Off to Daycare!

On the eve of our referral anniversary Miss Olivia started her first day at daycare. Last year on this date, I started the blog. The story of our journey. We didn't have a name, a sex, any i inkling of what was to come. Sigh. Now we are getting ready for our daughter to start daycare. She turns 18 months this week. What a year.

We started our morning early, 6:30 to be exact. We had our breakfast and got ready for "school". We jumped into the car. Papa met us there. We approached the building and I think Olivia recognized it because she was somewhat at ease. She immediately want to run down the halls. Hmmm...I guess she does that at any place. :0P

We went outside to meet the first of 2 teachers. She brought us to the room so we could drop off her "supplies" and locate her cubby. She gave us some ideas on how the day was going to go and told us we could walk out to the yard and let Olivia play for a bit before they went in. Oh oh..I could feel the time running out. We had to leave soon then.

We walked outside and there was a girl immediately in her face. Great...she has a friend already. hahahhaha. We said hello to the other teacher and then quietly watched her play and walk around. Okay..this was it. Time to go. We waved goodbye (Martin more so than me) and went back inside to the office. As we started to leave, I think Olivia started to cry. I think it was more like a WAIL. Panic...just keep walking.

Of course we didn't leave right away. We walked through the school and Martin went to the other side of the play yard to see how she was doing. hahahahah. But we couldn't see her because she was already inside.

Now I had 3 hours to kill before I had to pick her up. That's was the good thing about today. It was only 3 hours. Many people told me that this would be a tearful days for everyone. But for me, it was just like dropping off Olivia at a playcentre so I could run some errands. I would see her in 3 hours and give her a lunch and a nap. I was excited to have that free time to run some errands.

But I think the moment I got all choked up was when we came back to get her. We were peeking through the windows and saw Olivia sitting down at the table eating her snack. Then in a few seconds we see her standing up and reaching over to another girl's snack. hahahahha. There was the teacher gently redirecting her to her chair. Sigh. But seeing Olivia at a small table sitting down made things real.

Olivia was going to be in daycare from now on. I will be going back to work for the full day. There will be at least 8 hours of no Olivia time. That's going to kill me. I think when I got back to work in January, that's when I will really feel like she's on her own. Right now, she's enjoying herself. I get to see her still.

It was funny because we told the teacher earlier that Olivia will be more angry at us for leaving her than anything else. Sure enough...as we opened the door and she saw the 2 of us there she screamed and stomped her feet in anger and starting crying. Yes she was exhausted...but she was angry. hahahahha. It was like "How could you leave me?". Sigh. She calmed down and went back to her usual waving "hi" self. hahahhaha

The teacher said she had a good day. She cried off and on during the morning. Okayyyy...I think she sugar-coated it. hahahahha. We know our daughter very well. hahahahha. But apparently she did manage to sit in circle time and do some "work". She quickly reminded us that she was still very young and was excited about the things around her. Which meant....SHE WAS BUSY. hahahhaha.

There are many people who are asking me "Did you cry?". Nope. Not today. We know that she needed this place. She needed some structure and some other stimulation. We trust the establishment. We like the staff. We like the environment. We think this was the best decision for her. I heard her wail before in Florida when I left. I guess it was a good thing because it gave me somewhat of a backbone to this situation. hahahah Will I cry later on? Time will tell. Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow will be harder than today because she knows this time i will leave. They tell me it will get better and she'll adjust. I know she will, but will I "adjust"?