The Lowdown on Daycare

I may have been a bit snotty about it in my last post, but all in all I would have to say it's going...okay.  Now that we have a full month under our belts, I figured an honest update is in order.

Of the fourteen days she's gone thus far, she bawled her eyes out thirteen mornings at drop-off time.  I expected the whole separation anxiety thing the first week or two, but I can't believe she's still suffering.  She's such an independent and daring kid; I really thought she'd get past it quickly.  I don't know if it's harder on her or us.  Turning my back and walking away while she is literally screaming for me is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  Thankfully, I only have to endure it three days a month.  Her dad got the short end of that stick.

So, on that note, I made it through my first three-day cycle of morning duty, but damn it was rough.  When her dad takes her, she doesn't go until 9:30 and he gets to come back home for hours before going to work.  When I have to take her, we are both working dayshift and it makes for extremely early mornings.

I usually sleep till 6:45 and still make it to work on time...thirty-five minutes away.  Those three days started for me at 5:30 so I could get myself ready before waking Punky at six.  As I anticipated, it was almost impossible to get her moving that early and she was far from pleasant.  So was I.

They serve breakfast at daycare but not until 8:30...and that won't cut it for my kid.  She isn't up two minutes when she tells me, "Mommy, I'm hungry.  Cinnamon toast crunch, please!"  I swear, she's a miniature version of her Aunt P sometimes.  As a kid, my sister would wake up before sunrise, eat two bowls of cereal, and go back to bed for a few hours.  She was always hungry and ate constantly, yet she was a skinny, little runt.  Punky is exactly like her.

So anyway, I had to give her enough time to eat before we left.  Daycare is a few miles away, in the opposite direction from work of course, so we need to be out of here by seven.  The teachers were all in agreement that her crying fits at drop-off were much worse with me than her dad.  I figured as much; she's a mama's girl.

I was worried about her actually learning...rather than just running around all day...and I have to say I think she is.  A teacher told me she heard Punky count to nineteen unassisted and without missing a number.  She's picked up a whole slew of new vocabulary words and phrases.  The last few nights she's been pointing to the words in books, rather than the pictures, and asking me, "What this word say, Mommy?"  She's about three attempts away from spelling her name...she gets stuck on the middle letter but has the rest down pat.

We have our first meeting with her teachers at the end of this month.  They are almost finished with their initial evaluation and I can't wait to hear what they have to say.  I know she's smart; I'm more interested in hearing how she interacts with the other kids and her behavior in general.  She has a temper, and she likes to do things on her schedule, so I'm sure she's had a couple less-than-angelic moments.

Once she gets over the initial separation, she is fine the rest of the day.  She really loves music class.  It's what she talks about the most.  Well, that and riding bikes in the gym.  Oh, and playing play-doh.  And painting.  Beyond those, I have no clue what she does there all day.  They are the only four answers I ever get.

She eats well while she's there, and she's not afraid to tell them when she's hungry or thirsty.  And they've actually succeeded in getting her to take a nap every day but one so far.  Two things about that: I can't get her to sleep until about eleven at night every single day she naps at daycare, and to get her to sleep they've relied on rubbing her back so now it's a demand I'm given every night as well.  "Rub the back, Mommy!"  I should've put those on the list of thanks in the last post.

She really seems to like it, and I know it's good for her, and I know she needs to learn socialization, and exposure to germs isn't a bad thing so she builds immunity, blah blah blah...

But I have my gripes about it, too.  I hate leaving her there.  I hate not knowing what she's doing.  I hate the fact that she's been sick since she started (another double ear infection now).  I hate worrying about her safety.  Life was so much easier when she was home all day with either her aunt or Grammy.  Warm, safe, healthy, and happy.