First Steps to Musical Effects

Adventures in daycare

Originally published 8 October 2014

Sometimes it's nice to make a mess somewhere different. Like when you've already covered the lounge at home in toys, and the bedroom floor with books, you need a new blank canvas to make your mark on. Sometimes quite literally. That's where daycare comes in.

I've been going there every weekday since Mummy went back to work. Well, Daddy's salary alone wasn't going to keep me in the manner to which I intend to become accustomed, so that's fine with me.

Initially I wasn't too sure about it, especially since it transpired that there were already lots of other little Ollie lookalikes there, and I'd therefore have to share things with them. But after the first few visits I found I actually enjoyed myself there.

There are lots of different toys to play with, including some fun musical instruments. Sometimes the daycare people bring along their own instruments from home so we can all play along together. It's a bit of a ruckus really, but no worse than some of the stuff Dad plays at home. My favourite is this colourful keyboard.

We also get to learn about lots of new things like animals. A couple of weeks ago we had a treat when our daycare was visited by some animals, including rabbits, goats and a horse. Being such a big animal-lover I loved being able to get up close to and pat some of them, especially since when I'm at daycare I miss the 3 cats we have at home (though I'm pretty sure this is a one-sided feeling).

I'm also learning lots at daycare. Many of my first steps were practiced here, holding onto the edge of chairs, and we've even started eating our lunchtime meal at little tables.

One great little scam I've got going is the double-breakfast. Mum and Dad give me brekkie at home before they drop me off at daycare, then when the daycare people bring out breakfast for some of the babies who arrive early I put on my best 'I haven't eaten for ages and would love some brekkie' expression. Hey presto - double-breakfast!

As well as learning all these new things, it turns out that daycare is also just the place for picking up other things - mainly colds. I've had about six of them since I started in July, all of which I've kindly shared with Mummy and Daddy.

Overall I'm loving it though. This is the sort of treatment I could get used to; no need to worry about school or work for a long time yet!