Wednesday 30th May was a big day for us - it was Maya's first trial at nursery, and the first time I would be leaving her with someone I didn't know.
Choosing a nursery wasn't a hard task for us - we had a choice of 3 that opened at 7.30am - Just Learning at Rushmere and Pinewood, and Birch Farm at Hintlesham. Both of the Just Learning nurseries are not on my way to work - although sadly Maya's little friends Maggie and Jack were going to one of them. Still they don't have to do everything together! Birch Farm was perfect - 10 mintes from my work and I drive right past it anyway.
So back in February Mum and I went to have a look round, and then I took James the following week. Straight away I knew that it was right for us, and of course more importantly, right for Maya. It has a beautiful setting - right out in the countryside, so feels really safe. The facilities and staff are lovely too. I was expecting it to be pristene so was initially disappointed - until I realised that that should have worried me - a tidy nursery doesn't exactly scream 'play'!
So our trial day came round - I don't think I was ready and I was worried about leaving Maya. However it was only for 90 minutes, and as soon as we were there she was happy and excited by everything around her. Her key worker Diane was lovely (actually a mum from my school!) and took her out of my arms so I left them to it.
That 90 minutes was very strange - I had no idea what to do with myself! In fact I just spent the time shuffling around Tesco - a place that I despise!! However when I picked her up she looked very settled and had been enjoying her morning outside playing with all of the different toys and seemed very comfortable with her key worker.
Friday that week we had another trial morning, which again she loved, and during the half term she started properly completing two days. James and I once again didn't really know what to do with ourselves - we went to get our hair cut on the Wednesday and had lunch at the Nelson. On Friday we wandered around the shops again and went for lunch at the Greyhound. It was nice not to have to worry whether our chosen venue for lunch was baby friendly, and it was nice to be able to use escalators and not have to wait ages for for lifts clogged up with fat lazy people! Each time we picked Maya up she cried - mainly because she couldn't get to us quick enough - but also because she was so happy there.
Unfortunately on the day I returned to work properly she cried when I dropped her off - suddenly she had realised that I would be leaving her for several hours. This was my worse nightmare for my first day back, as I really didn't want to go to work anyway!
We had a couple of weeks of this, with the occasional tears at pick up time too. However now when I drop her off she is so unbelievably excited - and is so confident with the other children and staff. A couple of weeks ago we actually had our first parents' evening consultation - this was certainly more enjoyable than the ones I have as a teacher, and it was amazing to see everything that they had noted down about her and just how much she had changed in the space of a few months.
The whole experience has made me feel very very proud indeed, but also a little bit sad that she is growing up so fast!
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