first day of "school"

today dottie went to her first day of her new daycare. she has absolutely LOVED having kate as a nanny but we decided as she gets older and more social it will be nice for her to be around a group of other kids. the place where she is going couldn't be much cuter. it's at a home and there are chickens in the backyard, a play kitchen (equipped with a coffee pot that she loves!), an adorable little garden, and a great group of care providers and kids. it is about 6 blocks from our house and the route we take in the morning passes chuck's favorite coffee shop. Chuck loves it! Good coffee = a happy daddy. there can be up to 12 kids there at time and she is going from roughly 9:45 to 4:30 2 to 3 days a week.

she had a great first day and barely glanced at us as we left. so much to check out! the teachers write in a little book every day to let us know how things went. here are a few snippets (this is for the grandparents and our memories): "dottie had no bother w/ mum/dad leaving and pottered around the kitchen, making coffee w/enzo and lucy. v-curious w/our chickens. she did well at sing-song, kinda sat down & jumped up intermittently with a smile. she rode the stroller to the playground, loved the baby doll stroller & did some digging and hiding...........ate a big lunch (picked out her favorite stuff!) and went to bed with no bother. ..............great 1st day!." (the women who run it are south african and british so i am "mum" at daycare :-) when i went to pick her up, she was still napping and had to be nudged awake. long and exciting day. i was very nervous about dropping her off this morning. i am hoping thursday goes as well!