1st week at daycare

The time has come for me to return to work. So along with Brody's 12 week birthday came his first day at daycare. He started on a Wednesday in order to ease myself back to work and him into his new surroundings. So his first week was only 3 days long.

So far? It's been great! We went back and forth between two day cares but once we found out that my company daycare had an opening in April, we took it. I couldn't be happier with our decision. I am very lucky to have daycare located on site which is about a 2 minute walk from my desk. Originally I didn't think I'd take advantage of the open-door visiting policy that often. So far, I've found myself making time for at least a 10 minute mid-day trip to see Brody. I also spend about 15-30 minutes playing with Brody in the morning before I head up to my desk.

There are two primary teachers in Brody's room with 8 babies under the age of 1. There are several support teachers who help out during their lunch breaks and before/after his teachers get in for the day. They have both been very good with Brody and helpful to us as parents. They are constantly telling us how strong he is for his age and one teacher commented that she can foresee him starting to walk early (we've had the same thoughts since he seems so active, but only time will tell). The teachers send e-mail updates along with pictures they've taken of Brody during the day. All of his pictures included in here have been taken at daycare. As you can see, he seems very happy.

Another positive aspect is that in only 3 days we can see that Brody is already loving his new friends. When I am there I have noticed that he smiles at the other kids a lot and is constantly observing them. When I have held him in a "standing" position, he starts to move his legs like he wants to run over to the other kids. The teachers also sent us a picture of Brody holding hands with another boy in the class! (The picture is so adorable, but for the privacy of the other child, I am not including it in here). I believe that all this interaction with kids that are slightly older than him will help him learn faster.

The only downfall (and my biggest fear) is that he supposedly rolled over for the first time at daycare. Now, I do say "supposedly" because I don't think anyone actually saw him roll over. His teacher set him down on his tummy for tummy-time, turned around and when she looked back at him, he was on his back! No one has seen a repeat performance since. He's a little young to actually roll over, so I think that she may have set him down in a way that made it easy for him to flip.

Overall we're having a positive experience with him in daycare and I think he is handling the new routine very well. I, of course, am having to adjust a lot as well as a new working mother...but I'll post more about that later.