My toddler ranaway from the daycare, and I think she's cool

Babygirl has been going to the daycare since I came back to work from maternity leave, and that was when she was exactly a year old in April 2015. A year and a half going to a private daycare, in September this year she finally got into a public daycare and started her days in the new place.

Although the adaptation period was planned to last around a week to get each child used to the new environment, babygirl needed three days to settle down in her new place. I took a week off from work just in case, but she already spent the whole day being there on her fourth day. On Monday the following week, I spent my normal hours at work and everything has been fine since.

Since my husband is currently working in Slovenia (about that here), our normal day looks like this: waking up around seven, have quick breakfast and leave around half to eight, I'd drop her in the daycare (where she'd have another breakfast) and go to work, and pick her up around four in the afternoon. She sleeps around two hours in the daycare, so by the time I pick her up she's well rested, and ready for some outdoor time (usually a combination between park and playground, groceries shopping and ice cream time). We'd come home around six o'clock in the evening, cook and eat dinner together, have some bath time, play some more and go to bed at around nine.

Her group in the daycare consists of around twenty toddlers of the age of two to three, and she's one of the few without diapers. These kids who are toilet trained need to be able to go to the toilet by themselves. That means informing the caregivers they're going, getting out of their playroom, crossing the hallway, going to the toilet across the hallway, getting their pants off, doing their business, cleaning up (the caregiver would help here if they do the big business, but they clean up by themselves if the only pee), flushing the toilet, dressing up and washing their hands. And then getting back to their playroom across the hall. For the last month and a half, this has been working great for babygirl.

And then yesterday happened.

What's more important than to initiate, and not to be scared, to explore new things around her?

I came to pick her up at usual time, greeted her in front of the glass door of the playroom, when she ran to me, took my hand and dragged me to leave while whispering "I made teta (means aunty, the way the call their caregivers) really, really mad". I told her to wait a second because I saw the teta approaching me. She greeted me and smiled, said the regular things like how much babygirl ate and slept, told me what happened.

So my two-and-a-half-year-old had an idea that day. She told teta she needed to pee, when she didn't. When she got the okay to leave the room, she left. Instead of going to the toilet, she decided to take a little walk. She walked on the hallway by herself and just looked around. Until a cleaning lady found her on the other end of the building and returned her to her group's playroom. This is the point when her caregiver decided to give her a little serious talk. When asked, babygirl said she was just "taking a little walk and checking maybe my mom came". Mind you, she's not able to get out of the building because the main entrance/exit door has very tall handle and has a button to be pressed to open it. The worst that could happen, well, in my opinion, nothing much. She could end up in the outdoor playground, which, is visible through the glass wall from her playroom.

I hardly hid my smile when the caregiver explained to me what happened. She looked a little too concerned when once again telling my babygirl she's not allowed to go out by herself (except to the toilet of course).

When I told what happened to some friends, their reaction was more or less similar to each other. Getting panicked, (partially) blaming the caregiver of not noticing she'd been missing, imagining the worst scenarios, pointing the daycare's system's failures and so on. But when I told the story to my husband, his reaction was exactly what I expected (well, there is a reason we're married, right?) he said "Oh my God that is soooo cool! So our two-year-old actually tricked her caregiver and took a walk??" Yes. And she probably also planned the whole "trip".

A friend actually couldn't believe how I don't have problem with it. She thinks other parents would confront the caregiver for not paying enough attention to the child and put the child into danger.

But I know my toddler better than anyone. And so does her dad. She was NOT lost. She can't get lost in that building. She directs me where to drive the car to get from our building to her daycare. She guided her grandma to walk from our home in Ljubljana to her favorite bakery in the bus station when her grandma visited for the first time (they went alone, just the two of them).

She did plan the whole thing. She knew the caregiver would let her go if she says she needs to pee. So she took her time, took a walk and looked around. She's been there for a little over a month. She's just curious. She's brave. She's free spirited. And oh my, she's genius. The  most important thing, she knew she's not supposed to do what she did. She told me that. By herself. The whole fuss yesterday with the "serious talk" put her a little bit to the scared-side, because she, for the first time, refused to go to the daycare (to the same caregiver) this morning. But it will pass very soon.

And we're proud parents. We really are :)

Predjama Castle: just like your childhood dream castle

In my last post about Postojna Cave (read the post here) I mentioned that we bought a combo ticket for the cave and Predjama Castle, so after visiting the cave, we drove toward Predjama Castle on the same day. Predjama Castle is only 9 kilometers away from Postojna Cave. In July and August they have free shuttles that drive visitors between the two objects, but we were there in September, so there were no more shuttles.

Babygirl is crazy about castles in general. Our bedroom in Ljubljana is an elevated loft which is reachable by climbing sturdy wooden ladder-like book shelves. We call it our castle where we sleep at, and she's crazy about it. So although it was past her nap time after we finished Postojna Cave, she was excited enough to see the Predjama Castle.

The magnificent view of Predjama Castle as we approached it

Audio guide is included in the entrance fee and they're available in many languages. Each room and exhibited object in the castle show a certain number, which you press in the audio guide (looks like an old cell phone) and you listen to the narration from it. This was babygirl's favorite part of the tour, clearly. She pressed the buttons all the time, put the device near to her ear and pretended to listen and understand what it tells her.

Predjama Castle, or "the castle in front of the cave" is known for the story of Erazem, a robber baron who came into conflict with the Habsburgs and killed their commander of imperial army. The Roman emperor sent army to have Erazem killed, so he hid and lived in this castle with his family. After a year, one of his maids betrayed him after he was bribed by the Romans, informing them when Erazem was in the toilet which is located on the top floor on the outer part of the castle; so they fired cannonball and killed Erazem.

The view from one of the castle's windows

The exhibited rooms are equipped with life-size dolls resembling the medieval life which was super interesting for babygirl. We climbed to the top floor and got into the original part of the cave. Although it's called the "castle in front of the cave", part of it is actually inside a cave. Parts of the castle don't have a roof at all because it's underneath the cave and practically do not need roof.

The upper part of the castle which is inside the original cave (left); Babygirl ringing the bell for good luck (right)

Despite the steep stone steps, we made it with the babygirl to the top of the castle, including to the original cave part to where Erazem and his family went hiding when attacks were going on. There's a bell on the top which used to function as an alarm system when the castle is in danger, but now believed as a lucky bell that makes your wish come true if you make one before ringing it.

The whole experience probably took us an hour and a half or so, before we went back out and returned the audio guides. After a long exciting day of Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle, it took babygirl three seconds to fall asleep in her seat in the car. We drove back to Ljubljana (which lasted less than an hour) and now have beautiful memories of the impressive cave and castle.