Summer Camp, Daycare, and First Day of Summer
The day had finally arrived where my 4 year old son C and 1 year old son L were going to summer camp and daycare. It was a long time coming since L was starting daycare a lot later than his siblings. With my 6 year old daughter E and C, we started them at daycare when they turned 1 year old. L was starting daycare about 3 months after that big milestone.
Luckily, C was going to summer camp at the same daycare he went to. That meant one drop off for me since I would be bringing him and L on my way to work. That first day was bittersweet for me and my wife. We knew it meant freer days, but it also meant L wasn’t going to be around as often (sometimes that was a good though thing since he was so clingy with my wife!). We all went really early as a family to drop him off.
When we got to the room where L was going to be, we were one of the few people in the room. We got to settle in and get him acquainted with the room. He was in a good mood with his siblings showing him toys. I was waiting around for his main teacher to show up and when she finally did, my wife, E, and C snuck out. I ended up staying in there and waiting for the right time to sneak out. It didn’t work out so well and L saw me right away. He cited as I left and I gave him a kiss goodbye.
Luckily, he stopped crying after a while and I know he was going to have a good (but tiring) first day at daycare. It was time to drop C off at summer camp downstairs and even though he knew most of the kids, it was a different environment. He was shy and nervous, but I knew he would have lots of fun. We all hugged him and off I went to work while my wife was planning a great day with E on her first full day of summer.
While I was at work, E and my wife had the best time. They went out on a croissant date, went out for lunch, and E got to play with her cousin. When the day was getting close to being over, I unfortunately had a call that would be late in the day. That meant potentially missing daycare pickup for L on his first day. I couldn’t miss it and decided to leave work early to meet up everyone to pick L up. I would just do my remaining calls at home afterwards.
We picked up C first and he had a good first day of summer camp. He was shy and nervous, but I think it worked out for him well enough. The days should get better from here. When we all got into the room to pick L up, he was so happy to see us. He ran straight to my wife and didn’t want to let go even though I know he had an awesome first day. The nap wasn’t great since it was about 30 minutes, but we could just put him down earlier because he would also be exhausted from the new environment.
The teacher said L did really well and we crossed the big daycare milestone finally. Fast forward a few weeks I’m and drop offs are still rough. He cries and screams because we are leaving, but at least he calms down quickly now that he loves daycare. It’s similar to sleep training where even though he is used to sleeping in his crib, he will still cry out while we are leaving the room to voice his displeasure that we won’t be around. Then he settled in quickly and does his thing. Hopefully he doesn’t cry during drop offs in the near future and then we will be in the full swing of things, but I know after two kids, this will be a slow progression (except for C who loved running off) that happens over time!
