Learning new things at work

Friday, March 31 I went in to work at 10:30. I hadn't been told where I was going to work. It ended up that I was in one of the 2 year old rooms. I had 8 kids to watch. Hey, I thought, this shouldn't be bad. HA! Famous last words, right? Well, first of all I had to get them all cleaned up for lunch which is at 11. They pottied and diapers were changed. But during that time two boys decided that they needed to take off their shoes. And no matter what, they would not put them on again. Uggg. Shoes on and now to put the lunch shirts on. The same two boys gave fits over which shirt I gave them but they had to wear the one I gave them. We lined up and went to lunch. As I went in I told the other teacher that I was having trouble. That settled that problem quite nicely. For lunch they had "breakfast". Yes, waffles, sausage, boiled eggs, jelly and applesauce for dessert. One little girl ate somewhere between 4-6 little sausage patties. We are talking about 2 year olds! Most did not eat their eggs but the rest was ok. We (the teachers) have to write down how much they eat. Except of the jelly each item is counted and recorded as a 1/4. So if they ate the two halves of waffles, 1 sausage and the applesauce then it is recorded as 3/4. It still sort of baffles me because what if they only eat 1 half of the waffle, half of 1 sausage, two bites of eggs, and all the applesauce. It couldn't be 3/4 because they didn't finish all of 3 things. Would it be that half of the waffle and half of the sausage equals 1? Ugggg. Confusing if you ask me. I had to ask the other teacher how to write everything down. After they ate they got wet washcloths to clean up and their lunch shirts taken off. Oh, by the way, the lunch shirt is like 3 to 4 sizes bigger then they are.
We went out to play a little and then by 11:30 (I think) we were in again to potty/diapered and put down for a nap. They were suppose to be on their cots by 12 but I think we didn't make it. They are to be on their cots until 2:30. Around 2 I saw that two girls that use the potty were awake. I told them to go potty and then go back and lay down. I did that because I didn't want them to have an accident. Well, boohoo, my plan didn't work because one already had an accident. I had to get her changed and get the cot sanitized and so on and so forth. After that I had no major incidents. But there were MANY first here. One nice thing is that this was the room that I am normally in when I work afternoons with the 2 year olds. So I know where everything is. I say that because....

Yesterday I was in a 1 year old room. I came in at 10:30 and did practically the same thing with them. But ... first of all they don't really know how to fed themselves and second I didn't know where anything was in the room. I had 5 kids. After they were cleaned up I put their lunch shirts on. They can eat by themselves if you let them grab their food with their hands and shove the whole hand in their mouth. Which means that we had to go around to everyone and "help" them spoon the food into their mouths. The menu was chicken nuggets, black-eyed beans, mash potatoes and gravy, and applesauce. Again I was baffled by the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 deal. It is so hard because when do you say they ate everything of one item. I suppose I need to just work these shifts more often but them I can only work them if the regulars are out.
After they ate we went outside for about 10 minutes and them back inside to get ready for nap time. I practically ripped the room apart (not really) to look for everything, diapers, wipes etc.
I finally got everyone down for a nap with the last one falling asleep at 12:40 and the first one waking up at 1:50. When they are awake I have to make sure they don't get off their cots and that they don't make loud noises. At 2:30 I woke them and diapered them. Put up the cots and then walked the kids over to the next room (at 3pm both 1 year-old rooms are together). I took the trash out and then went down to the 2 year old room. I have been subbing on Mondays from 3-6 for this semester. I was already "stress?" or just plain tired because of doing "new" things in the 1 year old room. I hoped that everything would turn out OK for the afternoon. The first thing I heard from the Morning Teacher was "T" had big boy pants on but he really isn't ready for them so you need to take him to the bathroom quite often. Also he has 1 change of clothes and under no circumstance are you to put a pull-up on him.
Oh, goodie.
We went outside to play. To make a long story short. I had to change "T"'s outfit 2 times and another boy's outfit 1 time. I had to sanitize 4 books and I just wanted to cry out of exhaustions and frustration.
My supervisor jokingly said that I really did earned my pay that day.

I really do enjoy what I am doing but ... could we just spread learning new things at work so it doesn't hit me bam, bam one right after another?