22nd Months Old today and first day of Child Care at Carpe Diem

My boy Trevor turns 22 months today! Just so happened that we started him at the childcare today. We enrolled him at the Carpe Diem Starlets 2 at Blk 120 Teck Whye Lane as 2 of my husband's nieces had studied there before and its a stone's throw from my mother-in-law's place. We realised that most of the teachers we saw when we went down to enrol him had changed, and were greeted by unfamiliar faces when we went this morning. It was nice that they had a little pigeon hole for his bag and shoes with his name labelled on it =p We took half a day leave this morning thinking that we would hang around for a while but i guess the most quick and effective way of letting him get used to the new "school life" is to leave him in the hands of the teachers. One of the teachers, Ms Poh carried him away and shoo-ed us home while she pacified the crying boy...

We left a wailing boy behind feeling heartbroken (my eyes watered!), making a mental note in our minds to shower him with even more hugs and kisses after we come home from work tonight. Hopefully he settles in soon and loves school! Geez, think parents may need more mental preparation than the kids. Well, the other kids there look so cute and were unaffected by his crying.

For the 1st week we will probably leave him for the half day session which ends at 12pm so that he can slowly get adjusted to the new environment and routine. Fortunately (phew phew phew) the teacher convinced my mother-in-law of this who was very insistent on leaving him for the whole day starting from Day 1. For this child care centre, the fees after subsidy are the same for half-day and full-day session.

Trevor, being fussy about what he wears as usual, dislikes his school uniform which is a short sleeve shirt and pants and kept tugging at his collar saying ouch all the time. We tried to distract him on the way to the child care centre by asking him to look out for stray cats =)
Things we have to pack for child care:-

1. Milk bottle and milk powder
2. Water bottle (labelled with his name)
3. A set of clothes (exercise attire purchased from the shool) for changing after their shower after lunch for full day session
4. Diapers x 4 (he's not potty trained yet)
5. Bathing towel x 1 (to be changed everyday)
6. Mattress cover x 1 (for their afternoon naps, to be brought home each Friday for washing)
7. Shoes
8. His favourite bear

Here's some guidelines for first-timers as published by MCYS.