Riley’s first week of daycare

Last week Riley started daycare at the Stanford Arboretum Children’s Center. We love this daycare – it just looks like so much fun and the teachers are really nice. Still, dropping her off that first day was really hard. We stayed and played with her for a while (they’re very supportive of letting parents stay with their kids till they feel comfortable) then said goodbye. The only person close to tears at that point was me… Riley seemed totally fine playing with toys and her teacher Liz. The teachers encouraged us to call later and check on her, which I did, and of course she was fine.

By day 2 she had wised up and realized I was going to leave her at the daycare, and she suddenly got very clingy… didn’t want to be put down and would only play on the floor if she was sitting on my lap and or holding on in some way. It was very sweet, but made it almost impossible to leave. Eventually she let the teacher take her though (with the help of a pacifier which Riley is really into these days). By the third day she seemed more comfortable.

In her first week she did finger painting, foot painting (with purple glitter paint no less), went for a walk in the giant mulit-baby stroller thing, and played with every imaginable toy. They say she’s always happiest playing outside at their infant-only playground. And she seems to really enjoy watching the other kids crawl/walk around. Can’t help wondering if any of those kids will become good friends in the future…

So she’s there Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for now. Even though part of me feels guilty everytime we drop her off, most of me believes she has fun there and overall it’s best for everyone…