Impending

For those of you who are concerned about Dutch's warmth, the pool is heated to 85 degrees. (Fahrenheit.) Also, Dutch would like you all to know that today she was promoted to the astounding heights of the Seal level, after the heady excitement of Otter. She's taking Seal lessons in the fall, and will be learning how to BREATHE while doing the front crawl. I'm impressed, since she was reluctant to even put her head in the water at the beginning of the summer, and now can (sort of) swim. Seven weeks of swim lessons will take you a long way.

I'm working up (emotionally) to the start of daycare. Dutch starts at the end of September, and Skipper starts in the middle of the month (she'll go just a few hours at a time for a few days a week for a little while - they break in the babies that way, rather than having them all start full-time right off the bat, which would presumably mean a room full of screaming, stressed-out babies all day the first day). I can't wait for Dutch to go back, since she desperately needs the socializing, and it's clearly better for our relationship to spend some time apart.

My friend CM has just gone back to work (she has a real job, fixing broken people and stuff), leaving her own new baby in daycare, and she's inspiring me to try not to be crazy about this. (Not that she's finding it easy, but that she's doing it and not being insanely whiny about it.)

Because I have no job lined up (or even any prospects), and Cook is cutting back his hours at his primary job, we're planning to leave Skipper in daycare for no more than five hours a day for at least the first month, which makes me feel much better about the whole thing. It still hurts - FIVE HOURS A DAY! And she's so little! - but I'm also confident that she'll do well.

I definitely feel better about putting Skipper in daycare than I would have about Dutch at this age. Things are different this time around. I'm older and tireder, she has a different personality than Dutch, and I've got some experience with daycare now, not to mention an emotional investment in this particular daycare, to which I am deeply grateful for rescuing Dutch from a slide into Problem Child territory. I am confident they will do as good a job with Skipper as any daycare possibly could. Considering that much of Skipper's time is spent watching me do housework and/or argue with Dutch, they are likely to do a better job at some parts of her care than I do.

Comments

s* said…
congratulations dutch!
we love you!
Anonymous said…
It WILL be okay! Those babies, they're tough little cookies. Mmmm...cookies! cm

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