First Day of "School"

This morning was Lily's first day at daycare - otherwise known as "school."  We've been so fortunate to have found such wonderful people to look after her and give her personal attention since she was 12 weeks old that it's a bit tough for me to send her to daycare now where she's one of many.  But I have a feeling it's all going to be just fine.

Of course this morning, like every morning, Lily started off right away talking about going to see Ria (Maria) and Alex (her favorite).  I tried explaining that we were not going to see them today because they have to go to school and now Lily is going to go to school too.  Instead, Lily will go see Ms Christina.  Tee-na? she says.  I hope Ms Christina doesn't mind being called Tina because that's probably her name from now on according to Lily.

All the way to the daycare, Lily kept saying:  "Ria?"  "Alex?"  "Isa?"  "Ruben?"  "Leo?"  Over and over.  I kept saying we wouldn't see them today cause everybody's going to school and they go to a different school than Lily.  And then we'd start over:  "Ria?"  "Alex?"  "Isa?"  "Ruben?"  "Leo?"  So I'd remind her that we're going to see Ms Christina today.  "Tee-na?" 

We took Lily to the daycare several months ago when we were checking it out and she played with the toys while Joel and I talked to the director.  Today, as soon as we got in the foyer (before toys were in sight), Lily must have remembered the place, because she yelled "TOYS!" and took off running through the doors in search of the toys. 

After I got Lily's things all settled in, I had to search for her to get a kiss and then she promptly went back to exploring all these fun toys (you'd think we didn't have any toys at home) and she didn't even notice when I left.  If all future mornings are like this one, switching to daycare will be no problem!

When Joel picked up Lily, she was happily playing with another little girl, getting along just fine.  Ms Christina sent home a note saying that Lily did great today.  She said that Lily took an hour long nap and that part is pretty evident tonight.  Lily's been a little bit crabby and clingy which is how she gets when she's not had enough sleep.  We may need to ratchet back her bedtime a little bit to compensate. 

All in all, good first day!