I know this was supposed to be tough, but...

It's week three of daycare for the little man and he's been doing quite a bit better. However, since he hasn't been around a bunch of other germy kids before, he's picking up all of the ick that most others have already dealt with at this point in their lives. Gage has been experiencing various symptoms including "a potty issue", fever, congestion, etc... over the last couple of weeks. Last night was bad because his temperature hit an all time high, I'm guessing around 102 or 103 degrees, so he wasn't at all comfortable, nor did he want to take his check his medication. Xuan and I eventually tricked him into taking at least some Tylenol by mixing it with juice and then rocked him to sleep over the next hour and a half.

Luckily, he woke up in the morning, with the fever down significantly but then we had to deal with his nerves because he knew that he would have to go to school. Today was better than yesterday, which was better than the day before... and we're finally able to get him to eat breakfast before going to school. However, after he finished his full cup of milk, I walked into the kitchen to put the cup into the sink and that's when I heard a fairly disturbing gurgling sound coming from his direction. Parental instinct kicked in and I grabbed a dish towel and started running back towards Gage. Luckily, I had emptied the dryer onto the couch next to Gage and it had a lot of clean towels, which I grabbed and put under his mouth. Unfortunately, I was only able to get his third round of vomit, as the other two had already started to seep into the carpet, blankets, my shirts and in between the couch seats. I tried to remain calm the whole time so as not to freak out the little geyser in front of me and asked him if he felt okay after the vomitting stopped. Gage being Gage jumped to his feet, onto the towel on the floor, looked at me and said "Pants are dirty, new pants, new shirt please" and continued to watch Caillou. Most kids his age would start crying and freaking out, but not the the little man. I guess he just realized that the situation could have only gotten worse or it wasn't worth missing any moments of Caillou - not sure which one - but either way - I stripped him of his dirty clothes and walked him into the bath and cleaned him up. In the end, he's back at Papa's house, being coddled and having the time of his life. Nevertheless, tomorrow, it's back to school. Xuan and I are determined to make this work.

Monkey see...

Monkey see...
Originally uploaded by sheilmakan

As if being a parent isn't hard enough, we have to become upstanding citizens as well. New parents will learn very quickly that children watch those around them very closely and learn through their actions.

As you can see, Gage is more than familiar with the workings of a camera and has even on many occasions posed and asked for pictures to be taken. Fortunately, the camera he's holding doesn't work anymore, so it's become his new playtoy. However, it took him a total of 30 seconds to realize that it doesn't work anymore and he began asking to play with the one I'm currently using. Rather than just saying no, I usually get him to sit on my lap and allow him to take pictures of the world around him. It satisfies him, in the meantime, I get to keep my camera functioning for another day.

The Kemah Boardwalk

The Gator Tank
Originally uploaded by sheilmakan

It's been about three weeks since Gage started daycare and he's starting to come along slowly. He still cries in the morning and will continue to ask if he can go to Papa's house instead. He'll even wake up on weekends and say right away, "Papa's house?". Xuan and I are trying to put on a brave face for the little man, but it can be hard some days.

Because he's been so wonderful throughout this transition, we've been taking him out on the weekends to places like the Children's Museum, the Boardwalk and the Circus that was in town last week. As you can see from the picture, Gage isn't afraid of too much. He even fed the stingrays in the tank next to the gators.

Only my son...

Well, as you know, Gage is currently within his first week at daycare, and he's progressing relatively well. Anyway, he's not quite in tune with the feeding, sleeping, cleaning (yes, I said cleaning) schedule as are all of the other kids.

Anyway, as new parents, both Xuan and I have taken to watching the kid on the live webcam at the daycare. I'm sure it will eventually get old and we'll stop peeking at it (after the initial two weeks, we have to pay $25 a month, which will help kill the habit). However, today Gage again proved to us that he is a very "unique" two year old. If you look closely at the webcam still shot, you'll notice that Gage (is by himself because all of the other kids are sleeping like they should be) has decided to take this opportunity to spritz the tables and clean them up. Besides fixing things at home, his secondary favorite thing to do is clean up...

The first day...

One of the most obvious facts about grownups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child. -- Randall Jarrell

Today was Day 1 in getting Gage into daycare. As anticipated, Gage realized about 3 minutes into it that we were leaving him there for the day. It's a good thing Xuan was holding him, because yours truly was starting to rethink the whole idea. As Gage started to cry, I started started to... really feel bad for the little man. The quote at the top helped me somewhat remember just how difficult it was for me to adapt to the changes I had to go through as a child. I've never been a big fan of change so I could understand what he was going through. I know that this is a good thing and the crying will soon pass and Gage will just flourish. I'm sure of it.

**Update**
Well, it's now just about time to go to sleep, but I wanted to add that Gage did amazingly well in his first day at daycare. I couldn't have been more impressed with his behavior because he acted so incredibly grown up. Day 2 will be easier...

Happy 4th of July

The 4th came during the middle of the week this year, so we decided to spend hump day at The Children's Museum in Houston. The weather in Houston was horrible, so we didn't have too many choices. He had a blast at all of the exhibits and really took to those that involved "fixing" something. After a couple of hours there, we grabbed some lunch and headed home.

I finally have a new camera, so I've been taking a bunch of pictures over the last few days. You can enjoy a few more on the Flickr site. There are a some more of Gage at the museum, as well as helping Daddy "wash" the car this past weekend. All in all, we had a wonderful day, with the exception of the 10 minute meltdown at the mall while he was getting his hair cut. Strangers were coming up to us trying to help calm Gage down. Nothing worked. We've learned our lesson and will continue to take him to the Snip and Snails where the hair stylist has perfected the art of cutting kids hair.