Slides and Tears

I am working from home all week so it's been difficult to find time to blog.  I don't have a 1.5 hour bus ride in the morning, so my routine has been thrown off schedule.  For two weeks in April every year Evan's daycare is closed and I have to find someone else to watch Evan or take vacation.  Last year it worked out well because I had a work trip to Birmingham and my aunt meet me there and watched Evan for a week and I was able to shuffle him around between friends for the other days.  This year, not so much.  I've taken a lot more work trips and both my aunt and my sister have already done (or are signed up for) two trips, so I didn't want them to ask for another favor.  So, I found another daycare to bring him to for a week and then I'm taking a week of vacation.

The daycare was recommended by a friend of mine and we went over to visit and the woman seemed nice.  Evan has other thoughts though.  The first day he was ok and I snuck off when he was outside playing.  Yesterday he was a bit more clingy but I snuck off while he was chasing after a ball.  Today?  He refused to be fooled and grabbed a hold of my hair and hung on for dear life.  The woman took him so I could leave and Evan screamed bloody murder.  It was very painful.  I thought that each day would get better but it seems that each day is worse.  Now that he knows I'm going to drop him off and leave he gets all panicky when we get there.  I really hate it.  It took all my self control to not burst into tears and drag my little baby toddler back home with me.  I think we avoid this situation normally because my husband usually drops him off and he tends to be less clingy with his dad.  Plus, I think he was familiar with my sister when we started dropping him off there so he's never cried at all (and maybe she smells like me or something so it's not quite as scary).  Boo.  It makes me sad.  And I miss him 10x more when he's at this new place than when he's at my sister's.  Just one more day and then our vacation starts and I can make it up to him by spending every second with him for the next week.

We did have a good weekend though.  It was SO beautiful out that I wanted to spend every second outside.  And so did Evan.  He has even learned a new word: slide.  That is a clear indication of how much time we spent at the park.

He had a new love of slides and can go down all by himself (if it's not too steep).  Sometimes he'll just perch on the top and enjoy the view though!

This was the perfect slide for him because he could get to the top and slide down all by himself.  Then he found the other park for the older kids and decided he liked the steep slide too.

This slide was much steeper and he had problems getting on it.  I usually caught him half way down and would have to reposition him - he would be head first, on his back, on his belly, etc.  Luckily the park wasn't really crowded so he had time to explore without fear of being knocked over.

He has also now developed a "smile" face, which is weird because I don't usually make him smile when I take photos and I don't feel like I take a TON of photos of him.  But somehow he learned and now sticks his head out and makes a goofy face.  Here are some others.

He likes to get as close to the camera as possible (and yes, I realize he needs a haircut).

Here he was eating his Sunday breakfast of pancakes dipped in maple syrup (although he didn't eat the pancakes, just sucked the syrup off of them), eggs, and sausage.  He is a sausage fiend and gobbles it up first.

Alright, I have to banana split and get this posted so I can get some work done.  I am a bit exhausted because I was up until after midnight getting work done and then had to get up early this morning to get Evan to daycare.  Since we only have one car I've been running (literally) Evan to daycare in the morning.   It's a nice and easy way to get a 4 mile run in, but today it was only 31 degrees out!  I had to dig my winter running clothes out again.

I hope you have a good Wednesday!!