1st day perfect, 2nd day...not so much

My girl is through two days of her new school/camp. Yesterday's drop off went well, I was totally surprised by this fact. Turns out that she had some mini-crying episodes during the morning but napped well and had a fine P.M. Today, very different story. She was absolutely hysterical when I tried to leave. She did not want her special breakfast (a freshly made, still warm croissant from the amazing French bakery next door) even though she was giddy for the past month that she would get one on her first day at camp (well, daddy forgot that the bakery is closed on Mondays, so she got to buy one this morning). After about 1/2 hour of tears and screams, she went to the bathroom and then wanted to sit down to eat. I laid out her pastry and when I turned around to throw away the bag I did not hear any crying. I kept walking to the corner, where the trashcan sits and still nothing. Weird. I looked back and she wasn't even looking in my general direction. I gave the teacher a heads-up and bolted. Hate doing that, even though I know it is for the best. She ended up having an awesome day. Go figure. She promised to be cool in the A.M. on day three. We'll see.

When I picked her up I saw one of the teachers reading a Finding Nemo book. And in looking at her daily sheet I see that the class listened to "Under the Sea" which my wife told me is from another Disney picture. It is Sea Creatures week after all. I called the school right away to better understand their no-licensed character/branded products-policy (one of the many bright spots with this establishment). Seems the book was brought in my another child, most likely, but the music was the school's doing. I decided right then that I would take a proactive role at this school, unlike the prior one where I complained too much on OWTK and at home with my wife but did not step up to make a positive change. I told the manager of the facility that I get supplied with a great deal of terrific, original kiddie music to review and asked if I could bring in some of it for the class/entire school. She truly seemed excited to have new sounds brought into the building. So, tomorrow I take in my very own copies of The Terrible Twos and Joe McDermott discs for them to keep and enjoy. I will recommend the McDermott tune "Dolphins", in keeping with the Animals of the Sea theme.

After school we picked up a pizza and a salad at our favorite little pizza shop (way too hot to cook - 94 degrees today) and stopped into Target for a new bathing suit for the little lady of the house (the bigger little lady, how will I ever distinguish between the two girls here?) The baby cried pretty much the whole time, even the pacifier was not pacifying her. I hate even using the thing, as we barely and rarely ever did with #1, but #2 seems to need it more often and she has certainly not been the happiest child in the world during her first three weeks around here. A very different experience thus far. We really have no idea what we are doing with a fussy and sick infant. Totally foreign to us. Not really enjoying ourselves, to be honest. Bound to get better though, at least that is what we are telling ourselves, pretty much every hour.