First, let me say this is probably my least favorite part about having a baby. Knowing that you take the time to create this little tiny human and you get a ridiculously tiny amount of time (in the grand scheme of things) before having to turn them over to a care provider (strangers) so you can continue to earn the income necessary for the majority of people to function.
I have now been to 3 day cares, which probably is considered way to few given I am 6 months along, but none of them have wait lists, so I am not really THAT concerned. Basically I want someone who is competent, will pay attention if our child needs them, and returns them to us at the end of the day in more of less the same state we left them off in. I don't really care what kinds of things you are going to teach a 10 week old baby. For the most part, they sleep, eat, and poop. I love looking at the curriculum at each place because they sound like your 8 month old baby will be able to identify colors and count. How about we work on crawling? I will consider this more important when they are slightly older and can actually be taught things.
In all three of these cases I have been less than impressed with how they have presented themselves. I can't decide if this is a lack of training or they just generally think it's not important. Most will show me the room our baby will be in all day and then run through charts, changing station, and point out the cribs. At one place they went a little more in depth on what kinds of things you as a parent might get from their day, photos, an art project, etc. and some activities they do that's a little bit different like sign language on Fridays. But then they just turn to me and say, do you have any questions? All I can think is, you do this for a living and presumably have more than just me coming by to check out your place and you can't fill in any details beyond the state requirements? What the heck do other people ask? Is there an FAQ somewhere?
Maybe I am thinking there's more to this than there really is, but none of the places have really put their best foot forward in terms of wowing me. I am not asking to be wined and dined, just show me why you are the place we should trust with our infant. I should also say, none of the places sent me away screaming or thinking that if I were to pick that place, our child would be in danger. It's a room that can be sanitized, everyone gets their own crib, they all have sheets to track your child by, requirements for food you bring in, and there's a certain teacher ratio they maintain. I just thought there was more to this whole day care search than what it has presented me with so far.
One of our friends pointed out also that we won't really know how the day care is until we start to use them. I am ok going in with the notion that we don't have to stay in one place forever, but it's just annoying that they are a little lacking in presentation. Maybe if I had $2k a month to drop on day care, I would see a difference, but umm, that's not in the budget. We also don't have days upon days to take time to go see every last single place on the planet. See we need day care because we WORK during the day. I guess we will find a few more places, but hopefully one will shine through as a clear winner. Hopefully.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Half Bath Facelift
We know that our free time is about to get a whole lot more precious in terms of what we can and cannot do or have the ability to do come April, so we are trying to check things off our list as best we can now. One of these things was adding a fresh coat of paint to the main level half bathroom. It's probably one of the most used bathrooms in the house and we just hadn't done anything with it.
For the most part it was ok, but the flat beige paint was really starting to wear on us. That and the brushed brass fixtures, crappy light switches and plugs. We also figured since it was one of the smallest rooms in the house we would paint, it's the perfect size job for a weekend project.
After about 3-4 coats of this yellow paint (same as the color in our bedroom), we were looking good! I have to say, painting in a small space while pregnant can be challenging. Don't worry, I had the fan on and the door open, but maneuvering around the back side of the toilet was pretty tricky.
Please enjoy the still frame, 360 tour. :)
In addition to the paint, we swapped out the vent cover, light switches, towel bar, toilet paper holder, and installed a towel ring and a GFCI plug. The plug is probably what I am most proud of. We read the instructions, figured out which were the load wires and which were the line wires and installed correctly on the first try! As Rob said, "Now our house is slightly less dangerous!" We didn't have any GFCI plugs anywhere in our house. It was noted in our home inspection that we should do something about that. One done, probably 3-4more to go!
The only things we have left to do are the change the sink faucet (had to locate the basin wrench we borrowed and thought we gave back, but found we still had it) and add a couple of pieces of art. We will eventually replace the lights with brushed nickel to complete the look, but we can't find ones we like that don't cost $60 a piece which I think it too much for lights right now. These are still functional, although they are dated looking.
For those keeping track at home, there are now only 5 rooms (3 of which are bathrooms) and our upstairs stairwell and hallway that remain unpainted from when we moved in. With any luck, 2 of those bathrooms and one of those rooms will be painted very soon!
For the most part it was ok, but the flat beige paint was really starting to wear on us. That and the brushed brass fixtures, crappy light switches and plugs. We also figured since it was one of the smallest rooms in the house we would paint, it's the perfect size job for a weekend project.
