A new obsession

Thanks to Bebe Suisse's suggestion of a new browser, Google Chrome and I are back to blogging!  Now if my mommy brain can only remember everything I've wanted to post about...first on the agenda (or the only thing I can remember right now) is our search for the "perfect daycare."

Three years ago, I resigned my awesome leadership/teaching position at Big 5A High School.  I took a significant pay cut and a new administrative position at Small Private School.  I attended SPS for years and I always felt that I would serve there in some way, so when I was presented with the opportunity and Sparky and I could afford it financially, I took it.  Upon taking the job, we were expecting SPS to offer infant care and this was a HUGE incentive to accept the pay cut.  We didn't want to put our future child in daycare, so having him with me at work was going to be pretty awesome.

Fast forward through a miscarriage, three surgeries, and one baby later, and we're now in May 2013.  SPS can't offer infant care due to fire code restrictions and the cost of getting everything up to code.  I begin a frantic search for care to start in August.  SPS let me have D at work with me all summer--amazing.  I looked into home care nannies, learning centers, day cares, and a nanny who would come to our house.  The one uniting factor: baby care = freakin' expensive.  I've read about other moms who reserved spots in daycare as soon as they found out they were expecting, but I never thought we'd need daycare.  Thank goodness my city has numerous excellent opportunities and only one place I called was not accepting applications.

As with anything, I'm nothing if not thorough.  I got on care.com (great site, totally worth it) and put out an ad for nannies.  I created a list of questions and carefully narrowed down my nanny responses and asked two for interviews.  The young lady I interviewed was phenomenal, until I realized that she would cost us a fortune every month.  Sparks and I tried to reconcile our finances to include her fees, but we just couldn't do it. So, I talked to everyone.  I got names, numbers, day care info, and just visited (with D) many different places. I was exhausted physically and mentally.  I had one more place to go and honestly, I didn't want to.  But my mom, in her infinite wisdom, told me to do my due diligence and just check it out.

Off I went, without D this time, to the last learning center.  I fell in love.  The infant room was bright and airy.  The atmosphere was warm and caring and CLEAN.  The teacher had just got done "bubble dancing" with one of the babies as the other two slept, though she informed me the others would get to play with bubbles when they got up, because she doesn't like any babies not to get to have fun.  I knew right there that this was the place for D.  They stay under the legal limit of babies to caregivers, there's in room monitoring I can see, and she tirelessly logs D's every moves into my new obsession: baby connect.  It's an app/website that she shares with me so I can see when he has a diaper change, eats, naps, etc.  We exchange messages this way too.

D checked out "school" for two hours and did great, so last Monday, he started going 7:15-2:15.  (my modified work hours are 7:30-2).  I cannot rave about his experience enough.  His teacher texts me pictures throughout the day and he is zonked when I pick him up.  He is napping well and eating well and just thriving.  I like that he's learning to play with other babies, and his teacher works with the babies on different skills all day.  He's learning to hold his bottle right now, and all the babies are learning sign language.

It still hurts dropping him off every day and I can't wait to see him at 2:15, but I know he's in great hands. Of course, I'm obsessed with the in-room camera and baby connect.

Learning to "read" at daycare :) and oh yeah, we sit up now!