movin on up

Oliver moved up to his new classroom at school today. He is now the youngest baby in Nursery II. Daycare started off as a nightmare for me. When Ollie started his original daycare, I knew the first week that it wasn't working out for us. Everyday, they told me Oliver was fussy and cranky and cried all day. I knew this wasn't his personality. Oliver is such a good natured baby I found it hard to believe he was a problem child at school. We stayed there for two weeks which was 7 days too long. Why only 7 and not 10? The daycare called me three times in those two weeks to come pick him up because he would not calm down and stop crying. I felt horrible dropping him off everyday but in my post birth/going back to work/dealing with the trauma of leaving your child with strangers I just thought he was having a hard time adjusting to daycare. Looking back, I feel like an awful parent. The daycare was at capacity with 10 babies in the nursery and those poor babies basically sat in bouncy seats all day. Those last days I frantically started calling other area daycares to find a spot. When I had called originally, the waiting lists were LONG. So long, I didn't bother putting my name on the lists because I had found a daycare near our house that was highly recommended by people in our area. Not so. I just prayed I could find a spot somewhere, anywhere at this point to get him out of the awful situation. The first place I called happened to be the only 5 star rated daycare in our area. I thought what the hell, I might as well call and just check for a spot even though the waiting list had been a year+ back in July 2010. They had a spot. Actually, the baby room was completely empty. Due to the economy, the attendance was at a record low and no new babies had registered in the past few months. My prayers were answered. We started that next day. I love our new daycare. Oliver's teacher, Ms.Ann, has been there since they opened 33 years ago. She loves him so much and his face just lights up each morning when I take him to school. She calls me with updates throughout the day, takes his picture for me and basically just loves him to pieces. I love this woman for loving my baby. I felt so thankful to find Ms. Ann and could not believe our good luck to find a church based daycare and a 1:1 ratio for the bargain price of $200/wk. Today was a fresh start in his new room. He will have to share the teacher's attention with two other babies (poor spoiled baby - ha ha). I took this picture on his last day with Ms. Ann. I think she held him all day. I had to scrub really hard to get the lip prints off his cheeks that night :)

Ms. Ann didn't want her picture taken. Oliver loves her so. They are quite the pair!