Friday, July 27, 2012

This Little Peanut is Going to Daycare?

August may not yet be upon us but back to school is already lurking wherever you turn. Mat leave ended one month ago and the start of daycare is now one month away.



Today is Alex's ten month birthday. The little peanut is everywhere - crawling using his patented 3 leg technique, standing up on anything that is the right height and eating every morsel of food that is placed in front of him.

He can't walk. He can't use a spoon. He doesn't drink cow's milk. He can't eat anything hard due to his lack of teeth. He can't make it past 9:30am without a morning nap.

All perfectly normal for a ten month old. But unfortunately, not so perfectly normal when compared to the 18 month olds with who he will soon be sharing a class.

You see, this little peanut or bunny as we like to call him (for his amazing crawling/hopping skills) came out earlier than expected, making him just shy of the September 30th school cut off date. While I had been rooting for an early delivery so I wouldn't have to wait an extra year to get him into Hannah's daycare, my enthusiasm has now been quelled by fear.

We have been stopping by his future class everyday on the way to dropping his sister off. The first week I attempted to leave him for five minutes while I brought her upstairs. Tears, tears and more tears. So now I sit with him and let him play for a good ten minutes so he gets used to the room and the teachers.

But today I saw the sleeping room with ten pristine cribs lined up in a row and wondered how he is ever going to fall asleep with nine other noisy kids. It happens, eventually, but all seems like such a big adjustment for such a little guy.

How old were your kids when you started sending them to daycare?

Hannah was 18 months old so this is all new to me. Making me want to enjoy this last month we have together all the more. I want to keep this little peanut safe in his shell, for now.

2 comments:

  1. We had sooo many issues with daycare. I started DD at 9 months and she was very happy. But we didn't like the place, so at 12 months we tried switching her and she cried and cried. This was too intense for us so we found a way to rearrangeour work schedules so that one of her parents was taking care of her at all times. Super-perk for two freelancers in one household.

    Now that Babe is 19 months old we decided to try again (because I am pregnant and exhausted and we see a benefit to her having a couple of little friends.) We started her at the most perfect home daycare we could hope for, and she's ready for it. She kind of just shrugs when we leave her there and doesn't particularly want to go at the end of her day.

    We don't intend to have her there full time because that's an option we are lucky enough to have, but there is a weight off our shoulders to know that someone else can share the heavy load!

    Good luck with it all, it's heart-wrenching to see them so sad.

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  2. Hmmm. Just saw the date on this! I hope it's all going well!

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