Hello Daycare!! Hello Department of Rural Services!!!

Getting ready to leave for daycare

"Mom!!! You woke me up with the flash!!"

This is Graham with Ms. Elizabeth, Director of Admissions and Personnel

As many of you already know, yesterday was Graham's first day at Child Development Center and my first day back at work. I have been dreading this day for weeks now. Anxious, Nervous, Sad, Excited, Reluctant...I've been dealing with so many emotions. Every time I would think about him going to daycare and myself going back to work, I wanted to throw myself on the floor and kick my arms and legs and scream and cry like a 3 year old. That is how much I dreaded it.

This is how our day began: My alarm went off at 5am...I thought to myself, "I can't believe the alarm woke me up before Graham." Graham has been sleeping so well in his crib and we are so proud of him! So Chad gets up and awakens Graham , changes his diaper and puts him in bed with us so I can feed him. Graham falls asleep 20 minutes later and I leave him in bed with Chad. I get out of bed, get my workout clothes on and ride my bike for 20 minutes and throw in some squats and lunges. I get the bottles ready and get some other things together and jump in the shower at 6:15am. Chad gets out of bed around 6:30am and puts Graham back in his crib...I was so nervous cause I was so afraid that as soon as Chad got up, Graham would be up as well. Nope, my lil man happily surprises me by falling right back to sleep in his crib. I wake him up at 7:30am and change his diaper, feed him a lil bit more, change his clothes and we are out the door at 8am.

On the way there, I get pretty sad and my eyes start welling up a teeny lil bit. But by the time we get there, I'm doing really good...probably because I am so busy unloading all of his things that I really don't have time to be sad. So I get him in his class and meet his teacher Ms. Tracey who by the way is so absolutely sweet as can be. I really like her a lot and it really comforts me. I hung around there for about 30 minutes with Graham and took care of some paperwork. He did so great! I went by to see him around 1:30pm but he was so passed out asleep that I didn't even bother to wake him. Plus, they already had a few screaming crying babies and I didn't want to contribute to one more. I wish I would have taken a picture of him napping because it was the cutest thing. He was all sprawled out with his arms wide open like he was ready for a big hug. I wanted to give him one so bad too...and tons of kisses. But I just patted his belly a few times and went on my way. When I picked him up, he was in the lil bouncy seat just as happy as can be. Ms. Tracey said he did wonderful and the only time he was fussy was at naptime. Remember me telling you that he fights sleep because he doesn't want to miss a thing?

We were both so exhausted from our busy day and we both hit the sack around 9pm. Usually it takes Graham about 30 minutes to fall asleep cause he will fight it for a while and we have to start his Musical Seahorse over about 6 times but not last night. Noooo sireeeeee...As soon as we put him down, he was out. Same for mommy. :)

So our first day back and to daycare went off without a hitch! It couldn't have gone any better if you ask me!

Nothing has changed at work. It's the same ol, same ol. I spent the day getting my office back in order and that's about it.

I went by his daycare today to see him and they just sat down to feed him so I got to take over and while I was feeding him, he had the BIGGEST dirtiest diaper EVER. Oh my, it was bad! I think I used 10 wipes just to clean him all up. Poor thing had been holding that in for a few days! WHEW! I know he felt so much better after all of that! After the mess, I finished feeding him and played and rocked him for a bit...he was getting sleepy so I put him in his crib and he was just wide eyed and looking around and was calm so I left him before he started fighting sleep. I hope he just fell right to sleep and didn't start screaming.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we go to his NEW pediatrician(she was the first pediatrician to see him in the hospital and Chad and I REALLY liked her a lot...she's real bubbly like me.) and Graham will get more shots. I think he will do pretty well with it. He will cry for a bit and then forget all about it. At least I hope it takes it as well this time as he did the last. Pray. Pray. Pray. I'm anxious to see how much he weighs now and how long he is. :)

Can you believe that he will be TWO MONTHS OLD TOMORROW?!?! It's gone by WAYYYY too fast!