new center

Long story short: After a series of worries and a botched pick up at daycare yesterday, Aiden will start at his new center on Monday. We thought that the in home we had set up was ideal because we had such strong referrals. All of our indirect evidence was good, but our direct evidence was not so hot. I am happy with our decision to take him to a center that we had looked at and liked earlier in the fall. I don't think you really know what style you'll appreciate or need until those needs aren't met. My mom understands and she said it best... he just needs to be safe as an infant. Safety will give him a sense of security which will make him feel loved.

I don't want to really remember the details, so I'm not going to get into why we made the switch... Let's just say that at a certain point I really thought I was being punked (or I was on a really cruel edition of candid camera). Then my sense of humor disappeared and I was just traumatized. The ingredients of my pick up nightmare included seven toddlers (!, no helpers to be found), two big dogs, a leftover bottle intended for my hungry baby, a blanket full of spit up wrapped around the side of sleeping Aiden's neck, lit candles and a gigantic wooden toy box around unattended two year olds, and to top the awful cake, a bloody diaper rash (on another kid that wasn't given any comfort). I tried to call and resolve what I thought had to be an out of the ordinary situation, but I was told it was typical. Oh well, that won't be typical for us. I learned what is important to us and I am glad that J and I took action to make the switch immediately. We visited the center again this afternoon and we were really comforted by the orderly, professional atmosphere. I'm so grateful that they had space for us to start almost immediately. Eek, now the awkward part of telling the other daycare we won't be coming back needs to happen before tomorrow.