Daycare starts

Today was the first day of daycare for Sophia. She will be going to daycare three days a week. This morning, I stayed with her the whole time but didn’t interact with her, unless she came to me. I sat back and let her be. We arrived at 9am and stayed for 1 hour and 45 mins. She played, walked around, had a snack, and even sat on the lap of one of the staff members, Ivy. I think Sophia wanted more oatmeal (she was the first one to finish her bowl of oatmeal) and so she went over to Ivy to try and get more. There is a little slide in the play area outside and Sophia climbed up the three little steps, sat down at the top of the slide, and went down the slide on her own. It was fun watching her figure out how to do it all on her own. It also broke my heart to realize that, while she’s at the daycare centre, she won’t be getting nearly as much one-on-one attention as she gets from me. There was a little boy, Evan, who started crying when he realized that his dad had left. He was inconsolable and I started to tear up because I can picture that child being Sophia. I had a hard time keeping it together as I listened to Evan cry. A staff member, Andrea, held him the entire time he was crying, trying to comfort him. He eventually fell asleep in Andrea’s arms, exhausted from crying.

Tomorrow, I leave Sophia at the daycare centre for an hour and a half. She will stay longer and longer each day and by next Friday, she will stay the whole day. I am instructed to not sneak out, that I have to say bye-bye when I leave. I have a feeling it will be harder for me than Sophia. Maybe her big crying day will be next week when she realizes that this bye-bye business isn’t just for a day or two. I am hoping that Sophia will take it all in stride and adjust well to this new reality. She’s resilient and I know she will be okay. I think she’ll handle it better than I will!