Growing pains

Lucas had an awful night. We had planned to go out to a restaurant, but mom's cough got worse and she couldn't go out. So daddy worked frantically to get an unplanned dinner on the table by 6:00 (sausage potato ragout), and when it came time to eat Lucas balked at washing his hands; not an unusual occurrence, but this time it came with the completely new twist that he just didn't want soap. When we got to the table he threw a complete tantrum when he picked up a sausage and found that it had sauce on it. "STICKY! YUCKY!" We all had to leave the table and when he got back he got furious again and turned his salad plate upside down and then threw almonds and apple slices at dad. At bathtime he stole my glasses, refused to give them back, and threw them to the other side of the tub when I reached for them; and then afterwards he scratched my face, got chewed out, and immediately did it again. Mommy didn't have much fun either keeping him occupied while I cooked. He would act sweet for a while and then something imperceptible would set him off.

But apparently he had a good day at daycare. He peed on the potty for the first time there -- he has only done it two or three times at home and never at daycare -- and he was very pleased when we told him how proud that made us feel. (Later in the evening, after the tantrums had mostly subsided, he crawled on the back of the couch above me where I was trying to decompress and announced "I peed on the potty today!" three or four times.)

Then there was the big event: Lucas visited his upcoming preschool ("The Big House") for the first time. He will be moving there in January, and his teachers at his current daycare ("The Baby House") help him make the transition by taking him to visit three times over the next couple of weeks.

Today's visit lasted two hours. Tiffany tells us that Lucas really had a great time. He immediately walked up to one of the oldest kids, a four-year old named Noah, and asked him about the fish in the big fish tank. Later he came back to Noah to ask him about some seashell flashcards that he had found. He immediately found the toy vacuum and used it to clean up the carpeting and the tile. (Tiffany said that Luke seemed a little disappointed that the vacuum and the hairdryer at the Big House were just toys, not the real deal. Apparently all those stories about the Big House going around the toddler circles are just urban legends!)

When I picked him up today he was a little cranky and tired and didn't want to leave (he acted the same way for mommy yesterday), but as soon as I picked him up and started walking out with him he launched into a detailed recounting of everything he had seen at the Big House. "Two kitchens! No, three kitchens! There's a basement! Vacuum! Slides!" etc. This lasted well into the car ride. I asked him lots of follow-up questions, about half of which he answered with a wide-eyed, "I don't remember!", as if the Big House were so unfathomably massive that he just couldn't keep all of it straight in his head.

At dinner between total meltdowns I commented to him that it must be hard to have to learn so many new things -- to go from being a baby at the Baby House to being a big kid at the Big House. Jill concurs with my judgment that he nodded his head in more vigorous agreement than we have ever seen before.