The kids had a two hour late arrival this morning for school, so my mother in law said she could take them to the bus stop and then drop Baby E off at daycare for me. I got the kids up at the same time as normal and got them ready to go. When I left the house they were happily watching tv and eating pancakes. She got them to the bus stop and dropped Baby E off as planned. About an hour later, the day care provider texted me to say that Baby E was acting very strangely. She said that he hadn’t spoken a word since he had gotten there.

Now Baby E has his quiet moments, and he is fairly shy around people he doesn’t know, but he’s never quiet at home or daycare. In fact, he’s typically very chatty. I asked if he felt warm, or was doing anything else strange and she said no. He was playing like normal and following instructions, but instead of talking, he would only point to what he wanted. He wouldn’t talk to her or the other children.

I checked in periodically with her and he hadn’t changed. He had been silent the rest of the morning. He was silent at lunch. He was silent before nap time. He was even silent when he woke up. At this point I was starting to get worried because this is so completely out of character for him. After 5.5 hours of him not speaking, I decided to go and get him to see if something was wrong.

I left work a little early and booked it to the daycare. By this time he hadn’t spoken for 6.5 hours. I walked in the door, Baby E jumped out of his chair, and he ran to me shouting, “Mommy!!!” The day care provider looked shocked. “That’s the first thing I have heard him say all day.” As I stood there with him in my arms, he started playing with my hair, showering me with kisses, and hugging me. He kept telling me he loved me and he missed me. As I was getting him in the van I asked him why he didn’t talk and he said he missed Mommy and Daddy. 😦 I was relieved that nothing seemed to be physically wrong with him, but my heart broke a little bit to know my little guy went on a talking strike all because he missed us. 😦 He jabbered and talked most of the way home and the rest of the evening he barely took a break.

When Tim got home, we played Hugging Monster for awhile- the kids try to escape Mommy and Daddy as we chase them around, capture them, and hug them. Baby E squealed in delight beside the other two and there was so much laughter in our house this evening.

Hearing Baby E’s laughter and talking washed away the anxiety that had been gnawing at me all day. Clearly I need to find a time soon to spend some one on one time with my littlest savage. He didn’t get as much time with us this weekend because of the day we spent van shopping, so I’m going to try to sneak some time in with him, perhaps when the other kids are in church tomorrow night.