A Day in the Life

A Photoblog by Joel

Stay home and color

November 20, 2019

Alicia recently decided she was wanting to go out and get a job – which she did. So now, Emmett goes to first-grade, and Elle and Emily go to a daycare a few miles away. The transition to daycare for Elle was pretty tough. She was excited and enthusiastic the first day or two, but quickly became very vocal about not wanting to go. She would wake up and the first thing she’d say to me in the morning was “I don’t want to go to daycare today” and would repeat that over and over while getting ready. It just broke my heart. I kept her home a few different times because I just didn’t have it in me to take her.

Week two. Tuesday. Once again Elle is feeling pretty sad about daycare. I’m laying in bed around 7:15am when Emmett comes in excitedly and shows me something. However, he quickly twisted his face and said he had a tummy ache. Alicia rushed him off to the bathroom and he started throwing up. Poor little guy. I hate seeing my kids gets sick. Time to stay home from work again.

To help Elle get off to daycare, I promised to take her to buy something new to play with afterwards. That helped. She was more willing to go. Little rewards can be such great motivation for kids when you’re at your wits end. Since daycare was only about 5 minutes away, I left Emmett at home with a bowl and a TV show to watch and I dropped off the girls. Success.

Emmett was up and down throughout the day. Sometimes he was normal and other times he was sluggish and took a long nap in the afternoon. By the end of the day though he was doing great.

That evening – true to my word – I took Elle to the Dollar Store to buy something new. She picked some marker coloring pages of Peppa Pig and Shimmer and Shine. When we arrived home she got right to work coloring – and did a really great job!

Finally, the day is done and it’s bedtime. It went okay. Bedtime is such a struggle for me.

Emmett sitting on the floor looking towards the TV
Elle laying on the floor coloring

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