My ok? You okay?

This week was a short one. Aidan went to daycare for three full days on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then, since Daddy's advisor told him to take some vacation, we all drove up to the Catskills at at naptime (1pm) on Thursday for the weekend. We visited Grandma and Grandpa Ruane on Saturday, and then drove back to home Monday at naptime, so we could do a Costco run (Sunday) and go to Long Beach on Long Island (Monday) (it was awesome!).


Aidan continued to do well at daycare this week, but has started having meltdowns in the morning. Daddy has been dropping him off, and Mama thinks that Aidan is worried that he will go away to Australia again, which makes the drop-offs harder. Next week, we're going to try four full days. We're hoping for the best!


A couple of notes about Aidan:


First, his language is amazing right now, and he is incredibly polite and thoughtful! He says "yes, pease [please] Mama" or "No pease, Mama" and "Thank you, Mama" all the time, without really thinking about it (which is incredibly cute). And he checks in with us a lot: if he knocks his arm or leg or something, he'll say "My ok? You okay? My okay?" (he uses "my" instead of "I") - just making sure that everyone is all right. He also includes us a lot: at dinner, he'll ask, "You want some food? You want some water? You want some cheese?" It's very sweet.


Second, I keep forgetting to write about this, but Aidan has become repeatedly interested in monsters. About a month ago, at bedtime, he pointed under his dresser and told me "Monders [monsters] in der, Mama" and asked me to turn on the lights. Since then, he's told me that there are sometimes monsters outside (at nighttime), or in other dark places. One of his Wonderpets episodes features a baby girl Monster who is mad that she accidentally knocked over a toy building, and who has to learn how to take a deep breath, count to three, and then calm down. So, that may be where the monsters are coming from. But it's tough! We tell Aidan that there are not monsters, but we also tell him to say hi to the monsters and then bye to the monsters. Now, he is less afraid of them, and he has incorporated them into our evening ritual: we jump on the bed before bathtime, and as part of this, he frequently wants to do "tunnels" (where we all hide under the blankets); he'll tell us that there are "monders!" in the tunnels, but then when we all get under there with him, he laughs, and eventually throws of the blankets and says "No monders, mama! No monders, Dada!". We are glad that he is figuring out a good way to deal with this!