After about 3-4 coats of this yellow paint (same as the color in our bedroom), we were looking good! I have to say, painting in a small space while pregnant can be challenging. Don't worry, I had the fan on and the door open, but maneuvering around the back side of the toilet was pretty tricky.
Please enjoy the still frame, 360 tour. :)
In addition to the paint, we swapped out the vent cover, light switches, towel bar, toilet paper holder, and installed a towel ring and a GFCI plug. The plug is probably what I am most proud of. We read the instructions, figured out which were the load wires and which were the line wires and installed correctly on the first try! As Rob said, "Now our house is slightly less dangerous!" We didn't have any GFCI plugs anywhere in our house. It was noted in our home inspection that we should do something about that. One done, probably 3-4more to go!
The only things we have left to do are the change the sink faucet (had to locate the basin wrench we borrowed and thought we gave back, but found we still had it) and add a couple of pieces of art. We will eventually replace the lights with brushed nickel to complete the look, but we can't find ones we like that don't cost $60 a piece which I think it too much for lights right now. These are still functional, although they are dated looking.
For those keeping track at home, there are now only 5 rooms (3 of which are bathrooms) and our upstairs stairwell and hallway that remain unpainted from when we moved in. With any luck, 2 of those bathrooms and one of those rooms will be painted very soon!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Life in Suburbia
I now understand what it really means to "Keep up with the Jones''". I always understood what the phrase meant, at least as a concept, but never had I felt like I needed to keep up with OR at least be on par with neighbors. This is mostly because previously they were all nit twit renters who smoked on their balconies or practiced their organ at 7am. However owning a home seems to flip the switch and suddenly there's so much more to your neighbors than before. I am going to go out on a limb here and say this is probably because you will live next to one another for many years and you can't help but become aware of their habits and behaviors.
We definitely take notice of what our neighbors do and it generally does inspire us to make changes or at least not be "that" house. For instance, our neighbors re-leveled their lawn and put in a new sidewalk to their house. In comparison our lawn now looks like the neglected mangy mutt on the block. We thought the lawn was fine when we bought the place, but we have since learned it needs some love and our neighbors, through their lawn care, have shown us that. Not on purpose, but I would like to think Rob and I are perceptive people and we can tell our lawn is not the star around here. It's kind of the same way that I felt when I came home one May day and found everyone else's lawns were miraculously mowed and ours was looking forlorn and unattended to. That night we bought the mower to remedy that problem.
On the flip side we also pay attention to our neighbors behaviors. Most notable has been who parks where, when they leave for work, how they behave with others, who decorates for the holidays, and when they are gone. Thanks to being in a town home, most of this is observed through our windows and doors and we pass in and out of our home. We are especially interested in the behavior regarding the parking habits of one neighbor which seems to offer a lot to talk about. Probably more than it should except, that's what we do now. "Did you see where neighbor so and so parked again? The nerve!" Or some such phrase comes out. I could get into why this is so fascinating to us, but I would bore you to tears.
Tonight we came home to find our recycling bin had "disappeared". Rob and I are religious recyclers with a full bin out every week. We have some neighbors that don't bother (how rude!) and others that are on par with us. Each house was assigned a recycling bin at some point in time. What people have done with them over time is not my concern. All I know is we have had one since we got here and we intend to keep it that way. There was a week sometime over the summer where it was taken, but we were able to snatch it back the next week. It is my personal feeling if you didn't put one out, you don't get to take one. If you are missing yours, call the recycling people and get a new one. Anywho, I went on a rant about who might have theoretically taken ours (again, providing much topic for conversation). As Rob and I were on our way out for dinner tonight, I saw our recycling bin down on a neighbors lawn. It wasn't taken into their home and Rob mentioned they didn't set out a bin that morning, just a giant cardboard box. He went and retrieved it and placed it in our house before we left. Now it will fuel more discussion about these neighbors as they happen to be the same ones with the parking issues.
I think he said it best with, "If you had asked me ten years ago what kind of adventures I expected to having as an adult, 'stealing the recycling bin back from the neighbors' probably would not have made the list." We have officially been assimilated into life in Suburbia.
We definitely take notice of what our neighbors do and it generally does inspire us to make changes or at least not be "that" house. For instance, our neighbors re-leveled their lawn and put in a new sidewalk to their house. In comparison our lawn now looks like the neglected mangy mutt on the block. We thought the lawn was fine when we bought the place, but we have since learned it needs some love and our neighbors, through their lawn care, have shown us that. Not on purpose, but I would like to think Rob and I are perceptive people and we can tell our lawn is not the star around here. It's kind of the same way that I felt when I came home one May day and found everyone else's lawns were miraculously mowed and ours was looking forlorn and unattended to. That night we bought the mower to remedy that problem.
