Halloween Festival Jitters

On Friday, Oct. 20, we'll be having our Halloween festival, and I've got the jitters! This is the first festival for me as I wasn't employed by Kiddieland last Halloween. Every class has to come up with a gift basket and a game. I have no clue what I'm going to come up with. I've never done a gift basket in my life and as for games, all I know are things like dunking for apples and pin the tail on the donkey. I've looked for gift basket ideas on the 'net but none are appealing. I thought about doing a new baby gift basket, since I'm the infant teacher, but I'm afraid that'll be too trite. I can just hear people thinking, "Oh, another new baby gift basket. How original!". And no matter what theme I choose for the basket I'm sure I'll end up spending some of my own money to make it. Yes, we're asking the parents for donations but there're only four babies in my class so there aren't a lot of families to hit up for stuff. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to this festival. I'll probably end up with a "been there, done that" gift basket, a corny game, and a lighter wallet. Happy Halloween. :(

Hello Isabel!

Today I got to meet the new baby I'll be getting on Monday*. I was really glad to finally meet little Isabel as I'd heard so much about how cute she is, and she is! I missed 30 minutes of my lunch hour because of Isabel's visit and I was a little upset about that, but I quickly got over it and just enjoyed seeing the baby.

Isabel will be 6 weeks old on Monday so she's still quite little. She has a personality, though. While I was holding her she kept sticking her tongue out and making faces, even though she was sleep. It was the cutest thing! And she felt so good snuggled up against my chest. Since my babies are all toddlers now, except for Jessa, I'd forgotten how sweet it is to cuddle with a really little baby. Jessa is still young but she's not as cuddly as Isabel is. I can't wait to have Isabel in my class.

Oh, and did I tell you she's sooooo cute?! Her mom is white and her dad is black and Isabel looks like a Mexican. She has a head full of straight, black hair (which I hope stays straight and black) and pretty cafe au lait skin. She proves my belief that mixed babies are always the prettiest. Isabel isn't quite as cute as Maya, my other mixed baby, but she's close.

I'm really looking forward to Isabel starting Monday. She will help my room become a real baby room again. It was becoming a de facto toddler room and I don't like teaching toddlers, even though I love the heck out of my two todds because I've had them since they were small. Anyway, I'll have a little, little one to care for come October 2nd and I'm really, really glad about it.

Welcome aboard, Isabel!

*Are the days of the week always capitalized? I keep forgetting. :)

Nasty Babies!

Let's face it: babies are nasty. Put down your rocks and admit it: babies are nasty. Oh yeah, they can be cute and cuddly, and when they smile at you your heart melts, but they are the nastiest human beings on the planet.

Babies do some pretty nasty things even though, ironically, they have no concept of "nasty". They'll gladly put a cookie crumb in their mouths no matter how long it's been on the floor or what's been crawling on it. They'll take a pacifier out of a kid's mouth and put into their own mouths regardless of how much snot it has on it from the other kid. They'll eat food right out of your mouth and couldn't care less that you have the flu. And there's more.

When I change diapers I'm still amazed at how much my babies like to touch their genitals even if they're covered in pee or poop. You'd think that once they felt something wet and/or slimely on their hands they'd get the message that they're not supposed to be doing that but no, at the next changing time, down their hands go! Nasty babies! But as bad as that is, there's one thing that I think is worse; one thing that repels me more than any other: vomit playing.

I cannot stand to see a baby play in their, or someone else's, vomit. And they do it everytime! Just a couple of days ago Adam threw up in the walker and was happily swirling his puke around on the walker's tray. Gag me!!!!!! Why do they do it? Everytime I catch them doing this disgusting thing I tell them loudly, "NO!". And you know what? They just look at me like, What's all the fuss about? I know babies are in the earliest stages of socialization. I know their brains are just beginning to wire all the signals we send them about what's acceptable and what's not. I just wish those "That's nasty!" neurons would wire first, then I could spend the day loving my babies without ever having to say, "Ewwww! Gross!".

