Daycare Updated

As I mentioned previously, we've been in the midst of many a transition at daycare. First, Mia's teacher retired. Then, the daycare is moving and because of that move, Mia lost quite a few of her classmates and more specifically, her little bestie.

Things started to get really stressful in the midst of the their move because things were taking so much longer to happen than anyone expected. The daycare staff had moved almost everything out of their current location, with the anticipation of starting at the new location as soon as January was up. It was getting really depressing to drop Mia off to a nearly empty classroom every morning, and pick her up from another nearly empty classroom which all the kids of different ages were watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. [When I write it out like that, it really sounds depressing]. But! Once they realized that they weren't going to get all their permits in order, they brought back the essentials. So now, when we drop Mia off, it just looks like a really tidy daycare room, which, while it looks a bit clinical, is OK with me.

The daycare held an open house at the not-yet-licensed location, though, and we attended for nearly as long as they were open for. We were able to stand around and talk to the new teacher, the 3 year old teacher [whose room Mia is transitioning to in mere months! eep!], and see the shiny new location. It really is more convenient for us, and it was really nice. They will have almost three times the square footage, with bright and airy classrooms, and even space for an indoor playground [Vegas summers!]. While at the open house, we were also able to see Mia playing with the other kids that will be moving with the school, and she really did seem happy and comfortable with them, so it was the reassurance we needed. Her new teacher is very nice, and Mia has started mentioning her name at home, so overall, things are looking up on the daycare front, and it looks like we won't be going through the whole thing of finding another one [in the same price range].

The only part that cannot and hasn't been solved, the most heartbreaking part, is Mia and Mackie being separated. Her little bestie stopped coming to her school last week, and while I think Mia didn't notice at first, on Tuesday, Mia came home and told me, in her saddest voice: "I lost my Mackie!" Seriously, my heart. I immediately messaged Mackie's Mom, who thankfully I friended on Facebook after her birthday party to set up a playdate this weekend. We're seeing them on Saturday, and I am preparing myself for the reunion of a lifetime. My poor, sweet child and her little heart.

Daycare Woes

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Mia's main daycare teacher was retiring. Well, she did, and she was replaced by a new teacher. This teacher is only there during "school hours", and leaves at 3:30, when the kids stop their scheduled portion of the day, and... just play? Who knows how much you can really schedule a group of 2 year olds, but that seems to be how it works and Mia knows her letters and numbers, so what more can we really ask for. Anyway, on her first day, I came down during "school hours" in order to meet her. She seemed nice, a bit overwhelmed, but nice.

I keep asking Mia whether she likes her new teacher. She hasn't acknowledged that she has a new teacher yet, and it's been about two weeks. She hasn't repeated her name, but, I'm giving it more time. So far, we haven't been getting the same kind of feedback from this teacher that we used to get from Miss S. She may still be adjusting - figuring out what she wants to do, etc. I'm trying to be patient, but I'm not quite sure when to draw the line.

We got notice a few weeks ago that our daycare was changing locations. They're moving a substantial distance from their current location, much further than you would expect for this kind of move. To be totally honest, the move makes my life easier. Right now, to pick Mia up, I have to take the long way home. With the new location, I take the short way home, while getting off at a different exit. But, for B, it's significantly less convenient, and he's really going to have to go out of his way to drop her off in the mornings - putting our morning ETD about 20 minutes earlier than it has been. I mean... not the end of the world, but overall kind of a pain.

Again... I'm trying not to make any quick judgments. The new location starts February 1st. I'm hoping that once the move is done, (and we get used to the new-ish routine) the new teacher will get into a groove in her new classroom. But, on Monday, I found out that Mia's best friend at school is switching day care centers because of the move. And that's a real bummer. If in a few weeks things don't seem to be getting better, I might start taking some tours.

Date Night and the Daycare Kid

This Saturday, B and I went out on a proper date. A full movie (We intended to see Saving Mr. Banks, but it was sold out and we ended up seeing Lone Survivor. It was a great movie, but decidedly not the sweet story about Mary Poppins that I set out to see) AND dinner. It was glorious, and we had a great time. We didn't worry about what Mia would eat, whether I had crayons in my purse or whether she would knock anything over on the table. It was great, but that's not exactly the point of my story.

