Sounds like there are a few of us transitioning right now so I'd like to say how happy I am to read that people are filling spots considering the dry spell of enquiries I have had over the last year or so and the amount of providers posting similar stories. I filled my 3 day a week boy who left when his mom went on mat leave with a 12 month old girl. She is really strong willed and stubborn. Yesterday was day one...today is worse. When I interviewed her parents they were really open and honest about how they parent her asking for advice and I gave them the pointers that 5LM said and some more in depth with regards to food as she was still on pureed. They weaned her totally onto table food and zero puree for her starting here and I couldn't be happier. That being said the transitioning is killing me. She is not a tactile child, not even with her parents so its not like I'm even faced with the challenge of a child constantly seeking comfort by being held, quite the contrary. If I pick her up she squirms, and if I put my arms out she crawls away lolol I don't take it personally but it does make it very difficult to try and calm her down. She honestly does the best if I ignore her. She has not been socialized at all with other kids or even been out much as her mom didn't have a car during maternity leave. The crying was OTT this morning but thank god she sleeps. She sits with her soother and cries intermittently, and will not take her bottles or eat anything...except today she had a yogurt which is a plus.

I transitioned 2x 1 year olds at the beginning of the year, one AP and it was really tough taking a good few months to have them totally settled. I said I'd never do it again, but when you rely on the income and other options are scarce, sometimes you have to just grin and bare it.