Life's Been a Bit Crazy...Drama, Drama and More Drama

The past few weeks have been pretty crazy around here....

I had daycare drama. Sigh!

Ever since Alberto moved up from his one year old class to his two year old class, there's been a problem with his new teacher. She constantly complained that he was aggressive, didn't listen, didn't sit still, and always wanted to play. When a teacher tells you that your child is aggressive, you take that seriously, so I worked on attachment exercises at home, talked to him, prayed over him. Still she continued to complain. After the week 2, she sent him home with a sad face painted on his hand with black magic marker. I was upset about this. You don't paint sad faces on 2 year old hands. He got that because he was sitting still for reading.

No matter what I did at home, she continued to complain in class. I talked to his other teacher who commented how Alberto was a joy and a delight and one of the sweetest kids she knew. Okay, disconnect and this didn't make sense with the constant complaints I was getting.

Then one morning, Alberto goes to take a toy away from another child who had all the blocks. That was, according to the teacher, an act of aggression (taking a toy). The little girl cried. It was an Oscar winning performance. I watched the whole thing play out. The teacher was facing me and didn't see it happen. The teacher turned around and reprimanded Alberto and threatened him with time out. She then commented to me, in an exhausted and exasperated tone, that he was just so aggressive and that this is why she had to keep him in the stroller. I then told her that the little girl was responsible for all the drama; he had just taken a toy. As she watched and saw the little girl playing happily, now that Alberto had gotten reprimanded, the teacher said, "oh, that's a 2 year old for you."

I couldn't shake the idea of Alberto in a stroller as a punishment. So I began daycare shopping.

Alberto's new daycare is great. It's also expensive but hey, he's worth it! They do not define pushing, hitting, biting or temper tantrums as acts of aggression but rather lack of language and communication skills that must be taught and mirrored. They also define aggression as willfully/intentionally causing harm to another individual. Um....Alberto is NOT aggressive. He's a two year old who doesn't like to share and will push you if you get in his face and take away a toy if he thinks it's his. I'm not saying he shouldn't learn to shove and use his words; I'm just saying, he's not an aggressive kid.

We still have to work on Alberto following instructions and dealing with the fact that he can't play all the time. But fortunately he's in an environment that is loving and nurturing and have a gentle approach at teaching this.


Then there was Drama 2

We went on our first trip together. My sister invited us to Boston. I took his carseat after talking to many people who highly recommended it. Did you know that the carseat is generally too wide to carry through the aisle of an airplane? Did you also know that mothers with carseats and toddlers do NOT get priority bording? (unless you make a big stink!) Did you know that you have to twist the seatbelt latch to get it open once you have your carseat attached? And did you know that your carseat makes a great headrest if you want to lean against something while your child is sleeping safely in his carseat?




We stayed at the Four Seasons across from the Boston Commons. I don't think the Four Seasons will ever be the same. So after running around the Boston Commons,

we come back to the room, to bathe and get ready for dinner. I walk to the bathroom to draw Alberto's bath when he in running in the room and trips and flies into the door jam. I heard the bump and though, "boy that hurt!" And YES, it did hurt. I picked him up thinking he was going to have a big bump on his forehead only to see that he had a big laceration on his forehead. I mean BIG.

Into action mode I went, grabbed my purse, cellphone, towel and ran out the door with Alberto trying to apply pressure. The staff at the Four Season's brough me a big first aid kit. And there I was with Alberto on one leg, trying to keep the towel on his forehead, dialing my sister who was at a Dermatology conference, and instructing the staff on the supplies I needed, all while my leg was twitching uncontrollably.

My sister thought it was only going to require steri-strips from Walgreens. That was until she saw it. So, they called Fire Rescue and we got to ride in a Fire Rescue truck to the hospital. Those trucks, by the way, are really cool, not to mention very cold.

We arrived at the Pediatric ER and the attending felt he could do the closure and didn't need to call plastic surgery or the surgeons. Being that it was a clean cut, my sister thought it would be fine. That is until she saw him trying to close the wound. That's when it was surreal.

I don't really spend a lot of time in the clinical area of our office. Still, I've seen my share of procedures and intermediate and complex closures. So, I was a little perplexed as I watched the attending closing this without the wound closing. Then, he started to put in the simple sutures. that was when my sister backs away from holding Alberto's head.

I thought she was bored or needed to talk on her cellphone. She spends a lot of time on her cellphone. The next thing I see, she has her glasses on and gloves on and informs the attending, he's doing it wrong and proceeds to do the comlex repair. The attending put in the rest of the simple sutures. 12 stitches in total.


Alberto was fine AFTER we left the ER. He will tell people about his "boo boo" and point to it. Tomorrow, we get the sutures out by the plastic surgeon. It's healing quite nicely and hopefully he will have minimal scarring -- thanks to my sister!


Drama 3...Doggy Drama.

Since I was going out of town, I asked my cleaning lady, former nanny, if she wanted to watch my dogs. She agreed but called me and asked if she could watch them from her house instead of mine. I told her that was fine.


On Sunday morning as we are getting ready to go to breakfast before we leave for the airport, I get the call that she lost Samson. Samson, my darling little Maltese of 10 years. My buddy and little partner who did not get dog status until Alberto came home.

So at that moment, I was dealing with the stress of my 2 year old with 12 stitches in his forehead, the stress of his starting a new school and the transition, the stress of what emotional damage his old daycare might have done to him, the stress of lugging the carseat through the airplane and security, and NOW add to that the stress of my darling little dog GONE.

Well, GOD IS GOOD.

1. Alberto has not been traumatized by his injury. In fact, he hasn't slowed down at all (much to my now overprotectiveness)

2. We got priority seating on the airplane.

3. Upon arriving in Miami, I got a phone call that the dude who had Samson all day was ready to return him.

4. Alberto started his new preschool is doing great and transitioning fabulously!