On Ember’s first day of daycare, I had grand plans to do an entire practice run from getting up and showering to getting out the door. Of course, when the alarm went off at 6, I thought to myself, “you know, no reason to go through all that,” and promptly rolled over and went back to sleep for 20 minutes. 

But we did get up and out the door by 7 am, with Kevin along for the ride. Sunday evening I had started to think “why am I giving up time with this precious baby when I don’t have to?!” But I think this week will be a good warm up for both of us. I’ll be keeping her home on Wednesday and picking her up early some of the days – we’re dipping our toes in gently.

Of course we were early, so we sat nervously in the parking lot until some other parents arrived and the clock read 7:30 to haul her and all of her supplies in. We were guided down the hall and found her room and got settled in with Miss Victoria right away. Kiddo was asleep throughout the process and I felt fine until I handed her to Miss Victoria – who proceeded to hug me before we walked out and buddy did I start to well up. She hugged Kevin too and off we went to the car.

I didn’t cry much at all, maybe a few tears wiped away as we walked out, but once we got to the house I went full throttle at 90 mph cleaning out kiddo’s closet, labeling items for the yard sale, and doing laundry. I was shocked to see how much I got done without this tiny baby in the house and suddenly looked up to see it was noon. 

Miss Victoria had encouraged me to call or stop by anytime, so when I hadn’t called to check in by 1 pm, she called me. I missed the call but got the message that Ember was doing great and called back to hear it in person. My friend Angie is the CFO at the center and went by to check on kiddo a couple of times for me. She reported back that all was well and sent a few photos.

Boy, doesn’t that kid look miserable? Ha ha ha.

When I finally gave in, we picked her up at 3:30 and she was happy as could be. We ran some errands and went to see Kevin’s parents afterwards, and this baby was absolutely LIGHTS OUT asleep by 8pm (at least an hour before normal bedtime).

Kevin suggested a movie and pizza delivery, so we had a little date night (Lego Batman is an excellent film) while baby slept on me on the couch.

It was a great first day for everyone and we’re gearing up to do it again tomorrow!