Angelica Goes to Daycare!

Today is Angelica's first day at Kindercare, and for her, it went off without a hitch. No cries, no fussing, she just took it all in stride. We got there and she just sat in the bouncer looking around, taking it all in. There was a little girl there named Rhiannon who is probably about 9 months (maybe younger, who knows...she looked small, but she was crawling and pulling herself to standing which usually doesn't happen until they're 9 months or older) who kept coming over to Angelica and poking at her and checking her out. Yeah, I think she's gonna make some friends there. (Including the cute little girl whose mommy referred us!)

Unfortunately for Mommy (me)...in true Andrea fashion, I forgot something. Something vital.

Yes, folks, I took my daughter for an all day adventure at daycare and forgot her formula at home. I had nothing with me - no bottles, no formula, no formula mix, not even a cup. So after dropping her off, I ran over to CVS to buy bottles and formula to get her through the day. The bottles I got were the only ones they had that were small enough for Angelica, but they were also a brand I never used before so I sure hope they work out okay!

When I got back she was just swinging back and forth in the swing looking around, seemingly unaffected by the fact that I was leaving her in a strange new place with strange new people. She didn't even react when I was trying to give her a hug and kiss goodbye...it was like she was saying "Go away, Mommy, I'm checking out all this cool new stuff!"

I was more of a wreck than she was! (And so was her Daddy.)

So, here's hoping that the rest of the daycare trips go just as smoothly!

Completely unrelated, but Michelle Obama's speech last night really resonated with me, and maybe it's the hormones, or maybe it's that I finally "get" it now that I'm a mom, but this part really got to me and brought tears to my eyes:

And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love.

And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own. And one day, they - and your sons and daughters - will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country - where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House - we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.

If she was trying to tug at the heartstrings of family-oriented people everywhere, I think she succeeded.