Shooting Star Daily Sheet

If you have your child in day care, every so often you get a pang of guilt. Usually it comes most often on the days you leave him and he wails like you've betrayed some sacred trust, which happens occasionally, or on the days when you don't really have that much work to do and are just hoping to go back to bed for a few hours or find something good on TV.

Most of the time, though, he's in day care because you do in fact have to get some work done, to keep him in diapers and Pirate's Booty snack food and so forth. But sometimes there's that guilt -- I'm letting virtual strangers take care of my baby! These are 9 hours of his life I won't be spending with him!

Recently Jack moved to the "Shooting Star" class at his day care, which I'm very pleased with since I believe his previous one was Pufferbills or somesuch, and I don't even know exactly what that is. I think I'd rather my son be a shooting star than some sort of poor man's version of a penguin.

Anyway, in his new room they've started providing daily sheets at the end of the day which recap his day's activities. We get to find out if he ate his meals well, fantastic, or was not hungry; if he was sad, happy, or energetic (we've yet to get a sad); and if his sleep was "good" or "restless."

At the bottom is a space that reads "The things I did today were:" with a bunch of lines to fill in. And I don't mind saying, I absolutely live for these things. They totally thrill me and break my heart at the same time, in a good way.

7-17: "The things I did today were: climbed slide, ran, jumped, danced, sat, listened to a story, put together a puzzle, and looked at the frog." (There's a frog in an aquarium type thing in their room.)

7-26: "The things I did today were: played with puzzles, pop beads, string beads, pails and shovels, and stacking toys."

7-28: "The things I did today were: playing in the sand table, stringing wooden beads, and playing with the legos. We had a fire drill and it made a very loud noise - it was scary but I was very brave."

I know his teachers write these things; obviously I know that. But still, I just see him there with the fire drill, with an alarmed look on his face, yet maintaining a certain security in the knowledge that it would be okay. Being brave. And singing and dancing, and playing with Legos, and listening to stories.

All stuff we do with him, the four days a week he's not in day care, but all stuff it makes me happy that he's doing there. I read these daily sheets and it's like I'm right there with him.

Which I guess kind of explains this blog, too.