Daycare

Christmas has come and gone and everyone is still one piece. The Baby has had a rough few days with all the moving around and traveling to and fro and it has really affected her sleeping at night. She usually does fairly well and can make it through the night without any issues but lately that hasn't been the case. We like to blame it on the fact that the Baby was really excited about Christmas morning but like any 9 month old child, she could care less. The Baby, however, was pretty excited about the cool toys she received from everybody and she did add a good percentage to her wardrobe as well.

Here in the next few weeks we plan on enrolling the Baby into a Mother's Day Out program at First United Methodist Church. The Wifey actually went to Pre-K there and when we did our surprise visit, the director was her former teacher. It was a good visit, everyone was super friendly, the kid to adult ratio was very low, a 1:3. So we don't have any issues with the overall quality of care and supervision. It's just hard to trust our child with complete strangers and expect the same type of attention the Baby would at home. The Wifey's mother has some health restraints that limits her overall ability to take care of the Baby. And with the Baby beginning to show the early stages of walking, it would be nearly impossible for the Wifey's mother to keep up with such an active baby. The Wifey and I tried to come up with different scenarios with our work schedules (since my work schedule is so flexible) so that we wouldn't have to put the Baby under another person's supervision, but it didn't work out. There are the positives like the Baby will be exposed to other babies her age. She currently does pretty well socializing with her cousin, who is about three months older, but now she can actually make friends. She will also probably get sick but we have been very lucky thus far with the type of care she has been receiving. I'm just a little hesitant with daycare options because I've never done it. Maybe it's a cultural thing but in our family, the grandmother watched the children. I remember when my sister would drop off her kid so she could go to work. My brother in law's mother actually had to get licensed by the State because she was watching all her grandchildren; a number that would equal five kids at one time.

And on a quick tangent, it's pretty lonely to see ourselves essentially "established" compared to our other friends. We are truly the only family amongst our closer friends. We own a house and we have a kid. Granted, neither of us entrenched in a career driven mindset, but we're all very happy. It's a modest lifestyle and it works for us.

But for now, we'll all going to enjoy our time together. The Baby is starting to be more talkative and can stand by herself unaided for upwards of ten seconds. The Wifey and I are just fascinated by how much she is growing and we love that we can see her little brain work. One good thing the Baby has learned is to react when we say "No". It's usually because she has something in her hands that she isn't supposed to have and we'll tell her "No" and she will look back at us, smile, and then hand over what is in her hand. Sometimes I just like to tell her no just to see her face because it's so darn flippin' cute. And some more pictures...