Prickly Pear

I went to pick Carrie and Lily up from daycare this past Wednesday and was ten minutes earlier than normal. In most circumstances being early is a good thing. Well, not this day!

Carrie and Lily attend daycare together this year. This daycare center also offers preschool as well. Needless to say Carrie is quite busy with preschool every morning, lunch, nap/rest, and then it's time to go home. I normally arrive to pick up the girls by 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We have told the daycare staff to wake Carrie up by 1:45pm if she takes a nap so she is ready to go home when I get there. She is not the friendliest of creatures when she wakes up so I would rather they experience the prickly pear than I!

I arrive at the center and see that the shades are no longer drawn in Carrie's classroom. Yes, everyone is awake and Carrie will be ready to go! Wrong! I enter the classroom to see her passed out on her little blue nap mat. There is a different worker there this day. Shoot, she didn't know to wake Carrie up! Oh no! Prepare for battle!

I gently rub her back and say her name. Nothing. I do it again. This time I get a little movement accompanied by an unpleasant whine. She opens her eyes enough to see me and then rolls back over to go back to sleep. I try again to wake her. This child does not want to awake from her deep slumber.

I tell her I will go get Lily first and come back and get her so she could have a few minutes to wake up. Wrong thing to say! Down came the tears and out came the cry. She was not happy about that one! I try to calm her only she is getting more worked up. Finally I tell her I was going to get Lily unless she got up right then to come with me. Reluctantly, but not silently by any means, she complies.

We enter the hall, grab Carrie's backpack and head towards the baby room. Carrie's cries echo in the empty hallway. The staff all look at her as if they couldn't believe their eyes. Sweet, quiet, shy little Carrie is the one making all of this racket!

I put Carrie's backpack over my shoulder anticipating carrying the infant seat and Lily's diaper bag. Carrie is begging me to carry her. I tell her there is no way I can do that and she cries louder. This time she is jumping up and down yelling "I'm too tired to walk!" I keep walking. As I get closer to Lily's room I hear her crying. Oh sweet Jesus, why me! Two crying children!

The daycare lady hands Lily off to me. Time to drag everything and everyone kicking and screaming to the van. Lily calms down once she gets outside and gets a bottle in her mouth. Carrie...still screaming "I'm too tired to walk!" as she is walking to the van.

We all get in. Quick close the doors so no one else has to listen to this chaos! Wait! Then that traps me in with the chaos! Why me?!

Thank goodness we only have to ride a few minutes and then we will be home. Carrie finally starts to calm down. We talk about what she did and I told her she cannot do that anymore. She gives the typical kid answer, "I know."

Rather than see if she really does know that she isn't to have a tantrum like that again I have learned that being early is never a good thing when picking the girls up from daycare. Thursday I found myself a little early again. I decided rather than have a repeat of the day before I would just drive around the corner to the quiet little park and have five minutes of peace and wait for 2 o'clock!