More transitions

Ideally Lena would stay with me for the next 6 months or more, but I have to be back at work by Feb. 4 so we have to start transitioning Lena into daycare immediately.  Today was day 2 of Lena’s new life as a daycare kid.  Yesterday went too well, today… not quite as great.  Jun goes to school in the same building where Lena will go so we’ve been bringing her in each day when we drop Jun off so that she will have a chance to get comfortable with the building, kids, and teachers -and so that she will hopefully understand that we bring Jun to school in the morning and then pick him up at night (no chance of being left there) .  

I think she was shocked yesterday when we dropped her off.  We took off her jacket, hat, mittens, and boots…before she knew it we all said good-bye (including Jun) and pretty much ran away.  Todd and I took Jun back up to his classroom and gave him a big hug and then thanked him for helping Lena feel comfortable.  Then we walked back down to the school office and sat and watched Lena on the video camera for a while.  She sat with one of the teachers and played for close to 45 minutes, she didn’t cry, she didn’t openly laugh or jump or dance, but she sat there and didn’t cry –until about 45 minutes had gone by and Todd and I thought it was time to bring her home for day.  Once we walked in and she saw us, she broke down in tears.  We sort of expected this overly relieved reaction so we gave her lots of hugs before bringing her home. 

This morning Todd had to work early so Jun and I brought Lena to school on our own.  In an effort to keep Jun involved, I asked Jun if he would bring Lena into her classroom with me.  Everything was going great until Lena realized what was about to happen.  As soon as we walked up to the classroom door she turned around and said “no, no, no” in a really sad I-can’t-believe-you’re-doing-this-to-me way.  I knelt down, put on a strong happy face, told her it was just for a little while, gave her a big hug, grabbed her jacket, hat, mittens, and boots, and asked Jun to give her a hug too.  He gave her a quick hug, we passed her off to the teacher, and then I told Jun we had to run and not look back.  It was so hard… I’m pretty sure Jun thought I was horrible and a bit crazy, but once we got upstairs to his room I tried to explain that it was easier for her if we didn’t prolong the good-byes.  Jun was very concerned about his little sister and in an odd way the entire scene made me happy because I felt like it gave Jun an opportunity to be the caring big brother. 

After dropping Jun off I went back downstairs to spy on Lena.  She was sobbing, wailing, and calling for me.  I wanted so badly to walk back in the room to get her, but I thought I’d get a little advice from Todd first.  I stood in the hallway and called him and he told me I couldn’t go back in.  He reminded me that it would make things harder for her tomorrow or the next day when we actually have to leave her there.  It took Todd about 2 ½ minutes to talk me out of barging back in the classroom and by the time our conversation had ended Lena had stopped crying.  I had a bit of time to kill and I knew I couldn’t just hang out in the hallway for too long so I went for a run.  I ran 4 ½ miles in record time for me, but it felt like it took forever because I spent the entire time watching the clock to see if I had passed enough time to justify picking Lena up. 

Apparently she was fine while I was gone, but once again wailed with relief when she saw me.  I figured she had had a rough morning so I took her out for a treat and then we hit the road –me on foot and her in her stroller.  It’s her favorite thing to do.  So today we did my 3.2 mile loop.  That's a long time for little kid to just sit.  I thought for sure she’d cry at some point along the way, but she  spent the entire time sitting up straight looking around (and enjoyed my constant conversation, I'm sure).  The only time she cried was when we arrived back home and I told her she had to get out of the stroller and go back in the house.  If I hadn't bribed her with a piece of kielbasa I'm not sure I would have gotten her in the house.