Bite, Scratch, and Push

No, I’m not talking about a scene from a recently watched horror movie…this is sadly the day to day reality that Landon is faced with. Apparently this age is “one of the toughest” for the daycare teachers….according to the center director….as the kids are not quite old enough to verbalize their thoughts, but they are old enough to physically act out if necessary. As you can imagine, this leads to many different altercations between the little tykes. The teachers classify the kids as biters, scratchers, or pushers based on how they act out towards their “friends” (between you and me, if a kid bit or scratched me, they’d probably drop a few notches on my friends list….the little bastard!).

Well, fortunately for us, Landon was classified as a “pusher”, which is nice because we’ve been bit or scratched by him enough times already to know that’s not really a stage we want to deal with again (knock on wood). Unfortunately for us, it seems like pretty much every other kid in his class must be either a biter or a scratcher, as Landon’s body will demonstrate.

The other day Michaela got a call from the center director telling us that “Landon has had a tough day already”…mind you, this was like 10am! Apparently Landon and his “so-called” friend were doing a puzzle and Landon threw a piece which hit the other kid (while it probably wasn’t an accident, I’m proud that my kid is already good at hitting a moving target…next stop, the NFL!). Anyhow, the kid got up and scratched Landon across the face (he has a nice mark on his cheek), to which Landon responded by pushing the kid over (way to go son!)…while I’m not pleased with Landon fighting with another kid, I’m more than happy that he stands up for himself (and that he doesn’t resort to scratching or biting, which to be frank, are pretty girly ways to brawl). I just hope this wasn't a little girl (we aren't told who was involved), but if it was, I take back everything I just said!

The second instance from the same day (before 10am!) happened when they were playing outside. I guess Landon got into another of his “friends” personal space (can we stop using the term “friend” at this point and instead use “mortal enemy” or even “POS”? It’d make me feel better. Well, since we’re talking about kids under the age of two, I’ll let it slide…for now)….anyways, Landon got too close to this kid, who bit him on the arm…this happened right in front of a teacher, who grabbed the kid and pulled them away from Landon…but they were still in mid-bite when they got pulled away, so the teeth left a very nice trailing bite mark on Landon’s arm!

All things considered, yes I have to agree with the center director…Landon sure did have a rough day!

I know that this is a stage that kids this age go through, and while it isn’t our favorite, we definitely don’t blame the daycare or anything. They do the best that they can, and there are far more benefits to having him there (social activities, bonding with friends, and many opportunities for development that I’m not sure they could get elsewhere).

Speaking of daycare, I have a random story from this morning that I’d like to share (it’s been a fairly normal week at home without a ton of new milestones, so cut me some slack on this blog “filler”)…

For some reason this week Landon has been very clingy when it’s come time for Michaela or I to leave him at daycare when we go to work. He’s been fussy and not his normal self. He is usually the first of his friends to arrive, and maybe he doesn’t like to be alone with the teachers for a while, but whatever the reason, he’s been fussier than normal. Today was different though, as his best friend from school, Anthony, was there by the time we arrived. Landon walked in and saw him and got a big smile on his face. Then when I turned to leave he reached for me with a little whine like he’s been doing this week, then immediately stopped, looked at Anthony, and then regained his composure….almost like he didn’t want to cry in front of his buddy….it was pretty hilarious!

Another thing that his teacher told me today was that Landon is having some difficulty with eating at the daycare….I was like “what are you talking about? The kid is an eating machine!”….she assured me that he loves to eat, but that he’s struggling with the utensils….again, I said “what are you talking about? He’s getting to be pretty skilled with his fork!”….to which she replied…”this is a daycare, do you think we let them have forks?”…..after thinking about the biting, scratching, and pushing I am pretty sure that giving them forks might be like giving submachine guns to chimpanzees….they may get lucky for a while, but at some point there is going to be some blood on the floor! She told me that they use spoons for just about everything, and since he isn’t good with them yet, he gets frustrated after a few minutes, throws his spoon, and then crams handfuls of food into his mouth! So that is going to be our new task for the next few weeks…figure out how to get him to use a spoon. He picked up on the fork fairly fast, so I’m sure he’ll get the hang of it in no time.

So that’s pretty much it from the land of daycare this week. This is a tricky stage for the kids, but Landon is a very smart little boy and I have no doubts that he’ll have the spoon mastered in no time, and he’ll be pushing his “friends” all over the place until they learn to stop fighting like girls!