Taking steps to faze out the baby

Brayden is 2 1/2 years old. No longer a baby.

However sometimes it is hard for us and others to see him as a toddler. For me, he will always be the baby of the family, being the youngest. Yes, I baby him because I think he needs extra TLC.

Because his developmental skills are within the newborn to six month range, he is very much like a baby. However, he is NOT a baby. He is a toddler, on his way to being a big boy.

The past several months we have been moving towards making his life less baby. Of course the big move was school and the bus. But we have tried to change things in little ways. He will be getting a twin sized bed soon, he wears shoes, we took off the canopy on his KidKart so that he is exposed more to the world and it looks less like a stroller, and we talk about him like we would a toddler, not a baby.

This past Sunday we tried something else as well. Sunday school class.

For the past two and a half years Brayden has attended church with us. Our church has a room in the back of the sanctuary called the "cry room". A room where parents with little ones can sit and still be in the service but not be in the service (by the way, every church needs this). Thankfully we had this as an option, we could all go to church and Brayden could sit with us. Sometimes, we actually put him in the nursery, if we knew someone in there and they were comfortable with him.

This has been working, however I need out of the cry room. While it is great...I cannot sit in a glass box during church anymore. I do not need to hear myself sing, it bounces back at you from the glass. I do not need to see my reflection in the glass anymore, apparently I have some serious dark circles and fluorescent lighting in this room is not a good look. I have no attention span sitting in the back, I had no idea how many people get up and down during an hour and half service.

And Brayden needs to be out of the nursery, he is not a baby.

Jeremy and Brayden went to the 2 year old class on Sunday. It felt strange to wheel him into this room with busy tw0 year olds and realize they were his peers. Brayden seemed to do pretty well, enjoyed the music time but got a little rowdy during story time. The next few weeks Jeremy or I will stay with Brayden in the two year old Sunday school class to get him acclimated and the teacher comfortable with him being there; then we have some friends/volunteers that will be Brayden's "friend" during church, hanging with him during Sunday school wheeling him to music and story time, just helping him out.

Another step in fazing out the baby.