Mia, at 2 and 1/2 is at a great age. Saturday morning, I told her that tonight, you are going to [B's coworker]'s house! She has four dogs! You are going to have so much fun. Mama and Papa are going to go, but we'll come back to get you later. She looked at me, processed what I said for just a second and replied: "1, 2, 3, 4 doggies!?" Great, the dogs will distract her enough for us to make a quick exit.

In the car, on our way to Coworker's house, I told her again. "Mia, you are going to [coworker]'s house. You are going to stay there and play with her and her doggies, and Mama and Papa will come get you later, OK?" She replies: "1, 2, 3, 4 doggies." Excellent.

Once we got there, Mia and I played with the dogs, B gave his coworker our little spiel. I reminded Mia to ask [coworker] if she needed to go potty. She looked at me and said: "You're going to work? But you'll come back and get me later." Yes, Mia. That explanation works for me! B and I left, no quick exits necessary. Mia excitedly told us to "Have fun! See you later! I play with the doggies!"

Mia and Popeye, doggie #4.

It's nice to know, that despite the guilt I routinely feel at dropping her every single day, for 8 hours a day at daycare, she feels completely secure. When she was really little, I feared that she would get confused, that she would think her daycare teacher was her parent, that the daycare center was her house. But, that has never been the case. Yes, she loves her daycare teachers, and is probably completely comfortable at the nice, bright, noisy daycare that she has been going to for nearly two years, but she knows. She knows we are her parents, her family, and that we may go away sometimes, and has no anxiety about us leaving her in the care of others. Needless to say, she had a great time with B's coworker, and when we came back to pick her up at 9pm, she was wide away and showed us everything she had done, and everything she had played with while we were away.

Happy Retirement

When Mia came home from daycare last Friday evening, I found a little note in her backpack while clearing out her lunch bag. It was from the main teacher in Mia's classroom of 2 year olds - she wanted to let us know that she was retiring on January 10th.

I checked the calendar - January 10th was the end of the week. 7 days notice? At first, I got kind of mad. How can you only be giving me 7 days notice?? Then I realized, what exactly would I have done with more notice? Found a different daycare? Of course not. We love our daycare. We chose it because it was close to B's branch, but he has since been reassigned. It is certainly not the most conveniently located daycare relative to both our house and both of our work places. But, Mia has become so comfortable there since starting at 10 months old, that I have absolutely no intention of taking her out until she starts kindergarten. She has a best friend, she (and we) finally knows all the different teacher's names. We aren't moving. Whoever they are replacing Miss S. with, it'll be someone Mia is already familiar with, and I'm sure that person will show as much dedication and love in her new students.

But to Miss S, we will always be grateful. Mia is about 98% potty trained, thanks in great part to her. I can't imagine potty training a room of eight two year olds simultaneously, but she did it. We noticed a few months ago that Mia knows all of her letters - she'll identify letters as she spots them, while we're in the car, walking around, wherever. She knows them all -- and I'm certainly not the one who spent time teaching her that. I'd like to think that I would, if I didn't spend all of my time with Mia also juggling housework. If I didn't spend 8 hours a day away from her, 5 days a week. But, thankfully, we have a place that we can trust with her, a place where she is flourishing, comfortable and loved.

So to Miss S, and the other wonderful people who care for our kids while we can't: Thank you. And Happy Retirement.

What I don't want to post about

It's been tough coming up with things to write about recently, because there are many things that I don't want to write about. I don't want to devote an entire post to them, because, well, it sucks, but I also want to write about something on this blog of mine.

