A New Beginning

Another corner turned, another milestone passed, another day that our babies become less babies. sigh...yesterday Aimee and Dylan began their first experience of their new nursery. Day was ok, only a short one hour introductory session. Aimee was in a bit of a daze and rather quiet and clingy. I had to be by her side all session and she freaked out at how boisterous and territorial the established kids were. She rather more used to getting what she wants from us, and to have to be more assertive on unknown territory was a new thing. On day 2 however, Cat managed to leave the room quietly without aimee noticing for a good hour. The staff reported that Aimee was happily playing and eating her lunch and did not cry. One beneficial (to us) side effect of nursery that I forgot when she was at the old place was that Aimee is so knackered when she gets home, that bed time is a very swift affair - a quick bath, brush, story and lights out. She is fast asleep within minutes. During her recent sabbatical (Cat's maternity leave) she would take ages every night to go down. Nothing too hyper, but she just wanted lots of stories and lots of toys and lots of this and that, it would sometimes be 8:30-9pm before I could get away from her room.

With Dylan I thought it would be more tricky to break into the nursery habit since he is Sooooo clingy at home. But no, he slept, he ate, he played, he destroyed (some artwork and pulled all the toys down off the shelf). Apart from a few murmers of disquiet, he was actually quite happy in the baby room. I guess we underestimated how flexible a more young child can be.

Generally I like the nursery, it is well run with good facilities and plenty of outdoor space. The combined cost as I mentioned before is expensive to us, but actually they are cheap compared to most other places. When I was there, I spent a great deal of time observing the kids and it is really amazing what miniature but very determined little characters they can be at such a young age. One little boy appeared to be quite a handful in the playground. But when I commented about him to a member of staff, they explained that he had recently lost his mother. Such things really make you look twice at yourself and realise just how lucky you really are.

Let's hope the kids settle well and going to nursery everyday will be as normal and routine as everything else in our lives.

BTW The photo above is Dylan covered head to toe in kiddie fun paint. He seemed to think it was fun to use his body as a paint brush. It was not fun to clean up afterwards. Anyway, its all good for his development, I think.

And here's Aimee as Bambam.