We officially have TWO kids in daycare!
You may think this is a funny thing to be excited about, and maybe you’re right. But we love our daycare, and so do our kids. And baby G was getting bored at home, and we were running out of vacation days, and so yes, we’re very excited he’s finally there.
I did get a little emotional in the morning, which I didn’t expect, but it is a big change for him. He did great, though, despite not sleeping great. I shouldn’t be surprised, but given that his naps are SO GOOD at home, I was hoping he’d sleep okay at daycare. Instead of 4 hours worth of naps he slept for a combined hour only. So we’ll see what happens there. And he did get a little upset at one point when the room was noisy, but overall had fun. We got lots of pictures and videos of him having fun.
E also had a big change today, as he started in a new room! It’s not that different, just new teachers and the kids are now 2.2-2.4 years old. It’s a good mix of some new kids he doesn’t know that much and some that he does. Rest assured his closest friend is still with him, since no one at the school wanted to split those two up! But there are new toys and routines and things go in different spots, so he was a little thrown off.
Overall he did amazing and the teachers were all talking about how great he did with the transition, but I could tell it was still an exhausting day for him. When I picked him up he immediately wanted to be carried instead of walk, and was a lot quieter than usual. He’s also been asking for his old teachers non stop, which is heartbreaking, but I’m hoping he falls in love with his new teachers too.
He’s really enjoying having his baby brother at daycare with him, though. He helped Tom drop him off in the morning, and he loved going to pick him up in the afternoon. We walked into the room and there were babies everywhere! I asked him if he knew which baby was ours, and he was a little confused, but eventually found his brother. He went over and sat down next to baby G, and G reached out and gave him a big baby hug! (To which E responded UH OH, but it was still cute)
I almost couldn’t get E out of the room. He loves the teachers in that room too, and he quickly made friends with a little girl that looks like G’s twin. I think E was ready to take her home instead. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes - thankfully it’s a short week so we can all ease into our new routines. It’s definitely different!
Some days are still really hard. That’s not new. But occasionally.. some days are less hard? We find our self getting brave and leaving the house more and more. This past weekend we went on 3 separate outings as a family of 5. Most were less than an hour, but even a month ago we weren’t even averaging one.
Pickups have been hard for me since F started walking. There were days when all three of them would be running in circles in the gym and there was nothing I could do. I love that this daycare has a gym, but it definitely makes my day harder, since you have to walk through the gym to exit the building. I can’t catch all of them at the same time. I can catch one, and then the minute I try and catch a second, the first one is gone again. They know they outnumber me and they just laugh. I really can’t do much but wait it out.