Nervous

Tomorrow Beanie starts her new school and needless to say I am nervous!

I think I am channeling my own anxiety as a kid when I started a new school - changed about 12 schools in 12 years due to my Dad's job. I always did well and made friends, sort of was forced to be an extrovert due to circumstance, but I remember being very anxious before I started the first Day.

Well I am reliving it so to speak. Beanie is small now and does not know any better, but I need to make sure as she gets older I don't let my experiences affect her own experiences.

Anyway, this is the school my Mom taught in for years. The lead Toddler Room teacher is my Mom's friend and she came over last week to hang out so Beanie could see her face and hear her voice. I was on a con call when she came and Beanie apparently had a crying fit, but by the time I came down, she got her confidence (Mommy was there!) and she was babbling and all happy. It was really nice of C to come and spend almost 2 hours with us and watch Beanie in her home environment.

It still amazes and humbles me how much our babies rely on us, not just basic necessities, but for emotional needs. That feeling of protection they get when they are around Mom, sort of like a baby animal is more adventurous when the mother is around.

My main nervousness abut tomorrow is that there is now a schedule!

Beanie will have specific times in the day to eat, play, sleep as is normal in toddler rooms. No more going on our own schedule which we have had for several months. That is going to be the biggest challenge for us. For example, Beanie has a bottle upon waking at 7:30am and breakfast at 9:30am, then naps and has lunch around 1:30pm. In the new school, lunch is 11:30-12:3pm followed by a nap. So, now I need to feed Beanie breakfast at home at 7:30am, and reduce her 9:30 meal to a snack so she is hungry for lunch at 11:30am.  I know it will take a few days to adjust and teachers are willing to work with me as we decrease/increase the meal/snack quantities so she can slowly get on the right schedule.

Otherwise I am happy she is going there since I like the Montessori concept and she will do well I hope. Knowing the teachers, most came to my baby shower, also makes me feel a lot more comfortable.

The school about 15 min away as compared to her old school which is 3 minutes away! So while dropping is not a big deal,, picking her up may be since I usually try to do so between my conference calls at work around 3pm. I also give her a bath as soon as she comes home so I can jump on 4pm calls. It may be a bit tight. If it makes sense I may start picking her up at 4pm instead, after the summer break.

Which brings me to the fact that this school has many breaks - summer, spring, winter etc. Thank god I have my Mom otherwise I would not have enough vacation time to cover all these breaks!!

The old school was sad to see us go. I was happy with the old school and am changing only because I want B to go to Montessori. We took flowers for the teachers and a card to say Thank You. They have been really sweet and while there were some issues, overall we had a  very positive experience given Beanie was 16 weeks when she started.

Some other things to blog about, but this is getting long so shall post later!