Last day of daycare!

We have had an eventful few days, and even more for the week to come.

Last Friday the LO had an emotional goodbye with one of the girls who works at daycare. It seems like they had bonded in a short amount of time, and after hearing that this girl would be leaving for school herself, our LO was overcome with emotions. She internalizes first, while processing, and either resolves it on her own or bursts. This time she burst, and she kept repeating that the girl "really likes her" and asking "why is she leaving for school" over and over again. The thing is, while she has bonded with her over the last couple of months, it's nothing in comparison to the attachment she has with her teacher. They met when she was only 3 months old, she's spent time with her on and off throughout her years at daycare, but has actually been in her class for the last 2 years! While her emotions were genuine, I don't feel as though they were truly attached to that particular girl leaving daycare, but rather her ability to foreshadow what's to come later on today - her last day of daycare. She loves her teacher like a second mom and now she will be the one leaving for school. In fact, we usually pick her up an hour after her teacher leaves and she normally wants to stay and play longer, but on Friday she asked to be picked up early today so that she won't be sad alone. And yesterday, she asked me a couple of times if tomorrow was Monday and was she going to daycare. I am so proud of her for being able to reflect, resolve, and move past challenging circumstances - but, at the same time, seeing her this way and knowing how much she is going to miss everyone breaks my heart.

Thankfully, in between, we had an eventful weekend! It wasn't planned this way, as Friday was actually supposed to have been her last day before some changes were made, but it was a great way to distract her. We went to a zoo close to home and stayed there, on site, overnight! Not only did she get to spend the weekend surrounded by animals, her favorite, but we surprised her by having her cousins (and Zia and Zio) too! In addition to the normal activities, we also had a birds of prey show after supper, a nighttime walk through the woods to feed some deer, breakfast with the lions in the morning and the release of the monkeys for the day afterwards.

And, another first happened on Sunday, at the zoo. Soon before leaving she finally lost her wiggly tooth! Her first! It has held on through Pogo's hamburgers, pizza, candy and even soccer games, but her Dad managed to snap it out while wiping soft serve ice cream off her face! He wiped, I saw something white fall onto the floor and I looked up and saw some blood coming out of her mouth. For the longest time she refused to let me take a picture, and it was later that she told me it's because she didn't want me to show her teacher, she wanted to show her in the morning herself. I told you, Mommy #2! A visit from the tooth fairy left her with a twoonie in her pillow this morning! 

Note: no image of a missing tooth has been uploaded!

And finally, today, the last day of daycare! Drop-off was pretty uneventful, with the exception of extra hugs. We took some pictures with her teacher outside (after she showed her the new hole in her mouth, of course) and all seemed well; dare I say normal. I confirmed with her teacher that we would be there a bit before 4pm and now we wait and see. Actually, i am not sure who will handle it worse - our LO or her teacher!

For the rest of the week, we get to transition slowly into kindergarten! Orientation tomorrow, followed by some half days to get started. I'll write about it once we make it through!