Tag: Brooke

Emotional Dump

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

All is great when I pick up Brooke from school. She excitedly points to show me what fun video they’re watching. She obediently sits and wait for me while I pick up her daily report. We wave buh-bye to anyone who will look. Then we walk out the door and head to the car.

Enter Mr. Hyde.

She squirms and fights me getting into her carseat. She screeches and grunts her displeasure at everything in the world. We finally get home and she gets mad if I want her to walk to the door. I don’t think she has any clue how heavy she’s getting! It continues while I’m in the kitchen working on dinner. She wants to be held, a snack, her drink, a whole myriad of wants/needs.

I’ve read in various places that this is quite common. Your toddler expends so much energy and restraint being “good” in her daycare environment, that once she’s in your presence she feels free to let it all out. A phenomenon I’ve come to refer to as the “emotional dump”.

Luckily, I have found a few things that decrease the intensity of the “dumps”.

  • Keep it quiet on the car ride home.  Turn off the Veggie Tales CD, stop asking her a zillion questions about her day and let her chill.  More often than not, she fills the car with her babbles but at least its on her terms.
  • Have a snack ready.  At her old school, they ate dinner around 4:30-5:00.  Now she has a snack around 3:30 and doesn’t eat again until we get home close to 5:30-6:00.  Those who know Munch know she’s happiest when her belly is full!!

So far that’s all I’ve come up with but I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to make it work and we’ll get our happy goofy girl back!
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How do you help your little one unwind after a long day at school or daycare?

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Busy, Busy Brooke!

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

 A lot has been going on for my little Munch!

Daycare transition is going awesome!!  They love her, she seems to be having fun, she’s napping 2+ hours every day (I want their secret!).  So far this week, she read a book about manners, played outside, sang songs during circle time, learned about colors and on and on….I’ve gotten really great feedback from her teachers.  They’ve told me that she follows directions very well, stands up for herself with the other kids, is bright, and today Ms. Ashley told me she loves her outfits.  And most of her cute new stuff from Grandpa & Grandma Marshall & Kasey was in the wash!!

We had a speech therapy evaluation on Tuesday.  While she’s very good a receptive & cognative language skills, her expressive language is a little lacking.  Miss Judy evaluated her and was very impressed with how bright she is (see, we’re not the only ones who think so!) and her problem solving skills.  I talked to her today and she does recommend therapy for a little while but thinks Brooke just needs a little boost.  We think her new, more interactive environment at school will do wonders and we’ve already seen improvement.  We’ve added “Baby” and “Bottle” to our vocabulary this week!!

The TOT Collar for her tort is doing its job apparently.  Miss Mike, her physical therapist, told Keith yesterday that she like what she sees already and to keep at it!  Brooke is still tolerating her “collar time” at home really well and still runs up to me and sits down when I tell her its time to put on her “necklace”.  Hopefully we’ll only need it a little while longer.

We’re looking foward to the UH Spring Game tomorrow. Cheerleader Brooke will be yelling and jumping all over rooting for her Coogs!!!
Cheerleader Brooke

A brand new day…care!

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

After some deliberation, we enrolled Brooke in a new daycare last week.  We had been discussing the prospect of finding somewhere new for awhile and would casually search the internet for other places & reviews.  Keith came across this new daycare so we decided to go ahead and check it out.  We liked what we saw and only a few hours later we were giving our deposit!

That afternoon I picked Brooke up from her current daycare a little early and we stopped by the new one to meet her new teacher and let her check it out.  In no time she was finding toys to play with and even joined in when it was time for everyone to clean up!

Today was her first day at the new daycare.   The teachers were very excited to meet the “new girl” and the teacher for the 4 year olds couldn’t get enough of her chubby cheeks!!  She was a little hesitant at first but once the cook brought breakfast to her table and put a plate in front of her, she pretty much lost interest in me!!  Yay for no tears!!

I’m excited to hear about the rest of her first day!!