• I don't want to write about how I'm changing what I eat. I went back and re-read the posts that I had tagged "weight loss" to see how much of my blog I have devoted to something that I've always struggled with. It's not an inordinate amount, thankfully. I didn't want to make a topic out of being back on the South Beach Diet plan, thinking that I'd tried (and obviously failed) it so many times in the past year. The last time I did it, I lasted 4 weeks. I didn't realize that I had gotten so far last time, that I had given up past where I am now. I'm starting my 3rd week now and suddenly got very deflated. I feel different this time - it feels like I'm having fewer cravings, making a better effort to cook every night and keeping my menu diverse enough to keep me from wanting to stray. Something big is different this time, though. B is on it with me, and has been very committed to it. We've both moved from the very restrictive Phase 1 (no sugars/carbs/fats/caffeine/alcohol whatsoever) to Phase 2 (gradually reintroducing complex carbs, whole grains, caffeine and alcohol). Yes, he's been more liberal with his reintroduction than I have, but it doesn't bother me in the least. My temptations don't come at home, since we are both committed to changing out food intake (or as B puts it "taking control of our waistlines", LOLZ), but at work, where my Filipino coworkers make a rice cooker full of evil jasmine rice every day for lunch. I'm not tempted so much as feeling sad about not being able to have any. I'm not hungry. My meals are nutritious and tasty. And, I've lost and am continuing to lose weight. 3 weeks in and I'm already down 11 lbs, to B's 15 lbs. Some of my old work pants are even starting to fit, though I have yet to wear any because they are a bit snug. In a couple of weeks, my wardrobe options will increase dramatically, and I love that thought!

• I don't want to write about how sick we've been since January 1st. Mia had pink-eye and strep. B had pink-eye, strep and an ear infection. I was also sick, but Minute Clinic assured me everything I had was viral. Also, as the least affected by whatever was going through our house, I was the caretaker for the two others. B turns into a bigger baby than Mia does, needing "directions" on how to care for himself. "Should I take my Tylenol now? What can I do to make my throat feel better?" I have to admit that I lost patience with him on more than one occasion.

• I don't want to write about my frustrations with my job. Not wanting to work for this Company (or really, at all anymore) but not wanting to move. My plan is still to take the Nevada bar this summer and hope that I can find something else. It seems like any job that is out there that I might qualify for would require us to move again. I don't want to do that to B, who really enjoys and does well at his job, and I really don't want to do that to my parents, who essentially bought this house knowing we would be their tenants. So, I come to work every morning, and wait for my paycheck (7 days late at this point).

That's it. Those are the things that have been on my mind, that I don't like to think about. So, until something happens that I want to write about, there you go. 

House Christening Fail

Well. Our first night in the house was... not great. Instead of Christening the house the traditional way, I Christened it on Sunday night by running to our shiny master bathroom (tripping over many boxes and stray hangers on the way) and ... vomiting. B did the same thing to the powder room toilet this morning around 5 am. I am keeping a very close eye on Mia who is so very sure to come next, although, I'm hoping she gave it to ME and we just didn't notice amidst the teething and moving angst. Because really, where else would we have gotten something like this except the dreaded daycare plague?

So, things haven't exactly gone as planned with the whole unpacking thing. Things went swimmingly with the moving of the stuff though, since evidently B is a moving MACHINE and had made two trips from the apartment to the house by the time Mia and I woke up last friday morning. Motivated by saving money on the movers, he probably took at least a dozen trips back and forth between the two places (which are NOT close by, I should add) in my Insight with the back seats folded down. 6 boxes at a time, and everything but the furniture was in the house by the time the moving truck got to the apartment on Sunday. 2 1/2 hours after that, and all the furniture was at the house, too (another score, because we paid by the hour, with a 2 hour minimum). 

The former owners wanted to stay in the house for a couple of weeks after the closing because they couldn't close on their new house immediately. After some negotiations, the agreement was: Leave the fridge, stay two weeks. In my (and my parents') mind, this seemed perfectly reasonable and fair. Evidently, they felt their fridge was worth far more than their (or OUR) convenience. They didn't take the fridge, but they did take a couple of things that in my opinion is clearly a FIXTURE (Hello -- I remember something from Real Estate Law) such as a bathroom cabinet, a toilet paper dispenser and towel rack. When I asked our realtor to ask for the bathroom cabinet back, their response was "No, you already got the fridge. You can buy a new bathroom cabinet yourselves, it's from Target". Not the point, but thanks, assholes. 

Anyway. I don't have many pictures to show, since the house looks like hell. (See above involving the Vomit.) But I do have two pictures of things I am awfully proud of:

CABINET SPACE! This cabinet holds all 12 of our red wine, white wine and champagne flutes, half of which were still in their original Crate and Barrel packaging from our wedding. 

The washer/dryer! B, Mia, Swarley and I all watched the first 8 minutes of the inaugural load, like a bunch of fools. Swarley barked, Mia "whoa"ed and B and I wondered how could so little water wash the clothes?

