Success!

In a daycare-like setting, that is. Kate has not always been, shall we say, receptive (this is putting it nicely) to the whole babysitting idea. She had some pretty good scream fests months ago when we attempted to bring her to the YMCA play care. Seriously, she lasted less than five minutes and you could hear her everywhere in the facility. Ryan was in the locker room once and heard a child screaming, only to realize a moment later that "yep, that's my kid." It became a bit embarrassing so we quit trying. Well, she's older now and doesn't seem to mind being babysat (at least by her grandparents) so we thought we'd try it again. Since I'm teaching at the Y, it would be nice to be able to put her in the daycare should I need to teach a class during the day. I had to go there for a meeting today, so it was her first time and, although I must say I feared the worst, she did just fine! In fact, when I came back for her, she barely looked at me and just kept playing. Stupidly, there's a small part of me that was a bit sad that she did so well without me...selfish, I know and mostly I'm really proud of her. When I picked her up, they were just starting a thing called Live-Yers in the big gym. Basically, it's a huge kid free-for-all, where they put out balls, slides, all measure of climbing things, etc., etc. The parents stay, too, so it's like a massive kids' group. Kate saw the balls and tried to bolt from my arms, so I decided to stay for that, too. She was the only kid not walking, but she threw herself right into the mix. I was surprised to see her go right up to much older (and LOUD) kids and just start climbing right along with them. As Ryan said the other day when Kate threw a fit because she couldn't go out and mow the lawn with him, "she's not going to be the stand back and watch type, is she?" We stayed and played for more than an hour and she wasn't close to slowing down. She completely loved the slide and, of course, the balls. I will definitely bring her back. Way to go, Kate!!!