Last Friday, Eunice bid farewell to her caregivers and friends at Well. I was still apprehensive about her move. She wasn't doing too badly there. Cheerful, active and alert. Was it wilfulness on my part?
Change can be good. It may be for better or worse. I pray that it will be for better.
Today is Eunice's third day at BR. She is the youngest babe of the older infant group with 5 other kiddos.
2 of them are walkers. Haha, and sometimes they walk like they are drunk. One of them is a French boy nicknamed 'King Kong'. I tell you - he is so big....and I wouldn't want him to topple over little Eunice. The other 3 are 11-month-old crawlers.
BR has a schedule for play, eat, drink and sleep. My main grouse is that she doesn't fall into their
nap time. On the first day, she was super tired. Brought her home and she slept at 7.40pm instead of the usual 9pm.
Her primary caregiver, C, is sensitive and knows that babies at her age still need more naps. Eunice took 3 naps yesterday at her own time and she was a happy baby when she came back home. I worry though, like how long it will take Eunice to adjust to their napping time. That means she may need an additional caregiver to cater to her specific needs, in case C (one of the 3 centre partners) is not around.
This morning, C was putting Eunice down to her morning nap. I saw Eunice struggling (ok...maybe fidgeting alot) in her cot, trying to settle down to sleep. I couldn't help but shed tears to see my little sweetheart trying hard to adjust to her new second home. New environment, new caregivers, new 'friends', new schedules........it must be tough on a young baby like her.
She was like an 'old bird' at Well. And Well's caregivers probably knew her habits more than me. Again, I questioned my decision.
The heart and mind are often contradicting each other. My mind says BR is better. All along I knew BR was a better centre. Well terribly and horribly shortchanged us. For a mere $122 increase in fees at BR, Eunice gets free diapers, bath wash, 3 meals a day, cotton balls to clean her bum bum and weekly Kindermusik lessions. If we were to enrol her in a Kindermusik class outside, it would cost us a $260++ per term. Plus the 3 owners are at the centre and they personally oversee day-to-day operations. I am assured of quality care.
At Well, the lady boss is not around most of the time. Actually this Well centre is like her sideline. She is with another well-known preschool and is out of town most of the time. So you see, there is no 'government' at Well. Some of the caregivers would be on their toes only when she was around. I reckon most of the time they were slack. There is really no one to supervise. This is the main reason why we chose to leave Well.
And this lady boss, Koh, is a money sucker.
We had to provide diapers, wipes, bath bath and cereals. Well only provided 1 meal a day. And I even heard from one of the caregivers (rem Eunice's 'god-grandma') that the cook actually kept some of the cut fruits overnight.
Talking about the wipes......I thought that if I bought a premium brand for Eunice, it would used on her. But no......they used it on all babies. And so if another parent bought wipes of a house brand, it would be used on Eunice too. The babies would be subjected to different brands of baby wipes and baby baths too.
A number of caregivers had verbally indicated they might be resigning to her. But she requested them to stay. It might look calm on the surface, but there are many underwater currents. So we'd better scram before the situation gets out of hand.
Hopefully Eunice can adapt quickly to BR. She will miss her doting and loving ex-caregivers. I am sure some of them will miss her too. As the saying goes 天下没有不散的宴席, we look forward to seeing her grow and develop at this new place.
Daddy and Mummy (and the Lord) will go through all these with you.
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