Baby goes to creche

As I restart my Dutch language course I was forced to make arrangements for childcare. Unfortunately, living alone in the Netherlands without any family or friends meant that my baby had to go to professionals. Before he was born, I was very comfortable with the idea of leaving him in a daycare, but once I had to do it, I wondered how mothers gather up the courage of leaving their babies in the hands of complete strangers.
I was clueless as to where and how to start this whole daycare business, but my problem was solved by Chikuba. It is an official agency that helps you find daycare and make all the necessary arrangements for it. Since I am not working and am following a Dutch language course through the gementee, I am entitled to subsidised daycare. That meant that I ended up paying only 1/6th of the total cost. It is still alot considering the baby needs daycare for only half a day while I am at school, but their policy requires payment for a whole day, even if the child stays there for only an hour.
My baby now goes to Caleido Kidzz. It is right next to my house, an apparently nice place with some nice ladies. This Friday morning I got up made some quick lunch for myself dressed up and then looked at my baby. Poor thing was sleeping peacefully, but I had to pick him up to change his diaper. I hated myself for disrupting his sleep, but as I began to unbutton him he did his usuals squirms and then opened his eyes to smile at me. I put on his jacket and put him in his buggy and off we went. He was very silent, probably confused as to where we are going so early in the morning. We entered the creche, I took off his jacket and then handed my baby over to the caretaker. He looked even more confused now, other babies came to greet him, and he stared at them with his big eyes. I stood by the door staring at him, I could stand there all day, but I had to go. So I bade farewell and walked out. From now till four hours I will have no idea what my baby does.
As I walked out of the creche I felt wierd, I wasn't pushing a buggy, rather swinging my arms on the side. I was looking around rather than looking at the cute face of my baby in front of me. When I entered the tram I was not confined to the buggy area, rahter I went inside and stood with all baby-less people. I approached my school realising that I had carried my baby to the school with me for eight months, and now I am going to school alone.
At school I could just not get my baby's face out of my head, the face that I left in the creche. In my break I called to find out how he was doing, they said he was asleep which calmed me down a bit. He was my only topic of conversation with my classfellows. The last half hour in school I kept looking at the watch of my classfellow
sitting opposite me. As soon as the lesson was over I walked at my maximum speed towards the creche. I opened the door and there he was, my baby. I couldn't stop kissing him. We came home cuddled and slept together for two hours. I just hope he didn't miss me as much as I missed him.

Nederlands leren (Learning Dutch)

When I was coming to live in the Netherlands I was determined to learn the language as soon as possible. On my very first trip to the market it became even more evident that there is a pressing need to learn the language in order to perform even the simplest of tasks like buying grocery. In Amsterdam almost everyone speaks a little or lot English, but they don't like writing English. So anything you want to buy, or any official letter you recieve will be in Dutch.
Hence, I contacted the local gementee, (council) which was kind enough to put me in a free one-year course to learn dutch. Four months ago the course kindly gave me a leave to perform my motherhood duties, and now I have been recalled to finish my unfinished business - the course.
I like learning, and this was my first experience of learning a new language, which was really fun. After my first few lessons I was able to make small sentences to introduce myself - something a five-year-old can do fluently, but I was proud of my accomplishment. Now, I can make people understand what I want to say in small words and broken grammar, but the harder part is understanding what they are saying. Even if I make them repeat themselves twice, the Dutch accent is just too confused for me to understand. Hopefully, by the time my course finishes, my one-way communication will reach atleast the level of a ten-year-old.
Sucess (good luck) to me!