"Pretty please, with sugar on top, can't I keep coming to Camp Wellness?"
This has been a month of major changes for our family. In the middle of August, my employer gently warned me that I could no longer get away with having Tyler at work without a babysitter. Coincidentally, the very next week Tyson cut down his hours to working only Saturdays at his job, and became a full time student at the UofA. So it seemed we had found a solution. We've been carpooling to my office, then Tyson bikes to school. Whenever he isn't in class, Tyson bikes back to my work to study while keeping an eye on Tyler. At first, this seemed like a great plan, good for Tyler, good for me, good for the students at the Health & Wellness Center. Unfortunately, it's proved to not be good for Tyson - Tyler's at an age where he no longer sits quietly in his bouncy chair, peacefully gazing at his toys. He'd rather be on the floor, working on his crawling technique, and loudly expressing his frustration at the pace of his progress, or sitting in Tyson's lap, turning the pages of whichever textbook Tyson's trying to read, or editing the essay Tyson's trying to type...
And so, today was Tyler's last day at work, and tomorrow will be Tyler's first day of daycare. I'm excited for him to get more interaction and attention from people who are getting paid just to play with/care for him and other children his age. They'll teach him baby sign language, Spanish, and of course, socialization with other kids. But naturally, I'm sad that he won't be with me at work anymore, and I'm sad for the other folks I know that will miss him (including Tyson, who, although frustrated that he can't focus on his homework, has also gotten used to spending more time with Tyler every day.)
We took some pictures of Tyler during his last day of work. He spent the morning with Auntie Em while Tyson was in class and I was at a work event. Auntie Em knows how to soothe Tyler even when he's hungry and teething!
Later in the day, Tyler and I helped Dave and Joaquin teach "SPA" (the Camp Wellness euphemism for P.E. Class). The lesson of the day was Strength Training, so Tyler demonstrated modified pushups for the class. Just look at that form!
Although he's great at teaching upper body strength training exercises, he's not yet qualified to teach squats or lunges, so Tyler spent that part of the class in the arms of the Camp Nurse (thus getting her out of having to demonstrate these exercises.)
Finally, Tyler finished the day with "Campie Pamela" in the lobby. Pam has spent many a moment speaking "duck" to Tyler, and soothing him to sleep. How many naps did Tyler take, sleeping flat on his back on the desk between her keyboard and monitor, with the sound of her typing away? Or propped in his bouncy chair next to her while she greeted students, took phone calls, wrote deficiency notices, and kept me on task? I know he'll miss her most of all.
On the bright side, bringing home Tyler's work toys allowed us to reconfigure some of them to create "new" toys for him. The exercise mat we bought when he was just a few days old was converted a few hours ago into a tunnel/obstacle course:
Just look at that balance and precision! Soon he'll be crawling all the way through! (And a new world of challenges awaits...)
