First Day of Daycare

On Monday, Amelie and I spent about an hour and a half at the daycare she'll go to on Tuesdays and Thursdays while I'm teaching class. She spent some time running around excitedly looking at all of the new stuff and went outside to play with the other kids. She'll be the youngest one there, and the other kids seemed really interested in her and very eager to help. (Of course, Amelie was stubbornly independent and didn't want to hold any hands or any help getting from point A to point B.) She did really like being pushed on a riding toy, and she even tried to get off and push a two and a half year old, but I think she was mostly walking it along without much help from Amelie. She had a meltdown when it was time to come back inside and we decided it might be better to come for a half day on Tuesday before starting full-time.

My good friend Shauna watched Amelie Tuesday morning and then on my short lunch break I picked her up and took her to the daycare. When we arrived, there was a note on the door saying everyone was at the park for a picnic. I carried Amelie (who'd fallen asleep in the car) the short distance to the park and finally we located the three other girls and Ms. Linda. I couldn't see them, but I heard children's voices shouting "Amelie! Amelie! We were waiting on you!" and I found them all sitting inside at the top of the playground equipment having a picnic. I sat with them for about 10 minutes and then rushed back to work. Amelie wasn't upset at all when I left and was happy and playing when I picked her up (and wet from splashing in the water table).

On Thursday, it was time to see how she'd do for the whole day. I dropped her off at 9:00am. She had already eaten breakfast with me at home, but she ate a big second breakfast with the other kids, too. She danced all around and wasn't upset when I left at all, though Ms. Linda said she did start crying at 10:30 so she put her down for a nap. When I picked her up, she was covered in different colored markers and ran to me happily. I think she's doing just great!

I meant to take a picture of her with Ms. Linda, but I forgot, so here's one of Amelie outside of our house on Tuesday morning: