Annie's Adventures

Chapter 6: First Day At Baby Daycare! (4 days old)

When I woke up the next day Dad had left but Mum was there getting dressed, she had a pair of cream jodhpurs on with a purple top and her hair up in a pony tail, she sighed and looked at me, she came over and picked me up, she gave me a hug and planted a wet kiss on my cheek then laid me on the bed and dressed me, after that she packed two bags, she put Bella in it and picked me up in her arm, in the other hand she carried the two bags, she walked down to the living room, the dogs came and greeted us,
"Down!" said Mum firmly to the dogs, then put me in my play pen and went into the kitchen. Marmalade jumped into the play pen and rubbed herself against me, around fifteen minutes later Mum came back dumped the bags in the hall way, picked me up and gave me my bottle I held it again and drank, then put me in the car seat with the bag's and got in the drivers side and drove off, about half an hour later we turned onto the lane and parked outside a big building, Mum got out of the car and got one of the bags then opened the boot to let the dogs out, a nice looking lady walked up to Mum and greeted Lisa and Rex, she and Mum talked for a bit then said good bye and got back in the car, she drove away back onto the road and set of, around fifteen minutes later Mum parked outside another building, she got out and got one of the bags then came to me and took me out, she locked her car and walked towards the main door of the building, the doors opened and we walked in, and walked up to the office where there was a few ladies behind the desk,
"Hello and welcome, what can we do for you?" asked the ladies,
"Hello" Mum replied smiling "I'm Cathy
and this is Annie, she's here for baby day care?" Mum said
The lady looked in a folder then looked up
"Yes that's right, Annie Darlington?" Mum nodded "Ok just go along there and turn right and talk to the staff" answered the lady
Mum nodded then went down the corridor and turned right, we walked down another corridor through the double doors, we saw a group of babies and children, there was a group of staff standing talking, one saw us and walked over.
"Hi I'm Cathy and this is my daughter Annie, who's joining in the baby day care" Mum explained. The staff nodded
"Ah yes, come through to have a little chat" replied the staff she led the way to a small room, she sat down and invited Mum to sit on the seat, she accepted and sat down.
"We need to know a little about Annie so we know what she needs when she's in our care" the staff started off "my name is Emma sorry forgot to mention. Each member of Staff has up to six children to be in charge of two staffs in each group. The children between one day old and 6 months are in one group then they move up to the next group for between 6 months to 1 year old's then they go onto next group from one year old to two years old and the last one is from two to three. How old is Annie?" Emma said a bit breathless                        
"Ok and she is four days old today" Mum replied
"Oh ok so first group with me. Is there anything I should know about Annie?" Emma asked opening her notebook to a new page, she wrote my name at the top of the page and drew a line under it
"well erm...." Mum paused thinking "I'm not exactly sure what kind of stuff you need to know" Mum said
"Anything important" Emma said
"Well I don't think there is anything that I know that might be important at the moment but I do know that Annie is a very easy good baby, she doesn't cry a lot, she doesn't sleep all day but does sleep all night, she likes to play with her toys." Mum was saying as she opened the bag and brought a bottle out "Annie still drinks milk out of the bottle she gets fed three times a day, breakfast, which she had about two hours ago and at lunch time then at dinner" Mum said
"Interesting, thank you, is there any thing you don't want us to do with Annie? and what time will you be picking her up?" Emma asked
"No apart from abusing her which I know you won't do... and about four" Mum answered     
"Ok that's fine, would you like a tour?" Emma asked
"I'd love to" she took a deep breath "but sorry I can't as I'm already really late for work sorry!" Mum replied
They stood up and walked back into the room,
"Thats fine, do you have time to see where Annie will be with her new friends?" Asked Emma
"Yes I'd love to" replied mum
Emma led the way to another room where five children were lying or sitting down, 
"Looks lovely" said mum
"Thank you, we hope the children enjoy it here! Would you like me to take Annie?" Emma asked
"Sure," Mum started saying then turned to me, "good bye Annie I'll pick you up at four, have fun"
she gave me a cuddle and a kiss then gave me to Emma, who saw Mum to the door, we watched her leave in the car then Emma put me down next to the other babies and gave us all some toys to play.
I looked around after grabbing a toy, I saw two girls who were lying down playing, there where three boys who were sitting up, playing with puzzles, or books, I threw the toy I had away and kicked about.
At the other end of the room there where two staffs, Emma and another lady,
"What shall we do today?" Emma said looking out of the window,
"We could go for a walk as it's a lovely sunny day" the other staff said in a loud bold voice, it was too loud for me and one of the boy's, we started to cry,
"oh Darcey! Be quiet with your voice!" said Emma as she ran over, she gave the boy his dummy and something to play with
"There there Aidan" Emma said then picked me up and walked around the room, patting and rubbing my back, I stopped crying,
"Oh good managed to calm her down" she walked over to be closer to Darcey and swayed "yes we can, this afternoon"
I fell asleep on Emma's shoulder.
I woke up three hours later, I saw that I was in a cot in another room, Bella was beside me, I grabbed her and played with her, fifteen minutes later, Darcey came In the room to check on me, she saw that I was awake, she smiled and whispered
"Hello Annie! had a good sleep?" she picked me up and carried me through to the first room where all the children were in high chairs getting fed, Darcey put me in the last high chair, and went over to the boy's she sat down and fed them baby food. Emma finished feeding one of the girls so she moved the other girl closer to my chair, she gave me my bottle,  I took hold of the bottle and drank, Emma smiled and fed the other girl while keeping an eye on me. We finished our bottles, Darcey and Emma took the bottles and bowls into the kitchen to be washed, they came back and put us all on the mat, we played with them and the toys for an hour then the staff brought out two big prams, with three seats, Darcey put two boys and one girl in one pram, the rest went in the other pram with Emma, I was put in Emma's pram in the middle, the last boy who was Aidan on one side the last girl on the other, Darcey and Emma got a few things then pushed us out of the door and down the path, we turned onto a road and walked down the pavement until we got to a gate which led us onto many walks, the staff walked us down one, the girl and Aidan fell asleep but I stayed awake and looked around at the beautiful view, at the end of the path we came up to some beautiful flower beds, we all stood there admiring the view then Darcey and Emma parked our pram's facing away from the view and Darcey stood out of the way while Emma took some photos of us all, she took one of the group, then one of each pram then a close up of each baby, then off we went again on our walk, I fell asleep as the pram was soo smooth on the path, I dreamed of lots of animals. I woke up an hour later because of the noise of the cars, I saw that we were on our way back to the building, which was the baby day care centre, Emma and Darcey took us out of the pram's and put us on the mat or play pen, about five minutes later the parents started to come to pick their children up, the boys went first then the girls then my mum came! I smiled up at her, she saw me and smiled back then quickly took a picture of me, she picked me up and I cuddled into her then turned to look at Emma, she walked up to us smiling, 
"Annie was a good girl only cried once, I think she had a good day, she had two naps, we played to start off the day then we had lunch then went for a two hour walk, I've got some pictures!" Said Emma
"Ah that's good and why did she cry? And Aww can I see them?" Mum replied
"Yes sure and it was because Darcey the other staff talks too loud and Aidan and Annie didn't like it," Emma replied while looking through her camera then showed Mum the photos
"Aww they are sweet! Any chance I can get a copy of them?" Mum said
"Yes! I was about to ask if you wanted a copy! I'll print them out for you, they should be ready by tomorrow hopefully!" Emma replied smiling,
"Great, thank you and thank you very much for looking after Annie today"
"No problem! See you two tomorrow! bye! bye Annie!" She said giving my bag to Mum
"Bye!" Answered Mum taking the bag then waving, so I waved too, they giggled then we left, Mum put me in the car seat in her car then got in and we drove out, and drove back to the first building which Mum said was the doggy day care, as we drove up the path we saw Lisa and Rex in the kennel when they saw us they jumped up and ran around barking, Mum parked outside the kennel, Mum got out and opened the boot,  just then a lady came out and let Lisa and Rex out, they greeted Mum then jumped into the boot, Mum and the lady talked for a bit then the lady went back into the kennel and came out with a bag, she gave the bag to Mum who put it in the car and said bye then got in the car and drove home, Mum parked in her usual place in our own small car park and got out, she lifted me out of my car seat, opened the boot to let dogs out then got the three bags and went to the front door of our house, she unlocked it and walked in, the cats greeted her, Mum put me in my Step N' Play then fussed over them, she went upstairs and had a shower then came down to check on us, we all were fine so she went back up stairs and came back five minutes later all dressed, she sat down on the sofa with her laptop,  five minutes later the dogs woke up from their power nap, Mum got up and took me out of the Step N' Play and lay me down on the play mat, Lisa came over, lay down next to me and started licking me all over, I giggled away and Mum videoed us, after ten minutes Mum stopped Lisa and wiped me down then carried me into the kitchen and put me in my high chair, she gave me my bottle and started cooking dinner while I drank, an hour later Mum served the food and my Dad came in,
"Hello Gary, Good day at work?" Mum asked
"Hi babe, yeah good day good day" he replied sighing, "hey there sweetie, how are ya doing?" He asked when he saw me,
They sat down and started eating while I watched them, then they started talking,
"So Gary how are the rabbits and the guinea pigs and hamsters?" Mum asked "Good good" dad replied not really listening,
"How's wee Lily doing? She was due around now"
Dad looked at her,
"You were meant to do all this, I don't do that junk, who wants stupid hamsters? Rabbits? They just hop and hop, guinea pigs? Lazy things"
Mum gasped and stood up angrily
"What! I can't do every single thing! You've done nothing for Annie, I've been really busy with work, dogs and Annie, you just needed to check on the animals, feed and water them, how hard is that? And lots of people want hamsters, rabbits don't just hop, and guinea pigs are not lazy!" She started to cry and rushed out the back door, soon after that I heard a scream, a loud sob then food being emptied and running water then mum came in grabbed me and walked out of the house with Lisa, she walked along the path and walked along the road for a bit, she couldn't hold it any more, she sat on the wall, sat me next to her and buried her face in Lisa's fur, after five minutes we heard our next door neighbour walking down to us,
"Cathy! Cathy!  What's wrong? Are you ok?"
Mum looked up and stood up,
"oh Amy, my its my husband, he's not being nice at all, won't help me, and I'm soo busy with Annie and all that," Mum was saying through tears
"There there, calm down, let's go inside and talk about it shall we? Amy said as she picked me up and helped Mum into her house, Max and Daisy greeted us, we sat on the sofa and Amy made some tea for Mum and herself, Mum started talking, she told her that Dad wasn't helping her with the smaller animals like rabbits, guinea pigs and the hamsters, when she went out to see them she found a few of her Rabbits dead, the alive ones were really skinny and the one that recently had a litter weren't doing very well, the guinea pigs were skinny and unhappy, the hamsters were in a bad state.
"I love my animals soo much I can't bear to see them like this, but I can't do all the work, too many animals and I do everything for Annie, Gary hasn't done a thing for Annie, so I don't see why he can't help with the animals" Mum sobbed.
"Oh come here" Amy said giving Mum a hug "I'm sorry to hear about that, surely he didn't mean that? I could look after them for you if you wanted?"
"Oh Amy, that's ever so kind of you... If you really don't mind that I'm glad to accept your offer" Mum smiled and wiped her eyes.            
"feeling better now?"            
Mum nodded "Thank you" 
"Right shall we go round and bring them round and see what we can do for them? asked Amy,
"Yes we should" Mum nodded  and went round with Amy to bring the animals leaving Lisa to guard me for five minutes while Amy and Mum took four trips bringing them all round to Amy's then Amy got a few washing bowls while mum got a big pen, they started with the rabbits, bathed them, fed and watered them then cleaned the cage and put one hutch outside in the garden with the healthy rabbits, Amy decided to keep the other hutch inside with the mummy rabbit and her babies,  after that she got out a cardboard box and put some hay in and Mum slowly laid the wrapped up body of the rabbit that died down then she put some of his favourite things and a letter in then closed it and put it to the side, they did the same with the guinea pigs and Hamsters, Amy put the cages in her spare room, they found out that one of the guinea pigs is pregnant! That cheered Mum up, after all that, Mum picked the box up while Amy picked me up and carried us through to the garden, there was a hole in the earth and Mum gently lowered the box in the hole then softly spoke some words and sprinkled some earth over the hole, Lisa lay by the hole and put her head in she stayed like that for five minutes then came out and Mum sprinkled some more earth for her then I had my turn,  i said some words in my head and look down, Mum sprinkled another handful in, Amy went next, she also sprinkled the earth, at last Mum gently pushed all the earth back in the hole burying the rabbit after the hole was covered, Mum and Amy laid some flowers on top, then stood up, Amy sang a small song for us then we all walked back and sat on the sofa. Amy brought us juice and some biscuits, and myself some milk which I drank, after our little snack, we went through to see the puppies, Mum held her pup in her hands and decided to call him Charlie, Amy put my two puppies on my lap, i held them on my chest with my small hands, I decided to call them Breeze and Bramble,
"Have you choosen a name for your little puppies?" Amy asked mum and I,
Mum nodded and told her that she was calling him Charlie, and that she wasn't sure what to call mine but she and Amy saw me nodding my head, they laughed
"Looks like Annie has already choosen a name for her puppies!" Laughed Mum,
I nodded my head again       
"Annie, will you mind if we gave them a name for the time being until you can tell us their names?"
I thought about it, I knew if they were to give them a name it might be a name I didn't like or the pups might respond to that name and not mine, so I nodded my head to say I did mind, Amy sighed and said that they would call them by their show names.
"Do you know what Gary wants to call his puppy?" Asked Amy
Mum shock her head then set Charlie on the floor and took some photos, then took some photos of Breeze and Bramble, after a bit they started yelping for their Mum so Mum quickly put Charlie, Breeze and Bramble back in the box with their Mum.
"Right that's your animals sorted, and they will be fine with me. What would you like to do now?" Amy asked as we walked back in the living room, Amy sat me on her lap on the sofa, while Mum hugged Lisa sitting on the carpet. "I really don't know..." Mum said, "maybe we should go back?" She stood up and picked me up to give me a cuddle,
"Yes, let's see how you get on for now, come back if any problems," Amy replied
"Ok, thank you ever so much for all your help, it means a lot" said Mum going to the door with Lisa and I
"Anytime, anytime" Amy said following us to the door smiling,  bye! Hope you get on ok with Gary.
Mum smiled back and left, she walked along the road to our drive way, she stopped, took a deep breath then walked on again the house was dark as all the lights were turned off, Mum tried to open the front door but couldn't! It was locked, Mum walked round to the back door and tried that, it opened! She sighed and walked in,and locked the door behind her, she let Lisa free and heard Rex coming to greet us,                                                                  
"hello Rex!" Mum said patting Rex then she walked through to the living room, and gasped, there was my dad passed out on the sofa, there was beer bottles all over the room and spilled beer near his hand from a half filled beer bottle,  Mum covered my eyes and walked out of the room, she went upstairs and called Marmalade, Tom and Lisa in her room, she locked her bedroom door.
"We're safe in here" Mum said taking her phone out and texting Amy telling her what she saw then undressed both her and me then told Lisa to be good and told Marmalade not to jump into my crib, she tucked me in with Bella and turned the lights off then got in bed herself and fell asleep, I cuddled Bella,  rubbing my check against her fluffy cool furry face and fell asleep.