February 19, 2010

Kaylynn was awake at 6:50 when I checked in on her. I changed her diaper and thought she might want snuggle time with the “puppies” but she was ready to roll. I had to eat some breakfast at home because Fridays are my allergy shot days and I have to eat before I get them. She shared my cereal very enthusiastically. When I started to put my coat on, she ran & grabbed her snow pants (which were where her jacket usually is – she didn’t know they weren’t her jacket) and was ready to go “bye-bye” with me. She was a little disappointed, but she had a big day ahead of her!

Julian got her ready & took her in to daycare at 9ish, I think. She got settled into their routine right away. They said a prayer and gave the kids breakfast and she drank her juice & ate her cheerios, which we didn't think she liked. She was so busy doing everything the other kids were doing that she wasn’t much interested in long good-byes.

I got a call from daycare today around 1:30. I figured I’d hear something after lunch and I was right. The report is that Kaylynn is having a great time. She’s playing well with the kids. They said she has lots of words – we just don’t know what they mean. Sounds like she’s made friends with Sophie, another little girl in the class. She’s playing with babies (dolls) and she loved loved loved painting. I think we’ll be pulling out the crayons for her. I definitely have a baby for her – I just have to find it. They had story & song time and she's really engaged with the other kids. She ate a lot for breakfast but didn’t have much for lunch. They said they expected that on her first day. They take the kids outside to play – she had snow pants and boots – and she walked around crunching the snow.

They have the kids nap on cots, which is usually unfamiliar to a toddler. When they called me, she was sitting quietly on one of the teacher’s laps and then took a little nap on the cot after she warmed up to it. They said she hasn’t seemed sad or upset in any way except when they gave her a sippy cup of water at nap time and she threw it on the floor – not what she wanted, I guess. 

I got there just after 5 and she & another toddler, Cameron (I think) were sitting in these little toddler-sized purple chairs drawing with one of those little magnetic boards. I talked with the teacher a little bit. Kaylynn didn't have any poopies and she had a really good day. They give a pretty full report! They commented on her note about how happy she is. In fact, that turned out to be her word of the day. You'll see...

I asked her to put on her coat & she didn't want to. The teacher put her coat on and I put mine on and she followed suit. She was very reluctant to leave - not crying, but not eager to go. She had a blast there and I feel bad that she's not going back until Wednesday.

We got home & the dogs were really ready to go out. Then it was dinner time. I reached for the well-known stand-bys - a hotdog and peas. She ate the whole hotdog and peas, asked for more peas, ate them, asked for more - she got 3 helpings of peas! I took out a pineapple ring and cut it into pieces and sat down to eat some. Of course she wanted a bite and I gave it to her. She loved pineapple. Unfortunately, she just says 'apple' so it may be hard to differentiate if she likes apples, too.

I fed the dogs and got her out of her chair. She pulled out some books and one of them was an Elmo book. Elmo, if you recall, had a book that went through feelings via the "if you're happy and you know it" song. She saw Elmo and said "happy." So I started singing the song and she started to sing and dance. "Happy happy" and then a couple claps. I did a round of angry-stomp-your-feet and she did that, too. I took some video with my camera. The sound is hard to hear but I'm going to try to load it so you can see. You'll know if I was successful :)

The dogs were stir-crazy and Julian was still working. I decided to take them all to the dog park. Everyone was well behaved and it was a relatively easy trip. She wanted to go "a-whee" on the slide and picked up balls all over the place. It was almost all small dogs so she got to have some running around time. It wasn't until I put her in the car that I realized how tired she was, so we came home, had a bath and off to bed she went. The bath didn't go as well with an over-tired baby as with a not-tired baby. She was OK until I needed to rinse her hair. I managed to get the job done but not in the most happy way. She brushed her teeth but completely fusses when I try to brush them. Ideas how to make that work? Julian was on the phone with Melissa and was a little late for bedtime ritual. She asked for him so I sent him in to say goodnight. He got kisses and she settled down after a bit.

Tomorrow is a big day! Kaylynn gets a new bed. Stay tuned...