Anyway, I'm all better now. Poor B is at work feeling miserable since he has been off since Friday, so he can't take an outright sick day, though I hope for his sake that he can get out early. This afternoon, my office closes at 1pm, so I am off to the old apartment to clean up as much as possible and bring the final items over. More pictures as soon as there are no longer boxes in them!

Daycare drop off

This has been a tough couple of days. I actually can't believe that it's only Wednesday, it already feels like the weekend should be coming up. I've been very busy at work, writing an appeal to a Government Agency Determination that I don't believe the Company should be filing. The cost and effort involved in appealing the determination far outweighs the penalty, but hey, I just give out the advice, right? My boss took his sweet time deciding, too. I laid out all the options for him on Monday of last week, and told him to take a couple of days to make his decision. Of course, when he strolled in at 11am on Monday, he gave me the answer I was hoping against. Anyway, I've had two days to finish this before it had to be overnighted to the Government Agency. Now, it's done, it's at the post office and we paid for overnight delivery, so let's hope for the best. Mailbox rule....? Whatever.

But, that's not the real reason it's been a tough couple of days. Even if I didn't necessarily agree with what I was doing, I was happy to be doing it. Writing a real legal argument, for a Government Agency, it's thrilling for someone whose job as a lawyer mainly consists of writing collection demand letters and subsequent collection complaints. These past few days, I've really felt the effects of the working mom. Mia has been... awesome. She's been mostly sleeping through the night, waking up at 6am and then lounging in our bed for about 15 minutes before we have to start our daycare routine. She's discovering new things, learning new words, and being generally fun. She makes faces and tries to make you laugh, she chases her doggies around, and seems to genuinely enjoy her days. And I want to be right there with her, enjoying what she enjoys. B's schedule this week has made it so I had to do daycare drop off. This is only my second time ever doing it, and it did not go well. I don't really know what the etiquette is, or where I'm supposed to go, or what. It did not go well. I came in, put her stuff on her hook, and stood in her classroom while her teacher got herself situated. It felt strange to just walk out while she was obviously busy setting something up to better care for my child, so I just stood there for a minute or two while Mia screamed and clung to my leg. A second teacher came into the classroom and I was just like... "I should just go, right?" She nodded and I walked out, still hearing Mia wailing in the background. She was fine, and she always seems to be enjoying herself at pickup, but that was tough. All I wanted to do in that moment was pick her up and turn the car right back around to head home. I think the only thing (other than being a rationa adult) that kept me from doing it was that I had my appeal to finish by the end of the day. Ah, the classic and dramatic scenario where the working mother is pulled in one direction by her screaming child, and by her pending deadline in the other direction.

I generally never feel that way. I generally don't have something to do that feels like it's so important that I can't spend time with my child. My motivation to work is 90% based on need. And since B always does the drop off, I never see or feel the emotion involvd in physically giving my child to someone else. My last image of Mia is her happily waving and saying "Bye!" as they walk out to the car together. She doesn't cry when B drops her off in the morning - because that's what she's used to. And I never realized how grateful I was for that.

I like daycare. I like our daycare, I really do. For Mia, and while I still have to continue working, it's the best thing for her. She blossomed when she started, and we think her development continues to advance thanks to her time with older kids, the stimulation they provide, etc. It's great, and she does well. But sometimes, I really wish it was an option for us to stay home together.

Mia's new game is to tuck herself into our bed in the middle of the day.

Daycare crud the millionth

There's nothing like a sick weekend, is there? Mia was congested on Friday, and by Saturday morning, I was already infected. There is seriously no need for me to try keeping my distance from that kid. It doesn't help that whenever I have some food in my hand, she wants a bite. I am pretty sure the nectarine we shared on Thursday is to blame for this one.

Have you ever completely lost your sense of smell and taste when you had a cold? I don't think it has ever happened to me before. I mean, sure, I may have been congested to the point that my taste and smell has been impaired, but completely disappeared? Never. But since Saturday, I got nothing. Even if I am able to breathe through my nose, I still can't taste or smell anything. In all other ways, it's just your run of the mill cold/cough combination. Nothing alarming, but the complete loss of two senses.

It's weird. It hasn't stopped me from eating things that are bad for me though. For the past three days, I've become acutely aware of the texture of foods. It turns out that the texture of popcorn is much more enjoyable than a salad. When you can't taste the olive oil or the vinegar, eating salad just feels like you're eating wet plants.

