Max's first two days of daycare

So I bet at least some of you are wondering how daycare is going. Well, pros and cons, as expected. First off, we are very fond of our caregiver. She's pretty awesome and we know that Max is in good hands. Second, the reviews seem to be generally favourable. Here are the specifics:

On Day 1, Max and the other two boys being cared for at the same house (an adorable blond 2.5 year-old and a cute 2 year-old red-head) headed out in the morning for 2 hours of play group. Everything went well and Max had a little snack. He had a bottle on the way home (feeding himself...impressive) and then a bit of lunch before passing out at 1 p.m. for just under two hours. I don't know how he made it to 1, but he did. However, when Max got up from his nap, he had himself a good meltdown. Now, the easy thing would be to chalk it up to waking up in a strange environment, but he had actually been having some rough wake-ups here at home over the previous week in the late afternoons. We're not sure what's up, but the morning naps seem to be much better. Max kept crying pretty much until I got him at 3, but then got pretty smiley once I picked him up.

Day 2 was a day at home with no play group. This time, Max saw me go and had a little cry. Everybody went for a morning walk, and Max had another good meltdown after 10 when they got back. He didn't really want to eat so he got put to bed. It took him a while to cash out, but when he did, he shattered his personal best with a 2.5 hour nap. Someone was tired. This time, when he got up, he was OK, but still didn't really eat much. He played happily until I showed up. When he heard my voice, he lost it again. I guess he had some pent-up issues from the day. I cuddled him a bunch and he got happy really quick so nothing completely tragic was going on...just getting used to being without his favourite people.

In the end, he turned out to be in full on trooper mode tonight. He got crabby around 6:00, but then we went to our friends' place for dinner and he stayed up playing and socializing until 9:00. Considering that he got up from his afternoon nap at 2:00, that's pretty phenomenal.

In any case, we'll see if tomorrow is any different. In the meantime, here are those videos I promised you:
1) Max playing. I couldn't believe when he abruptly stopped to go open the chest. I had no idea what he was up to.
2) Another skill for Max. Admire both Daddy's hair and a quick snippet of Max's scrunchy face before the first kiss - he makes that face all the time for some unknown reason.
3) A not-very-exciting video of Max scaling around Daddy, but it closes with a good shot of his chiclets
4) Finally, a video of Max chaining a few steps together. We've now seen him pull a 10-step walk involving a change in direction so even though it was taken just a week ago, this video looks a lot less impressive now:) Apologies that it's sideways, I don't think there's any way to change the orientation.