Friday 7 January 2011

Nursery

Monday marks Calum's first day at nursery (AKA daycare in the US). Mark's Mum, Pat, has been watching Calum here at our house since February when I went back to work and is going to watch our nephew now that Mark's sister is going back to work. We looked around at a lot of options but in the end settled on a nursery in between our house and Mark's office that is about a 10 minute drive from our house.

Calum will be in their toddler room which consists of 12 other kiddies from his age up to 2 yrs 9 mos. On Wednesday morning I went for our first "settling in" day which was a chance for me to be in the room with him while he got to know everyone and I'm happy to say he seemed to have a great time while I chatted to the head of the room, so much so that after an hour she announced that I should leave him for a bit. Well, I wasn't expecting this and kind of stammered, then snuck out and proceeded to cry on the walk to Starbucks, trying to remember what it is you do with yourself when you have an hour of free time and you aren't anywhere near a bed to sleep in or a t.v. to watch.

I called Mark on the walk who was fairly sympathetic and then checked my watch every 5 minutes for the next hour and sped walked to go back to get him. When I picked him up he had been outside playing and was seemingly quite happy. He was also dirty. Shock horror for those of you who know me. In 2 hours there he managed to get dirt all over his trousers and berry stains on his sweater. Needless to say that today when I dropped him off he was in the grungiest clothes I could find.

Yes, I cried again today and I imagine on Monday when he does his first full day (8.30-6) I will also cry. Ho hum. I guess it's better to do it now rather then in a couple of years when he's off to preschool and at least he's been dealing with it better than I.

Pictures finally uploaded from Seattle/Xmas/Miami but as I'm supposed to be working whilst writing this, I better save those for another post. Have a great weekend x

5 comments:

Blyth Family Blog said...

Oh, so sorry :( That is a very sad moment in a mama's life isn't it? I laughed hard about the "dirty" part...I think I'm the complete opposite of you, my kids are ALWAYS dirty...you're so much like Lauren Wolters (Martin)...she also married a Brit and keeps her boys oh so clean! xoxo.

Keri said...

Being a mom is hard, isn't it? No one but a mom would understand the way you feel when you have to leave your baby. At least Calum was having a good time - imagine if he was crying and refused to let you leave?? I'm thinking about you always....love you.

Tara Holmes said...

I hate that you have to be sad at Starbucks by yourself. I wish that I could be there with you. Calum will make great improvements at school, where he can socialize and find out how to play with kids and not just adults. I think it is wonderful and I love that Calum got nice and dirty!

Jen said...

Ahh, thanks for your comments girls-when I went to pick him up they told me apparently he had a bout of crying for about 30 min in which nothing would settle him. I put it down to the fact that he was probably really tired and has never tried to take a nap in a room full of other kids, on a bed on the floor before so hopefully Monday he does better. Ashley has scared me off by telling me how Westyn will grab a hold of her or Troy's legs and scream for them so yes, it could be worse (but let's hope it isn't, I really don't think I could deal!). x

thuriks said...

Oh Jen...that sounds sooooo hard. Chloe often freaks out when I leave her with our babysitter. We are starting them in preschool in the fall and I am already worried about that transition. I think it's equally hard for both us & them but part of the process of them growing up I guess. I got a laugh out of your 'dirty' comment. I don't know how you manage to keep him as clean as you do. Give him a sibling and I bet the 'clean' obsession will quickly fade for you because you will have no choice! Ha! Love you and you are doing such a good job being a mommy & working mommy at that! xo