The plunge...

Here I am, working on lesson plans after returning from a work-related appointment, trying not too worry too much about my biggest boy, who has now been away at daycare for almost 7.5 hours!! I dropped him off this morning and drove away after making the care providers PROMISE to call if he showed any signs of freakish separation anxiety, sudden onset illness, or general dis-ease. After 2 hours I figured we'd be getting a call, but here it is, almost 4, and not a peep. We did call to check, of course, but I thought we did good hanging in until 1:30 to do that, and he was playing after a nap. A nap! On his first day! A nap without breastfeeding, without Daddy's patented sing-song-rock-rock, without his own bed. DO you think they might have drugged him? Or could it possibly be that he might actually be prepared and ready for this experience? I'm crossing my fingers. If anything defines my sweet buddy, it is that he always delivers far above and beyond my expectations.

As I twiddle my thumbs (er, blog) waiting until the time I can jump in the car and go rescue him, I'm reflecting on how little time we've spent apart. Looking back, I've certainly never spent this much "awake time" away from him. I went shopping for 2 hours around 4 months, but he was napping. Nat and I went out to dinner alone once...yes, once...in June. And over the past month he's hung out with grandparents for a couple hours so Nat and I could get our skiing and snowshoeing in, with a potential nanny for a scream-fest hour, a mommy-friend for a relatively tear-free hour, and with Nat and my friend Paul (manny-in-training) for a couple hours...all preparation for the great experiment that is today. An experiment that will continue next week as I start my own schedule in a new environment. Hopefully I'll adjust as well!

(Those of you without kids are shaking your heads, grinning, and wondering how the hell I turned into such a mushy-mommy who never leaves her baby...maybe someday YOU will get to embrace the insane anxiety coupled with forgotten freedom that accompanies leaving your tiny, impressionable, developing, cutie-pie, person-whom-you'd-prefer-to-spend-time-with-over-pretty-much-anybody-in-earth with relative strangers...then you'll be proud and teary right along with me.)

****Note: Literally the MOMENT I clicked on "publish post", I received a cell phone call that the baby had been crying off an on for nearly an hour, so could I please come and get him half-an-hour early?...I showed up to find him quiet and happy, but his questionable cold had turned to major virus(fever/cough/pflegm city) during the course of his day at daycare. I feel so guilty dropping him off sick! But it is even more amazing that he handled the day so well. I just hope we don't lose points on the responsible parenting tally card by spreading disease all about town.