Moving Up...

My daughter is moving up to the next class at her daycare starting Monday morning. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I hope it is a good thing. She will probably not move up again until the Spring which is in about another 6 months or so. My only concern is that they are dividing up her class. Her class is made up of 8 children who are all born between June 18 and August 28th. They're all on about the same level developmentally with some a little farther ahead and some a little farther behind. I like to think that my daughter is a little farther ahead based on the talking I've heard in the class. However, they aren't examining the children to decide how to divide them up; they're going by their birthdays. June and July in the older class, August in the younger. Since my daughter is an August birthday, she goes in the younger class.

One of the things that I like about daycare is how they learn from each other. Even when it is things that I don't want her learning (biting, shoving, "mine", etc.), I know that they do learn a lot from each other. So, I asked who else will be in the class with them. Some of the kids out of the next youngest class (12-18 month olds since she is in the 18-24 month old class) was the answer. These kids, I am told, are at least 4 months younger. Honestly, she won't learn from them. Most likely, she'll just bully them. Much as I hate to admit it, I think my daughter's a bully. I'm not happy about it, but I'm a realist. In my opinion, she should be in with older (bigger) kids who she can't push around as easily. Children who are 4 months younger are easier to push around than the current group. Maybe she'll stop biting. Only because it will be easier to rip the toy out of the younger kid's hand. They'll be no need for biting. I guess if she gets to be too much of a bully, they can always move her up again.

Plus, in the next few months, I have big plans for my little girl. We are going to get rid of the dummy if it's the last thing I do. I'm just trying to decide the best time. I want it to be gone for at least a couple of months before the baby is born. Here's my reasoning. We are going to take the dummy away. When I do it, I want there to be no dummies in the house. Period. If I wait until after the baby, the baby will probably have a dummy (I haven't decided on this yet since I've had such a hard time getting my daughter to give it up, but I don't think it hurts infants to have it; realistically, it doesn't hurt my daughter to have it, but that's beside the point). I don't want my daughter to lose all of hers and start taking the baby's dummy. So, I still have some time, but not too much. However, I need some daycare cooperation on this one. I need to know that they aren't going to give it back to her. Not sure how to work this. I can get rid of it over a weekend to get her used to taking naps without it, but I have to know that daycare won't give it back to her (again).

Also, there will be some potty training. That won't be until after the baby though. I don't need the stress of her getting mostly trained and then relapsing because she's not getting enough attention. So, I've decided potty training can wait. I'd like her potty trained by 3. That's my goal, and for now, I consider it realistic. She already has a potty chair, and she likes to sit on our toilet at home. What a waste of money on the potty chair. However, what usually happens is she gets her little butt arranged on the seat and then says, "Hand." This originally meant, Mommy, I'm afraid I'm going to fall in, please hold onto my hands. Now, however, if I give her one hand, she then wants the other hand. At that point, with a big grin on her face, she breaks into "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." She knows the rule is no playing on the potty. But, Daddy usually breaks down and plays a little row-row when he thinks I'm not looking (and once in a while, I play along, too, because I can't resist the grin--it's such a self-satisfied-look-what-I-got-you-to-do grin). But, she does like to try and go to the bathroom (usually at inconvenient times). Usually nothing comes out though. This is one milestone I'm not ready to get to yet. But, again, I want her with older children at daycare when we get there. She's not going to learn to go sit on the potty from younger kids who aren't ready.

I'm blowing this way out of proportion, I'm sure. I think things will be good. In fact, as I was leaving for work this morning, her new teacher in the next class stopped me and asked if she could call me for about 10-15 minutes this weekend some time. It's a "Let's talk about what's important for my daughter in this class" talk, and I think that's an excellent way to start. I can express my concerns over her biting, warn her the pacifier is going bye-bye soon (so she better be prepared), and discuss how potty training works as she gets older. I really like the teacher, so hopefully, I'm just over-reacting and there will be no problems.

Part of my problem is that I'm stressed about my daughter's upcoming birthday. My mother-in-law is coming in on her birthday and staying through the weekend. I love my mother-in-law. I got really lucky. So that's not what's stressing me.

What's stressing me is that it looks like my grandmother is coming in as well. Because my mother-in-law will be staying with us, I'm sure my grandmother will tell my mother (because she never tells me; only guilt trips my mother) that she made all the effort to come see us and she didn't get to see my daughter nearly as much as she would like. But, she may surprise me.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!