Bracing for the storm
4 days of 60 consecutive minutes of aerobic workout, 2 days of 30 consecutive minute workouts. Technically I've exceeded my weekly goal of 3 60s and 2 30s and I'm only 5 days into the week! I'm gonna need the extra credit.. next week's gonna be a bitch.
Tim and I made a very very very hard decision today to enroll Bobbin in a new preschool. Her current daycare, as I've mentioned previously, served us well for 3 years but over the course of the summer a lot of changes happened and despite us trying to work with them on getting to some common ground, it just wasn't on a path to getting resolved to our satisfaction. And so we began a search for new options this week, and wham bam, in the informed yet decisive way that is mine, we have analyzed the results, assessed the risks, and made a decision.
Bobbin's last day at her current daycare will be Monday. We started talking with her about it today, and will spend time talking with her about it in depth tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We'll write cards to the teachers to say thank you and goodbye. We''ll write notes to the parents of her friends with our contact info so we can hopefully get the kids together semi-regularly since she's been with many of them for 3 years now.
Tim and I are sure we have made the right choice. The teacher and classroom consistency is what we are looking for, the teachers are highly qualified and from what I've seen from my visits there, are highly interactive and clearly care about the children. Three different parent reference checks came back with glowing feedback, as well as some concrete things that they'd like to see the school do better but none of those things are deal-breakers. Overall I think it is a much more stable and consistent and dependable environment than the one she is in currently.
I took Bobbin there today on the way home from her other school. We talked about where I was taking her. We arrived and she marched up the steps like she owned it, and started looking around the room as I talked with the director. Actively looking. Touching. I was surprised. Then I told her we could go check out the playground and the forest and that was all she needed to hear. We were there for about an hour; the buildings had all closed but the director said we can use the outdoor grounds any time - weekends, etc - now that she's enrolled. We'll take her up on that this weekend. Get Bobbin feeling familiar with the space.
To accomodate the transition I'm taking Tuesday morning off, and we'll spend a half-day at her new school together and then come home for the rest of the day, during which I'll attempt to work from home. On Wednesday Tim will take her to the new school and they'll spend a half day there together and then come home for the rest of the day while I work all day. Thursday and Friday I'll spend all day with Bobbin at her new school hangin'. Saturday and Sunday we'll go play there together. Monday I'll spend half a day there with her and then hopefully, leave her there on her own and happy the rest of the day.
That's the plan. It's complicated. And while I wouldn't have done anything different, I do feel guilty about the two mornings I've taken off from work this week to tour daycare centers and interview daycare directors. Tim's had to do the same. And now I'm taking 2 and a half days off next week and a half day off the following week.
Next week, I predict that my wednesday blog entry will be filled with regrets and self doubts about whether we did the right thing for Bobbin; whether I'm meeting my responsibilities at work; etc. etc.
And so the vicious cycle continues.
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