Socializing. In other words, growing up.
Our little monkey is 10 months and her first birthday is slowly approaching. WHAT. A lot has happened the past few months and I have to say, I finally feel comfortable being a mother of this little monkey of ours. I’ve also managed to squeeze in some blogging time during her naps and good god, it feels good to be back in front of the screen.
First things first, she started Kita, which is like a preschool or daycare. There are three groups for babies like her, 0-3 years old and around 10-11 kids and 2-4 teachers per group. A started as the youngest in her group, which meant I had to stay with her in the room for a while. Now we’re in the process of separation training and she’s good for full two hours alone in the room with the other kids and teachers. She’s fine when I leave, but when I come back, she starts to cry a bit as soon as she sees me, which is both adorable and heartbreaking. But until now, she’s doing good and her teacher M, who is just an angel, is certain she’ll get used to the Kita schedule soon.
There are private and public Kitas and the one we’ve chosen is a public one. It was a bit of a stressful shopping experience because it seems Stuttgart has more babies than Kitas. I didn’t want to send her this early since she couldn’t even stand up by herself, but the Kita said first come first serve and if you don’t snatch the place now, you’re going to have to wait a very long time. I really liked this particular one and it was also very close to the place we’ll be moving later this year, so we decided to go for it.
I was a bit anxious the first few days, obviously, but she seems to be happy, so all in all, success. Some things I considered when choosing the Kita was 1) location, 2) facility 3) cleanliness 4) condition of rooms, toys, etc, 5) friendliness of the staff, not just the teachers and lastly the overall vibe. The day starts around 8:30 with breakfast, then playtime until 11:00, lunch, nap, and a bit more playtime. We’ve never had lunch yet, but eventually, this will happen soon enough.
Good to be back.
- First little mini tooth.
- “Dada, Kaka, Mama.”
- High fives, shaking her head, clicking her tongue.
- Really likes Bruno Mars. I mean, stop-everything-in-her-tracks-when-she-hears-Uptown Funk or 24K kind-of-love, this is.
- Loves to dance, or rather flapping her arms like a little chicken.