Preschool. :sigh:

As mentioned in our update post, my little Cam-A-Lam-A started school March 1st.
I had toured this school very shortly after they opened last summer, and loved the facility.
The thought and investment that went into such an amazing building is astounding.
Its a green facility, with some sort of eco-something designation... and the biggest way that is obvious to me is the abundance of large windows and sky-lighting letting in loads of sunshine. Of course they had to meet much bigger criteria for their eco-whatever whatever.. but to me, the sunshine rocks!
The classrooms are huge, and divided in two (fully divided by glass walls) to give the children more variety throughout the day.. one side of the classroom is dramatic play, literacy, sensory based. The other is math and science based with a kitchen and art tables.
In addition to the classrooms, the school also has a computer lab and library, an art and animal science room (where they have a bird, a guinea pig, and various reptiles the children learn to care for), a "muscle" room that is essentially an indoor playground with an enclosed sand box, and an outdoor splash pad/water park in addition to age-appropriate playgrounds. The kitchen is all-organic and provides morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack... all organic, y'all!
I love this place.
But we all know the building doesn't teach the kiddos.. the teachers do.
And so far, I love her teachers!
We had an issue with one teacher, but worked to have her removed from the program and were successful. The rest of the teachers... awesome! In fact, I have become quite close with two of them. They adore my sweet girl, they nurture her in my absence, and have taught her so, so much.

I had a really hard time coming to terms with the idea of putting Camy in preschool so young (she was 18 months old), but I knew that it needed to be done for our family. And I took great comfort in knowing that I would be on campus all day with her (teaching in another class). It was also very comforting knowing that there was a certified nurse on staff, and one who was well-versed in asthma and allergy care (after experiences with her own kids). I knew she would be safe, I knew after adjusting that she would be happy, and I knew it would benefit her to be in a classroom setting with kiddos her own age.
And so far, I have been able to see all those things ring true. Thank goodness!

The first few weeks were hard. Drop-offs always brought tears, usually from both us.
I knew that she calmed down quickly, though, because immediately after leaving her room, I always headed straight to the video monitors in the lobby to watch her.. and 9 times out of 10, she had calmed down by the time I made it out there.
After that initial adjustment period, it was like a switch flipped and she suddenly LOVED going to school. We would round the last corner before the parking lot of her school and she would start cheering from her carseat, "Yay!! 'Cool! Yay!! Classsssh!" :)
She has stolen the heart of everyone there. My co-teachers love her and look forward to her "hey babies!" every morning on the way to her classroom -- she likes to stop at my classroom door to greet all the babies already there. They look forward to her pressing her face against our playground window when her class is playing outside -- she likes to rush to my window, locate me in the room, wave, and kiss the window for me before running off to play with her friends. You know, just to make sure I am still where I should be. If one of my co-teachers happens to pass her in another part of the building, or go into her class for some reason, they always come back and share a quick story with me about what she was doing or what she said. Everyone comments on how motherly she is, concerned for her friends and patting backs at naptime. And I can't even count the number of dancing stories I've been told - the girl LOVES to dance.
I love how much love she is surrounded by each day.
I love to see her love other caregivers.. even though at first, it tugged at my heartstrings a bit.
I love to see her get excited when she sees a friend at school "Baaaaaylon! A hug? Baylon, hug?"
I love to see how much she is learning and growing thanks to her awesome teachers!
I am so content with the decision to enroll her there. Much more so than I expected to be 3 short months into it.

:)