In the Twos Room

Imagine if you will a room full of white cribs lining two walls. A large changing table adjacent another wall with two small sinks in the corner and a couple of high chairs and mini fridge on the fourth wall. There is a large area rug and some short bookshelves filled with books and toys. There are big fluffy pillows on the rug too. This is Stan Bear's daycare - the infant room - where he has spent three days a week for the last 6 or so months. He turned one almost 2 months ago and around that time the daycare folks were thinking he was growing out of this infant room - and quickly too. They don't go outside much in this class, which is a shame because the Bear, if he had the choice, would sleep outside. In the last month or so they have decided to transition him to the Twos class. This class is full of two year olds and young 3s. They go outside. They nap on cots. They eat at little two-year-old sized tables.

On Stanley's first day in that room he enjoyed it and then he wanted to be carried a lot and so they brought him back to the infant room. I think he was probably overwhelmed. He only spent a couple of hours in the Twos room that first day. The next day they tried it again and he stayed a bit longer. The third day he played outside, ate snack at the table and took a nap on a cot. Miss Tonya said that when it was nap time they thought they should bring Stanley Bear back to his crib in the infant room for his nap but before they could grab him he walked up to a cot, climbed in, cowstar in hand, put his hands behind his head in full relaxation mode and drifted off for an hourlong nap. This is a regular thing now. He naps in a cot at daycare. Miss Ebony said to me the other day that she really wanted to take his picture with her phone because he was so cute lying there with his hands behind his head. Apparently that is his go-to napping position. The teachers aren't allowed to take pics of the kids; fair enough. I will just use my imagination to picture him in this room, eating at a table and cot-napping. It's so fun to imagine.

Usually he will spend 5 hours in there...from 9 to 2ish. Last Thursday he stayed until 4 and apparently they spent a lot of time outside. Miss Maria said that he is really able to keep up with the two-year-olds and is very cognizant. It's really fun hanging out with him. Even though he doesn't really speak yet (he says "bah" for bye and "bah bah" for Papa - although the other morning at like 5 am he was awake and we were lying on the futon and he starts saying "pa pa", "pa pa pa pa pa pa". It was the cutest little thing ever.) Oh, and yesterday he said "Bubba" which is a dog's name. Anyhoo, I can say to him, "Go grab your cowstar and put it in the bag." He will then find and grab cowstar and put it in the bag. It's amazing! Because of his time in the Twos room he now prefers to eat while sitting in a chair rather than his high chair and seems to have the urge to sleep on the futon although we aren't ready for that yet (I'm not ready - I need to childproof that room better, then maybe we can make that change - I'll let y'all know when that happens.) Mike actually bought a little cot that is super low to the ground at UNC Surplus. We might try that out too.