Daycare

Wednesday 8/1 was Zane's first day at day care. He is in the first infant room, which is populated by eleven other kids aged 6 weeks to 13 months, and three of the most patient women on the planet. We woke up early, and got Zane dressed up in his rocketman outfit. We figured it would be a good conversation starter with the other kids - "hey man, that outfit is bad ass! You must have cool parents."



Because Zane is in daycare close to where I work, I'm Mr. Drop-off guy. At first I thought it would be a good thing that I was the one dropping Zane off on his first day, because I figured Dianna would be an emotional wreck if she were there, and would wind up staying at the daycare center all day. Well, I was there for about 3 hours. I'd like to say that it was easy to leave my son with a bunch of strangers, but it was one of the more emotionally taxing things I've had to do in my life.



Fortunately the people at the daycare center are nice strangers, and are crazy-good at what they do. I got to watch Silvia play with Zane a little, and she asked me if it was okay with me if she swaddled and fed him to put him down for a nap. I told her that was fine, and she got to work. Zane was out in literally 3 minutes. It was masterful.

So, as far as Zane was concerned, his first day went pretty well. Apparently, Zane and one of his classmates were sat facing one another, and had a conversation. Zane's buddy would produce a noise vocally, and Zane would reply with a squeak. It went back and forth for a while. We think he likes the stimulation. I'm sure they were talking shit about Libby's non-sentence.

It's amazing to me that two-income families and childcare have become the rule rather than the exception, but this is the reality of living in California. That, and $16,800 a year for daycare. If Mouge wasn't so generous, there's no way we could have afforded to have a kid. But then again, she'd walk over broken glass for her grandson.