Angels

For a number of reasons, 19 months ago I found myself in a tizzy trying to find a new daycare for Anna. 19 months ago I was told, time and again, about daycare center waiting lists a mile long. Seriously. Anna was 7.5 months old, and one center told me that...maybe...they might have a spot for her when she turned four. I'm not even joking. You can't make that insanity up.

19 months ago, I happened to call a friend of a friend. Someone who had a son in Lily's then new school. Someone who I thought might be able to help me circumvent one of the many ridiculously long center waiting lists. Someone who, instead, encouraged me away from daycare centers and got me to consider an in-home daycare. Someone who told me about Mabel, a wonderfully kind woman who had run a daycare out of her home for the last 18 years.

I can't say that, at first, I was even cautiously optimistic. In fact, I was fairly dead-set against an in-home arrangement. But when I met Mabel and her team of caregivers, all my reasoning in favor of a "corporate" daycare center flew out the window. What I discovered was a group of lovely and loving women who cared for a small group of children, treating them as if they were their own. What I found was a wonderful, large addition to a home in our neighborhood, with lots of room for kids to play...bedrooms for them to sleep in...outside areas for them to run around. What I found was the perfect combination of all possible scenarios -- home environment that we would get with a nanny with enough children (but not too many) that there's also the socialization you get from a daycare center. And over the past 19 months, they've become a part of our extended family.

Meet Carmen, Maria and Mabel...

...and Rosemary.

These four amazing women care for nine lucky kids. I couldn't be more grateful that Anna was amongst the ranks for the past 19 months. But like all wonderful things, they eventually come to an end. Part of what makes this place so fantastic is that all they specialize in babies and toddlers...and while the daycare license goes to age 3, many kids "age out" sooner. Anna's last day was Friday.

Mabel, Rosemary, Maria and Carmen have been a major influence on Anna. Thanks to them, she knows almost as much Spanish as she does English. Thanks to them, she's as sweet as she is sneaky...she's become a dancer (she'll drop what she's doing to dance when she hears music and always, ALWAYS, claps for herself afterwards, shouting out "BRAVO!")...she's got an amazing repertory of animal sounds (my favorite is her fish, which you'll see in a post in the near future)...she can stun you with the things that she knows...and at 2 years and 2 months she is pretty darned potty trained. Thanks to them, Anna has been loved, supported and encouraged each and every day for the past 19 months. To those who scoff at putting kids in daycare I say...my child has been blessed by having so much extra love, and four additional angels in her life, for the past 19 months.

I'm excited for Anna and what awaits her at preschool (a bilingual school) come Tuesday. But I'm so, so sad that we've all had to say goodbye to Mabel et. al. And while they will always be a part of our extended family, it's hard to believe that we won't see them on a daily basis. I'm not sure who is more devastated...Anna or me (ok, I know...I'll admit...it's me!).

It wasn't easy saying goodbye to her friends either.






And her two BFFs...William (aka "Willie") and Ryan. Every single day, since the day she started talking, our 7 block ride home was filled with recitations of "Anna played with Willie and Ryan" over and over and over (and over and over).




Man...saying goodbye sure is hard.