return to work. I am ready to go back but definitely anxious about turning over our 10 week old to the care of someone else. Thankfully Winston will be right across the street from my work, which provides tremendous peace of mind.

When I asked Dave about his thoughts on this transition, he said, "Well, at least the house will be cleaner." I've never been one for neatness, so you can imagine the house is a disaster when I am in it 24/7 (who has time to clean?).

Winston and I visited Canterbury, his daycare at the University of Miami medical campus today. Canterbury has 66 children ranging from 2 months to 4 years, and it functions as a day care and pre-school program. The team is wonderful - all of them are early childhood specialist who adore kids. Winston will be cared for by Miss Nora, and there are a couple of adorable baby girls that are part of his co-hort.

As part of the "prep" for day care, we had to prepare an overview of Winston's personality, likes/dislikes, and feeding schedule. It is so funny to describe him and our schedule (especially since the schedule is not really a schedule at this point...I mean the kid is only 10 weeks for goodness sakes!).

So since we had to write it anyway, I figured we'd share a bit about Winston... During his "alert" times, Winston takes in the world with his big blue eyes, and often has his forehead wrinkled with a curious expression. He instantly recognizes both Dave and me at this point - and usually greets us both with a wide toothless grin. When we talk to him, he makes every effort to talk back...he furrows his brow, sticks out his tongue, contorts his mouth, and once in a while he is even able to make a big sound, which pleases him to no end. These conversations are the highlight of my day.

Thankfully he is not a fussy baby - he cries when he is hungry and whines a bit when he is tired and ready to sleep. When awake, he definitely prefers to be interacting with someone over being alone. I don't know if this is true for all babies, but Winston seems to be a bit of a social gadfly.

We've become more disciplined about having him sleep in his crib, and as long as we keep him filled with milk, he is sleeping well at night (ok, well is a bit of a stretch given that he needs to wake up every few hours to eat).

Winston's arms continue to be a source of endless fascination for us. They rarely stop moving when he is awake, and while his moves are a bit more coordinated, he still resembles a mad conductor most of the time. Invariably, we find him sleeping in this position...hilarious!