Joining the Bears

Today was Cayden's first day of school.  Daycare, that is, where he joined the Bears (12 - 24 month olds) at U-Gro.

All in all, it was a great day for Cayden and a better experience than Mama or Daddy expected.  Our access code worked without a hitch, Cayden's cubbies and nametags were all prepared for his arrival and Miss Rose was impressed with and excited to participate in our cloth diapering regimen.

I struggled to get a "first day of school" photo of the Chicken Wing, because as soon as we set him down, he took off for the toy shelves he became familiar with over the course of his three pre-enrollment visits.  Left us in the dust.  Which is great for him, I suppose.  So I had to snap this from outside the room, in the hallway.  There he is, sitting in the center of the room, watching Miss Rose love on one of his new girlfriends.

Although our first drop-off exceeded all my expectations (I don't know what I would have done, had he clung to us or begged for us to return, from the other side of the glass), I couldn't help but shed two "oh, how he's growing up" tears as we walked out the door, to our cars.  But two tears, one down each cheek, ain't bad. 

Daddy surprised me a bit, though.  First for his insistence to attend each pre-enrollment visit, then to drive separately to see Shorty off on his first morning of school.  As he wiped the two tears off my cheeks, he admitted to me that this was harder than he expected it to be, and he made me promise to call and check on Shorty mid-day, then report how the little guy was doing to Daddy.

We are so grateful for that loving, concerned Daddy of ours that is so eager to actively participate in every aspect of this parenting gig.  Did I mention Daddy about sprinted out to the driveway when I pulled in this evening, dying to hear how pick-up went?

Pick up was fine.  He was so content at school, in fact, it took me three "Excuse me"'s before Cayden finally turned away from playtime to recognize me at 5:30.  Seems he had a great, fun- and friend-filled day.

And his first report card shows it. My favorite part? Well, there are two: First that he tried to eat the paint (again), and secondly, check out how his snacks and lunch went. Shouldn't have expected anything less than all "everything" checkmarks.  My only remaining question or concern about daycare is this: How on earth do they feed 8 to 10 kids tomato soup at the same time??