New Daycare

So, the girls have one week checked off at the new daycare and I think we can call it a success! Ava is part of the school-age classroom, which has 24 kids for the summer doing more or less a "camp". They have a few scheduled field trips each week, water days on Thursdays (running around in sprinklers and such), and lots of other activities with which to keep them busy! She is really having a great time so far, I think she thrives on being with kids her own age and older. Last Friday, they even had a sleep over at the center! We dropped her off at 7pm and picked her up at 8 the next morning. She had a blast, playing games and watching movies, sleeping in a sleeping bag, all sorts of fun stuff. The director has emailed me a few pictures throughout the week already and sends out a weekly email with all of the upcoming activities so we are in the know. This week they are headed out to a DJ dance party on Wednesday in Bloomington (ha!) and Crystal Caves on Thursday. The other night she told me, "Mom, you really did a good job picking out the new daycare." Aww...that was music to my ears because I really did fret over the decision.

Reese is having a good time too - she is in the youngest preschool room and was happily dropped off every day...until Friday. All of the stimulation of the center has made for one tired little two year old, so she was just absolutely beat by the week's end. That morning, she screamed and kicked and cried from the time we started putting on shoes until the time we got to the center (about 5 minutes). Reese's screaming intensified while we were in the car, which caused Ava to start crying and yelling, "I want to talk!" It also kind of sounded like she was saying, "I want a dog!" which I found equally amusing. At one point, Reese somehow wrangled her arms out of her carseat straps, to which Ava exclaimed, "Mom, Reese is going to die!" Reese didn't stop crying after we got out of the car, or after we dropped Ava off at her room, or when we made it to her room. Fun stuff! Finally, one of the teachers just asked me if she could take Reese. I agreed. If I hadn't been so exhausted by it all, I would have been pretty broken up about it. I called later and she calmed down a few minutes after I left and went on to have a fun day. Hopefully she'll get more used to the activity and also start taking longer naps. She is adjusting to sleeping on a cot while she's there, so her naps have only been about an hour long, which clearly isn't long enough! On Saturday, all 4 of us took 3 hour naps - it was heavenly and very necessary!

Here are a few pictures from last week:

Ava getting her nails painted at the sleepover

Reese, giant gloves & worms

Ava & a friend on the bus to a local nursery to choose plants for their garden