Why we love Riley’s daycare…

On one of Riley’s first days of school they had a photographer come in to take portraits of all the kids. This was during the time when it was still very hard for Riley to say good-bye. Anyway they took her in right after I left. Apparently sitting alone in the middle of a room with 2 big stranger men was too much for Riley though and her teacher said she cried, so they probably didn’t get that many shots. Not a big deal, anyone who’s looked through our pictures knows Riley’s infancy has been very well documented.

We weren’t really expecting to get any pictures, so I was surprised when they gave me an envelope of proofs last week. There was only 2 pictures inside: One of Riley looking miserable and frightened and crying, and another of her still crying but reaching her arms out to picked up. Needless to say my heart broke into pieces and I nearly started crying right there. It’s hard enough to convince myself Riley likes daycare (damn stay-at-home moms getting into my head…), I don’t really need to see pictures of her CRYING! I gave them back to the teacher, who felt really bad, and told her not to show them to Sage.

Don’t worry this story has a happy ending! Today when I picked up Riley her teacher Liz said she had a present for us… She had put together a little scrapbook with pictures she had taken of Riley! It’s called “A day in the life of Riley!” and it’s really very sweet. It hads pictures of her playing in the classroom and with the other kids outside and going on walks and in all of them she looks very happy and content.

So whatever sensitivity those photographers were lacking is more then made up for by her amazing teachers, who really seem to care about the kids… and also about the parents.

(willow is the name of her classroom)

Click the picture to see the rest of the book