Last Tuesday I walked into Hannah's daycare and was promptly greeted by someone from the corporate offices. She had a stack of papers and I knew something was up. I was informed that her daycare would be closing at the end of the month - only a week's notice!!! The daycare we were with mainly operates on the east coast - where they are headquartered. They had only one center in Minnesota (the one we attended) and were hoping to open 5 more around the Twin Cities area. Apparently no one was really jumping at the opportunity to franchise and corporate decided it wasn't worth the hassle to manage just our one center so far away and decided to cease operations. I understand where they were coming from, but at the same time a little more notice to find another daycare provider would have been nice!
So I took the day off work right after I found out and spent the entire afternoon frantically touring new centers. I knew I wanted to keep Hannah in a daycare center versus an in-home daycare or a nanny. She really thrives off the center atmosphere and I love that she is learning so much socially with all the other kids. At the same time, I was so scared for her - to disrupt her world and take her away from the center, her teachers, and her friends. I mean, she has been at her daycare since 12 weeks old - it's all she ever knew! I ended up touring 6 other centers around our house and found 2 I really loved. Brian and I talked things over and by the next day we had paperwork turned into her new daycare to secure a spot. Today was Hannah's first day at her new "school".
We bought Hannah a new Elmo backpack to take with her to her new daycare. I was thinking it would be special to have something brand new for a fresh new start. She wasn't into the idea of wearing it for a picture, but she loves her "Elmo"! Once nice thing about the new center is they provide breakfast in addition to lunch and snacks. Our other center only provided lunch and snacks. It was a treat for me to not have to make and pack breakfast this morning!
Drop off wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I did okay (and so did Hannah)! She only cried for a minute, then was back to eating her breakfast - I saw this from the monitor in the directors office :). Hannah is fortunate to have 2 friends from her old classroom in her new classroom. I think the familiar faces this morning helped out in her transition. But throughout this rough past week, I've realized that she's very resilient and I know she will do just fine at the new place. This process was much harder on me than her!
I tried not to be that overbearing Mom today and resisted calling her new daycare to check up on how she was doing. I got a surprise phone call at work from her new teacher around noon calling to update me on how GREAT Hannah was doing! She said that she ate a good breakfast, learned how to drink from a big girl cup, played with her new friends, had fun with water day outside, ate a huge lunch, and was down for a nap. I really wasn't expecting that and it was so nice of her to call me! I also got a surprise email from the director sharing this picture of Hannah from the day:
Once I saw this in my inbox, I knew we had made a good move and everyone will be just fine!
And Hannah's move also coincided with a move for me. Our office physically moved locations this past week and my first official day in the new office was yesterday. So, it's been a crazy, stressful week with daycare closures, finding new childcare, and moving offices. I'm ready for a break!
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