Postpartum Tuesday: Stretch Wide-Leg Pants

The day of my son’s latest round of testing the doc told us we would have results by today (one week). I was just told that it will not be until the end of this week. UUGGHHH. Three more days. It’s tough to be productive while waiting for test results, but we have been in this testing limbo for over a month (three separate tests/procedures). I feel like I should have acclimated to this level of uncertainty and anxiety, but it never gets easier.

Do you talk to your little kids about race? We live in the suburbs of DC, and while some of the kids and teachers at my kids’ daycare are of different races, they live in a pretty lily-white world. The other day I was reading a book to my 4-year-old son, and there was a picture of the author on the back, who was black. He said something along the lines of, “why does she have dark skin? I like light skin better.” Then we talked about how he know people who have darker skin and people who have lighter skin, and how they are all friends, and how the color of your skin, eyes, hair, etc. doesn’t matter–what matters is whether you are nice, etc. That was that, but I was a bit worried. At the same time, I don’t want to make into a big deal. How do others approach this kind of thing?

I am struggling with my 4 year old son. He has always been a very sensitive kid, and especially sensitive to kids making fun of him. We recently moved and he started a new school, where he absolutely thrived at the beginning of the school year. He’d literally dance his way into the classroom and yell out “BYE [KIDS]!” to all his friends every afternoon. About two weeks ago, he did something that made a bunch of kids laugh, and he seems to have really retreated into himself since then.

He’s quiet going into the classroom, and by the time I leave, he’s playing alone in the corner. He’s much moodier at night. I’ve talked to the teachers about it, and they tell me he’s still playing with other kids during the day — but I just really don’t get the same feeling of happiness from him. I’m extra anxious about this because it happened at the other school he attended (kids made fun of him, and he totally retreated from the group for the remainder of the year). We’ve talked a lot about how kids can say hurtful things, and how to tell them it made you sad and to ask them to do something to make you feel better, but he often doesn’t want to talk to me about his friends or school (also happened last year). I also talked to the teachers about how he had his feelings hurt, and may need some help smoothing things over with the other kids. again, they tell me he’s fine. I get the feeling they see a kid quietly playing by himself or sometimes playing with other kids, and don’t really get what the big deal is.

On one hand, I think my anxiety about him being sad in school or excluding himself is putting an unnatural focus on it, which doesn’t help. On the other, I don’t want to ignore my gut that he’s unhappy in the classroom. What do I do? I don’t know any of the other parents in the classroom, although maybe I just need to instigate playdates?

We don’t typically celebrate Thanksgiving with extended family because of logistics, but I just ordered a for real thanksgiving dinner in individual portions from a local caterer, and I’m so excited. I love thanksgiving food but it seems like such a big endeavor to cook everything for just the three of us. And now someone else has done all the cooking and all I have to do is pick up the food!

All, I need some advice on some baby sleep stuff. I have tried to research this on all the sleep sites and can’t seem to find anything exactly on point. We have a five month old baby who after the first three months of life, turned into a pretty great sleeper. I should add, he is still a pretty great sleeper but I am trying to figure out what we can do to make sure he gets all the sleep he needs. He goes to bed somewhere between 6:30 and 7 PM. For about a month, he was sleeping until around 6 or 6:30 AM. That worked perfectly because we leave the house for daycare at 6:55 and the earliest that daycare is really able to put him down for a nap is 8/8:30. However, now, he wakes sometime between 4 and 5:30 and we spend until about 6 trying to get him to sleep a little bit more. We do that mostly because if we don’t, by the time we bring him to daycare he has fallen back asleep and is a mess because with all of the activity of drop-off, they aren’t able to put him down for a nap immediately (and even if they try, he isn’t able to fall back asleep). That leads to the rest of the day being a napping disaster because it seems that once he gets over tired, he doesn’t nap well at all which leads him to being a cranky monster in the evening. I have tried to keep him in darkness until 6:30 because I read that would help him learn that is sleep time but it doesn’t seem to be making a difference.

My question is, are we doing something wrong? Is this just a stage that he will grow out of? TIA!!

Like someone said a couple weeks ago, potty training could be this s!te’s FLEECE TIGHTS . . . My almost 3yo was doing great but in the past week she’s refused to poop in the potty. Now she gets really stressed out for the fifteen minutes before she has to poop and ends up in tears. I’m not sure how best to help her over this hump — I don’t want to make it even more stressful for her but it’s hard to focus on the positive when she can’t seem to manage to earn a reward. Any tips welcome! TIA!