I really hope my taste buds come back soon. Although the lack of my sense of smell has made changing diapers much easier, and I have no idea when a dog (or a husband) has farted, it's still pretty weird walking around without knowing what it smells like.

Strep o'clock

I feel like my blog posts of late revolve around looking forward to the weekend and the various diseases and infections that Mia brings home from daycare. So, for that reason, I am not going to dwell on the fact that Mia, B and I all three tested positive for Strep, are all three on a total of four different kinds of antibiotics, and all three had to take two sick days following a sick weekend. I won't even get into the story where I had an allergic reaction to the first antibiotic I was prescribed (shortness of breath, hives on my palms), having to catch the Minute Clinic nurse just before she was leaving to please give me something different, don't make me wait until morning THANKS! I'm also not going to dwell on the sinus pressure headache of the ages that I am currently experiencing, since the strep bacteria which gave me the most painful sore throat I've ever experienced has migrated up to my sinuses, despite being back at work because, let's be real, nobody can miss an impromptu 5 days in a row off work. Being back today makes it 4 (2 vacation days for my anticipated long weekend last week, and 2 sick days because of the Strep).

Instead, I'm going to show you a few pictures of how we were able to ignore our symptoms for a day, and entertain my high school friend J for the 36 hours of her visit. (She was supposed to be with u for four days, but she had a family emergency and had to delay her arrival from Thursday to Saturday -- everything is OK now, and it ended up being for the best, disease-wise)

Mia is visibly miserable, although we did not have confirmation that she was also in awful throat pain until Monday at 8am, which is when the pediatrician opens. I was stopping in every restroom between SharkReef at Mandalay Bay and The CocaCola store (not pictured) next to the MGM Grand to spray my throat with Chloraseptic, infinitely more times than the recommended amount of 1 spray every 2-3 hours. It was more like 3 sprays every hour, but you know.

 By tuesday evening, Mia had been on her antibiotics for 36 hours (me, day 3, Brian 35 hours) and was feeling well enough to earn her first evern baby time out. 2 minutes on a chair without getting off for deliberately knocking over a speaker after repeatedly being told to leave it alone and understanding perfectly.

Time Out, misunderstood as the "Mama won't let me get up game".

Immigration Fun

Mia was up all night on Wednesday through Thursday morning just non-stop coughing. She has had the sniffles basically every day since being enrolled in daycare, but it looks like she got a new string of virus in the past couple of days, because the mucus has multiplied.Needless to say, after a sleep less night for all three members of the Frenchie family, only my courageous husband made it to his regularly scheduled activities. Mia and I went to the pediatrician in the morning, where we were sent on our merry way with nothing but advice to use the humidifier and to prop her mattress up. Thanks so much, but hey, at least it's not strep. Also, upon the fear of it once again being strep, our very nice Pediatrician told me to also say "Ahh" and declared that I had more inflammation than Mia, so not to worry. Great, thanks so much. We spent the rest of the day alternating between the couch and the bed, Mia wanting to sleep on me the whole time, while I strategically try to keep my airways out of hers so as not to, you know, give her more of my inflammation.

This morning, after a full night's sleep on everyone's part, everyone seemed good enough to go in the morning, so here I am, back at work. I always dread coming in after missing more than just one day of work (wednesday was my cut-back day), but here I am at 10:30 already caught up. One of my very least favorite things was sitting in my email waiting for me to read and seethe about: an email from a person whose green card I am currently working on, saying something along the lines of: "My friend's green card was recently denied because a change in the law, so I think we should try a different approach." My somewhat polite answer: "There are a million reasons your friends petition may have been denied, whether her employer explained it to her in full or not. Green card applications are very complicated, and it isn't as simple as checking a different box. I have prepared your petition following the standards, and according to what this company is willing to offer you. I am confident in submitting this petition as we had discussed."

