"Elle a compris"

That's what Silvana said to me when I picked Alice up from daycare yesterday. It means: she gets it. She knows that you, her mother, the one in whose womb she was given life, and at whose breast she has gently nursed, and in whose arms she has been held so tenderly, that you have ABANDONED her, your beautiful child.

Gulp.

Oh, the icky, guilty, sad feeling when I dropped her off again this morning and she cried, knowing I'd be gone. And knowing that when I pick her up in a couple of hours, she will smell like someone else, and her diaper will have been changed by another pair of hands.

At least I was midly consoled this morning by seeing the happy, eager little faces of Alice's new friends peering over the childproof gate, awaiting her arrival. They looked like a small herd of bouncy, screetchy, floppy-haired wombats! (standing on their hind legs of course)

See you soon my sweaty-necked, cookie-eating princess. Mummy's coming to get you...