Tuesday was our first visit to our daycare. (A different day care than I previously posted about. More on that later.) First official, scheduled, let's-hang-out-and-get-to-know-the-place visit. It seemed so long ago that I made plans with the infant room teacher about coming in to visit. But now it's here. And that means going back to work is inevitable. Yes, I still have 8 weeks, and I need to do what I can to savorenjoysoak, but right now I'm in a tizzy thinking about work, daycare, pumping, shots, money, time.
The visit went great though. There were one-year-olds and four-month-olds and babies in between, including Adelaide. She took 10-15 minutes to warm up, sitting quietly in the middle of the crawling, walking, babbling, drooling, block-throwing, crying, sleeping babies. Then she smiled at Mrs. Renee, who will be her teacher. Eventually she grabbed up a block and started gnawing on it. Then a different block. Then a ball. She smiled and batted at one of the other babies. She tried to use his shoulder to pull herself up, but as you can guess, it didn't really work. She got a little frustrated. She got over it. She found herself with a big bumblebee pull-along toy that she just wanted to eat, and one of the other girls wanted it and took it. She looked at that girl like, what are you doing? Her first lesson in sharing.
The hour went fast. We're going back tomorrow (Thursday). We will be visiting twice a week, one hour each visit, for the next 6 weeks. Then I will start leaving her there, starting at an hour, then two, up to a couple full days before I truly start working. Two weeks of slowly building up my time away from her. Two weeks to adjust. Then I'll have no choice but to leave her there all day every day. I start work October 10th. (I was able to get an extra 8 weeks of leave.)
I think these day care visits are as much for me as for her. Adelaide will get to know her teachers, her fellow "classmates", her new environment. She will explore and play. I know she will love it, if yesterday was any indication. But I will be able to see her adapting to the new, and it will help me to know that she is a big girl, able to handle different people, loving all the social interactions and new toys.
Days will fly by, time will disappear until 3 o'clock when I walk through the door to savorenjoysoak her all up.
My girl. Beautiful.
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