An Easy Day

Today has been an easy day so far. I don't know what it'll be like when I return to work from lunch, but before lunch it was great.

I had only one baby the entire morning, and she slept for 3 hours! Adam, my oldest, is home with pink eye and Maya apparently is with her dad, so that just left little Jessa for me to care for. She was asleep when I arrived at work and didn't stir until I left for lunch at 11. Actually, she probably could've slept longer but I decided to get her up because she hadn't eaten anything since 5:30 am and I knew she was hungry. She wolfed down that 6 oz. bottle my co-worker gave her and wanted some more! I suspect Maya will be there when I go back but it'll still be nice just having the two girls.

While Jessa was asleep I got to clean my room. Believe it or not, cleaning was really nice. I didn't realize how much stuff I needed to clear out until I started doing it. That's one of the drawbacks of being the only teacher in a classroom. You get so caught up in caring for the babies that your room suffers. It's really hard to see to the needs of four--oops! I mean three-- babies and keep your room clean and well decorated at the same time. I'm trying to get fall/Halloween decorations going in my room but I can't find the time to do them the way I really want to, and I hate to settle for something half-assed. So I really appreciate little Jessa letting my have some time this morning to at least get a start on the cleaning/decorating.

Thank you, Jessa!

A Sad Day

Yesterday became the day that I'd been dreading for quite a while. Yesteday Emma, my oldest, moved up to the toddler room. I cried. I felt like a mom who'd just sent her firstborn off to college. I'd had Emma since before she could sit up. I watched her learn to sit up, crawl, walk, eat table food, and even say a couple of words. Now she's gone. My baby!!!!

Of course, my head knows that this change is best for Emma. She's almost 16 months old and she was ready to move to a more challenging class. In the infant room she was bored, and why not? She's played with every toy in that room a thousand times over. Adam, the other walker in my class, is old hat to Emma, too. Emma is very bright and curious and needed to experience new things and people. I checked on her before I went to lunch and she was sitting at the table eating her chicken nuggets like a big girl! No more high chairs for Emma! I was quite proud of her, but I was sad also.

I miss my baby. This morning when I took Adam and Jessa outside it just didn't feel right not having Emma with us. Adam had to play by himself (Jessa was in her carrier; she's just 3 months old). I think he was a little out of sorts, too. He seemed to sense that something wasn't quite like it used to be. He's my oldest now and I think he was adjusting to not having to submit to Emma. :)

Seriously, though, I believe that Adam really does miss Emma. And I think that Maya, now my second oldest, misses her, too. They, and I, have to adjust to their new positions in the class. And to shake things up even more, I'll be getting a 6-week-old baby this coming Monday. Talk about change!

Yes, everything changes. Children grow up; that's what they're supposed to do. We adults who love and care for them are to give them not just roots, but also wings. It hurts, though, when they fly away. Even if you're not their actual parent. As a caregiver, I spend more time with my babies than their parents do, so it should hurt to "lose" one of them. But I'm also proud of how Emma has adjusted to her new room. It just shows that I raised her right.

I LOVE YOU, EMMA!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to Day Care Daze

Hello friends! Welcome to Day Care Daze! This is a blog about my job. Actually, this is my second attempt at doing a blog about my job. My first effort didn't please me, so I deleted it. I started it only two days ago, and there were only two posts on it, so I figured why not just start over. Well, here it is (and this time I'm going to stick with the template, no matter what!).

I hope my friends from my other blogs will like this one too and stop by often. I won't be writing anything political here, just how I feel about the work I do. Well, that's not exactly true. People can have some strong opinions on day care, not all of them nice. I will probably have to make some comments on those opinions, as well as state my own, just so you'll know exactly where I'm coming from as I talk about all the issues involved in this business. But I promise I won't be totally, or even mostly, political.

Well, that's it for this first post. Time's running out on my lunch hour. I'll be posting again tomorrow. See you then!