On the flip side we also pay attention to our neighbors behaviors. Most notable has been who parks where, when they leave for work, how they behave with others, who decorates for the holidays, and when they are gone. Thanks to being in a town home, most of this is observed through our windows and doors and we pass in and out of our home. We are especially interested in the behavior regarding the parking habits of one neighbor which seems to offer a lot to talk about. Probably more than it should except, that's what we do now. "Did you see where neighbor so and so parked again? The nerve!" Or some such phrase comes out. I could get into why this is so fascinating to us, but I would bore you to tears.
Tonight we came home to find our recycling bin had "disappeared". Rob and I are religious recyclers with a full bin out every week. We have some neighbors that don't bother (how rude!) and others that are on par with us. Each house was assigned a recycling bin at some point in time. What people have done with them over time is not my concern. All I know is we have had one since we got here and we intend to keep it that way. There was a week sometime over the summer where it was taken, but we were able to snatch it back the next week. It is my personal feeling if you didn't put one out, you don't get to take one. If you are missing yours, call the recycling people and get a new one. Anywho, I went on a rant about who might have theoretically taken ours (again, providing much topic for conversation). As Rob and I were on our way out for dinner tonight, I saw our recycling bin down on a neighbors lawn. It wasn't taken into their home and Rob mentioned they didn't set out a bin that morning, just a giant cardboard box. He went and retrieved it and placed it in our house before we left. Now it will fuel more discussion about these neighbors as they happen to be the same ones with the parking issues.
I think he said it best with, "If you had asked me ten years ago what kind of adventures I expected to having as an adult, 'stealing the recycling bin back from the neighbors' probably would not have made the list." We have officially been assimilated into life in Suburbia.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Snagging a Great Deal
As many of you know, we are making room for one more in our lives come April and with that means needing a LOT of new stuff we don't currently have. Thankfully my parents have taken care of the crib, but that's unfortunately one small piece of the pie. But also thankfully, there are people on Craigslist that have plenty of nice stuff they want to sell for cheap. :)
Last Friday I happened to be goofing off and doing a "I wonder what's on here today" search and stumbled across a posting for a used BOB Stroller. Friends of ours bought one for their daughter and love it. They were demoing it at the reunion over the summer and how fabulous it is. I have heard great things about them from other sources as well and so I emailed the lady. She said I was the first one to respond, so I got dibs. We went to take a look at it and ended up buying it. They retail for $300-$400 (MSRP on this model is actually $469, but I doubt people pay that) and we snagged it for $65. It's been used and you can tell with some sun slight sun fading and worn spots where little feet go, but overall it's still in great shape. I think she thought I was nuts when I said, oh I bet I can put it in the wash, but haha, jokes on her! I got it in there about 30 minutes after I got it home.
Leave an engineer alone with a screwdriver and curiosity and you'll find yourself with pieces of whatever used to be assembled. :)
This was actually remarkably easy to take apart and get all the fabric off of it to wash. The hardest part was looping the pull cord through the backside of the fabric.
A few times in the washing machine and BAM! Looks like new! The cats have sniffed it a few times, but largely ignored it. Guess it will sit and wait until this spring, but at least it's one more thing off our prep list. :)
Last Friday I happened to be goofing off and doing a "I wonder what's on here today" search and stumbled across a posting for a used BOB Stroller. Friends of ours bought one for their daughter and love it. They were demoing it at the reunion over the summer and how fabulous it is. I have heard great things about them from other sources as well and so I emailed the lady. She said I was the first one to respond, so I got dibs. We went to take a look at it and ended up buying it. They retail for $300-$400 (MSRP on this model is actually $469, but I doubt people pay that) and we snagged it for $65. It's been used and you can tell with some sun slight sun fading and worn spots where little feet go, but overall it's still in great shape. I think she thought I was nuts when I said, oh I bet I can put it in the wash, but haha, jokes on her! I got it in there about 30 minutes after I got it home.
Leave an engineer alone with a screwdriver and curiosity and you'll find yourself with pieces of whatever used to be assembled. :)
This was actually remarkably easy to take apart and get all the fabric off of it to wash. The hardest part was looping the pull cord through the backside of the fabric.
A few times in the washing machine and BAM! Looks like new! The cats have sniffed it a few times, but largely ignored it. Guess it will sit and wait until this spring, but at least it's one more thing off our prep list. :)
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