Transitions

My son is in a new room at daycare -- the bigger kid room. I think he's handling it okay. But my husband and I are freaking it out. We're not ready.

It's so strict in this new room: nap tims is set noon to three, no napping if you're tired midmorning. Meals are scheduled at certain times no varying, and there's absolutely no eating after four.

When we pick our son up at 6, he's exhausted and hungry and cranky. When I went in on Wednesday I could hear Will crying from outside. In the room he was red-faced, covered in tears.

"He's does this every day from about five on," said the woman working there, handing him over to me and rushing to grab her purse so she could leave. "I hold him he cries, I put him down he cries." She shrugged; she was clearly ready to get outta there and get home.

I felt awful, imagining him miserable every evening, with someone who's given up on helping him feel better. There was a full bottle for him in the fridge; when I offered it he grabbed and sucked it down in a second. But of course it would have been breaking the rules for her to give it to him.

Aieeee. I wish we could pick him up earlier.

Circles

My son is obsessed with round shapes. Whenever he sees a circle, he points it out with a big "oooh!" Everything round fascinates him_ balls, drawer knows, the eyelets on lace-up sneakers, daisies and other similarly shaped flowers, the shades of sunglesses.

It's pretty cute. Though probably it means I should have breastfed longer. Right?

Name dilemma

I think I might be crazy. My husband thinks so; my friend Samantha says for sure. Because I want to change my son's name.

Is that wacked?

I know it is.

Just, the name hasn't ever felt right. And it caused a lot of controversy at the time. My mom was upset that we named my son the same name (William) as my father (they're divorced), so we changed my son's middle name from being after my husband (James) to being after my mom's father (Harry).

Did you follow that?

But the middle name appeals to me less and less, and actually makes me mad sometimes since I think my mom was out of line in speaking up.

I know I'm being kind of silly, but it sure makes me feel like I messed up my first big decision as a parent.