First Day of Daycare

Borders is too loud for me to focus on work, so I figured blogging was a good second choice. And I'm sure you are all waiting anxiously to see how Nicholas' first day went. Except for an unwillingness to nap in the crib there, it seems to have gone quite well.

He loves all the new toys! The little boy just wants to play. He got really incredibly mad at me when I didn't let him go to the toys immediately. And he was so intent on playing that he didn't even notice when I left. Wow!

He also seems quite taken with the head teacher in his room. I agree--she is pretty awesome.

The other kids he seems to be willing to take or leave. I'm surprised, but we'll see if that changes.

The peer pressure seems to be kicking in already--he apparently wanted a bottle when all the other kids had them. I hadn't bothered to bring one for him because he has no interest in them at home, but I'll take one on Tuesday and see if he'll eat it there. I also left one with Laura (who is currently babysitting) to try this afternoon. We'll see. Given that the other kids there who are around his age seem to go through 2 or 3 bottles while there in addition to some solid food, he should probably eat at least the one. Maybe this is why he has gained like 2 pounds in the past 3 or 4 months. I'm not trying to starve the boy--he just has shown no interest. So we'll see.

Naps will probably take a couple weeks to get down, but that isn't surprising. He refused to even consider sleeping in the crib, so they took him out and rocked him in the swing. He eventually fell asleep, but woke back up as soon as they stopped swinging him. So they tried again. And of course he finally drifted off about 2 minutes before I walked in the door. So I hung out and talked with the teachers and played with the other kids for about 20 minutes before waking him up to take him home. I am glad I took Copperfield (his blue lion), though. He doesn't need any special thing to sleep at home, but we have taken Copperfield on our trips for him. The teacher said that as soon as she brought the lion over to Nicholas, he put his thumb in his mouth. Copperfield=time to put myself to sleep. Good boy.

And me? What did I do while he spent 3 hours at daycare? I cleaned. I know, I know, the whole point of daycare is for me to get some work done. But the apartment had gotten completely out of control and it is impossible to clean while he is there. (If he is awake, he gets freaked out by the vacuum and wants to get in the tub when he hears the water running to clean it. If he is asleep, these things wake him up.) I justified it to myself on the grounds that today was a free get acclimated halfday and so since we weren't paying for it and it was a bonus, I could use it for some bonus activity. And so the house is now cleaner than it has been in months. Honestly, probably since he was born. That is just downright pathetic.

But now? This time I am paying for. And so I suppose I should try to find some way to block out the noise and work. I may have to leave the cafe and find a quiet corner where I can sit on the floor. Yeah, I know, I really am pathetic.