Day One

I think the first 'official' post is always the hardest. You have no idea how many drafts I've gone through.
What was I up to today? Well, I went to work.
The end.
Well thats boring.
Rip page, click pen.
Hmmm.
Well, let me tell you about my job then.
First of all, if you don't know me very well, or even if you do, here is something that you can probably already tell about me. I am a very timely and routine oriented person. I love to plan ahead, make notes of scheduled events, and organize and balance my priorities. But I'm mostly concerned about the time. My mind is set up in a scheduled manner; things have to be done by a certain time, or I'll run late.
If you have ever been in a class with me, search your memory and you'll see that I was probably there before you every day.
So if you mix the fact that I am a routine machine, with what I have been doing for work all summer, you would probably say "that's the perfect job for her."
All summer I have been really blessed with great employment. I was able to get through training and start right away. Little did I know, based on how fast I was getting reeled in, how much they really needed me.
I have been working all summer in a daycare. I have been learning from and working with thirteen 9-18-month-olds.
Nothing like thirteen different babies, on thirteen different schedules. It's awesome.
I love this age group; they are at different stages as far as learning to walk, transitioning from bottles to sippy cups, parents taking away pacifiers (nightmare), eating table food instead of jar food, not sleeping in cribs, and the list goes on.
But as chaotic as it may seem to get with only two of us teachers against thirteen needy babies, I love the routinely and scheduled atmosphere.
I start my day promptly at 8:30am. I walk into my classroom where I am greeted with some running and other crawling children awaiting for me to pay attention to them. Some get fed food from home, others wait for the school's morning snack.
At 9am I cycle through and give everyone a new diaper.
Fun fact: I can change thirteen diapers, wash my hands imbetween each child and mark their chart, and strap them in one by one into their highchairs in forty minutes. That's approximately three minutes per child.
Between 9:30-10am they are fed, cleaned up, and highchairs are washed and the floor swept (so that our good little helpers do not eat what they threw on the floor.)
10-10:30 we go out side, stapped in a huge stroller. (They are not light babies.)
They come back into the classroom and play till 11am.
Thats when we cycle through diapers again. Not a fun fact: we are required to change diapers every two hours in addition to when ever they need it.
11:30-12pm they eat lunch. Or throw it. Or eat off each other's trays. Which ever they prefer.
12-2:30pm is preferably nap time, however as previously mentioned, there are thirteen different children on thirteen different schedules, so they sleep when and how long they want to. Generally.
Lunch is usually a disaster to clean up, so you have to use your time wisely. Children need to be patted to sleep, charts need to be updated, cups need to be washed out and put away, all highchairs and trays need to be washed, and the floor needs to be swept. Not including making sure all children are cleaned up (clothes changed if necessary) and asleep. (all asleep at the same time? HA)
Children are changed as they wake up, and then fed a snack usually between 2:30-3pm; usually eating something they have from home.
Between 4-5:30pm they play in the classroom and are changed again at 5pm.
Fun fact: thirteen children x five diaper changes a day = sixty-five diapers a day.
More or less, that is the basic schedule. I love the children in my class, and I love being constantly busy.
Does the same schedule ever get boring? Like I said: thirteen babies on thirteen different schedules, I guarantee you that it is different everyday.