My little escapee

So today my fear about nursery came true.
Dax escaped. And nobody noticed.

I've had this fear it would happen since his first Sunday in nursery. Because he can open the door, and repeatedly tries to leave whenever he's bored. He's also quiet in nursery. He's not clingy. He's not a crier/screamer/whiner. He's not aggressive to other kids. He plays nicely by himself and goes where he should with the routine. He doesn't "need" anything, so in a room full of 15 nursery aged (18mo-3years) children, he's nearly invisible. After his third Sunday there, I talked about my concern with the nursery leader, as I wanted her to be aware of just how often I'd been preventing him from sneaking out. He IS sneaky, too. Just like at home, he knows I don't let him climb to the ceiling. So he waits until I answer the phone or start a load of laundry and makes a climbing dash for it! At nursery, he knows if he goes to the door, somebody will stop him. So he watches, he waits, he plots his escape for when the adults are busy tending to criers or passing out snacks or calming some chaos - and THAT is when he tries to sneak out.

The unexpected part? I was in nursery today! I've been in there with him every week, still because they're short staffed. They have never once had enough adults to handle that number of small children (I mean, we have enough if I stay - and often times they've had others stay in addition to me). I know how sneaky and curious and adventuresome my little boy is, and I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving him if I didn't feel confident they could care for him.

When/how it happened? At the end, during pickup time. I was standing in the back/middle of the room. I was holding the stack of papers the kids had colored, flipping through it and finding the right one for each kid as their parent picked them up. The room was very, very full - still full of the nursery kids, plus older siblings and parents picking up. As it got emptier and we were down to maybe 7 or 8 kids, a friend of mine who is not involved in nursery came into the room - holding Dax's hand. She found him clear on the other side of the building! I hadn't even noticed he was gone. :( This was after church let out and the halls were full of people. Glad she recognized him and that he was alone and brought him back so quick - he couldn't have been gone more than 2 or 3 minutes. But the idea of it makes me feel sick.
And this had nothing to do with his ability to open the door - the door stays wide open during most of pickup time because it's a constant stream of parents/siblings.

This makes me feel even more nervous about leaving Dax than I previously felt. :( Although his independent nature is nice in a lot of ways, there's safety to be had in a clingy child. At least he's not yet strong enough to open the door of the church and get outside. Hopefully by the time that happens, he'll have the ability to resist the temptation of the outdoors and remember/heed my rules.

Dax visited nursery!

Today I took Dax to visit nursery! I took him in about 30 minutes into the class, about the start of their snack time.

Even though I felt fairly sure that Dax would be fine in there without me, I have my own worries about me missing him! Or other kids rough-housing or picking on him.

So anyway, I took Dax into the classroom to join 10 other toddlers in there today. He was very interested in the other kids and what they were doing. He happily ate goldfish snacks with them at the table, and a little girl seated next to him ended up taking his plate and giving him his fish one-by-one, it was really adorable for both of them! I also noticed that the little girl knows sign language (I'm sure he noticed first)!!! YAY, another kid in there who will understand Dax! She signed "please" when she wanted more - I certainly noticed. Dax & her were super cute together - she'd give him a fish, and he'd sign "thank-you" and smile at her really big. I was actually a bit surprised that he let her take his plate of food! Food is a big deal to that boy, haha.

He gleefully laughed during bubble time. He danced to the music during dance time. He sat in his little chair and participated with a happy/sad paper face during lesson time. He did hand motions for songs they sang during singing time, and whenever they sang a word he recognized, he'd do the ASL sign for it. At the end they sang a song about families and when the word "Daddy" was used he frantically started signing "Daddy" and looking for him and then tried to leave the room to go find him. :) Unfortunately Dax can easily reach the doorknob and open the door, so I'll have to warn the leaders to watch for that in a few weeks when he's in there without me.

We did stay the remainder of the time but I really wasn't near Dax or giving him any attention. I did help with some other kids who needed guidance to follow the group and listen to the teacher, and I took a crying kid out to a parent (Dax saw me leave but couldn't really care less, nor was he even a teensy bit excited when I reappeared). I did stand right behind him closely during play-doh, but that's because I knew he'd try to eat it. I kept taking it from his lips and reminding him not to eat it. After doing that a dozen times in a row, he stopped attempting to eat it. Hopefully he'll get over his desire to consume play-doh soon. :)

So nursery was good, the 1.5 hours we were there flew by quick. The teachers agreed Dax should just come to all of it next week, and the week after that is his official week to "start" without me in there. I think I'll offer to help out for a few more weeks and maybe they'll ask me to stay. :) There are a lot of new kids that recently turned 18-months right in a row around Dax's age, and several of them need to be held and have one-on-one time to comfort them and distract them from the fact that their parent left them. And they are so sweet and cuddly and LIGHT - seriously, even those few older kids that are a couple inches taller than Dax weigh less than he does by a good 5+ pounds.

I can't believe my SON is old enough for nursery! :) And he loved it! He was excitedly "talking" about it with his hands after church, telling Daddy how he colored with "crayons" and sang "music" and played with "friends" hee hee. :)