Don't you just love it when Clients listen to their friends, and based on that want to tell you what to do? Immigration practice, in its basic, uncomplicated, "I want to live in the US" form is very different from traditional law practice. There are petitions to prepare, and there are so many avenues to navigate. My very favorite thing about this job is just that: figuring out what the best route is, choosing which visa path to follow, whether people qualify for one over another, etc. It's very logical and diagram-y, and I like it. I started here knowing NOTHING about it, and figuring it out on my own from the USCIS website, handbooks and textbooks and from just doing it. But one of the downsides to this type of practice is that it is so detail oriented, that explaining your choice to your client can be pointless, such as it is in this case. There are so many nuances to employment-based immigration, what a company can do, what goes into a job description, who qualifies for it, what jobs you don't have a prayer of getting a foreigner for, etc. They just don't get it. And in communities that have had so much exposure to immigration, the experience their friend has, and who no doubt explained it to them in very rudimentary and nontechnical terms, is almost always taken as the best advice. No, I didn't learn about Immigration in law school, but I certainly learned how to represent a client to the best of my abilities. So please, stop listening to your friend whose green card was denied. Don't even listen to your friend whose green card was approved! Listen to me.

Bullet point Friday

I wanted to write a Whatnot Wednesday (on Thursday) but since that sort of defeats the point and I don't have the motivation to write anything more substantial, I will write a Bullet point Friday, instead.

• I have yet to take down Mia's pack 'n play in my office. It's behind a closet door, along with the extra exersaucer, so it isn't bothering anyone, but still. It should be at home, in a closet, rather than at work, in a closet. Part of me thinks that I might be needing it again. She's bound to get sick again pretty soon, and I may not be able to take a sick day! Mostly though, I'm just being lazy. Those portable cribs are so heavy, and my office is on the second floor. I keep trying to convince B to drive over and pick it up on one of his days off, but so far, nada.
• Speaking of my new office, the lighting throughout the entire space is hooked up to those motion sensor switches, where you walk into a room and the light turns on. This is fine, for most of the space, except my personal office. I sit at my desk and work on my computer, I'm not constantly getting up and moving around. So the light turns off. All the time. In the morning, when the sun is on my side of the building, it's fine. But in the afternoons, I look like a crazy person periodically waving my arms around.
• I had a momentary period of drama on Tuesday afternoon when B called me from work (he never calls from work) and asked how difficult it would be to change his departing flight to Chicago. Something about a scheduling conflict and his manager begging him to stay for at least part of the day, despite previously approving his day off request. After very nearly losing my mind at the prospect of carrying a car seat, stroller, baby and carry on luggage throughout the airport, entertaining a baby by myself for four hours and then collecting the car seat, stroller and luggage on my own, it turned out fine and we didn't have to make any switches. So everything's on schedule, despite prompting some concern from my co-workers when I was yelling at him on the phone.
• Last Friday, when I picked Mia up from daycare, I found an "art project" that had Mia's name on it in her backpack. My first instinct was that the teacher accidentally put someone else's art project in her bag, so I double checked. "No, that's definitely your Mia's!", the teacher informed me with a smile. It's a bunch of cotton balls, dipped in paint, and glued to a piece of green construction paper. I believe that she dunked cotton balls in paint, but beyond that, I'm skeptical. We put it up on the fridge anyway, because, well, what if our baby is actually a genius?
• Mia turns 11 months next week, and our biggest development is... drum roll please... she's finally growing a tooth! Everyone has been quite concerned that because both of her parents are missing their upper lateral incisors (both B and I had them as baby teeth, but the adult version never came. Mine are just... missing and I wore braces to close the gap, and B's baby teeth never fell out, so he's got tiny lateral incisors), Mia may not have teeth at all. But, all is well, as her little right bottom tooth is poking through, and the second one is closely following it. She has yet to let me take a picture of it, though.
• Chloe the Beagle is doing fine. No better, no worse. We've made the commitment to taking her out as often as possible, whenever we're around. She goes out as soon as I get home, for her evening walk, and once more immediately before bed. We had to add the extra walk at the very end of the night because she had taken to urinating in her crate as we were all settling into bed, which is easily avoided by snapping her leash on and walking down the stairs in our PJs. No big deal, and it saves huge amounts of frustration (and laundry).
• I've been saving my thoughts on daycare for a longer post, and I'll probably still do it, but so far, I'm pretty happy with everything. Except for our unpleasant weekend, Mia's been doing beautifully and seems to be adjusting well. B is supposed to do all the pickups and drop offs since he's so close, but I end up going to pick her up about half the time, despite the extra driving. I hate thinking of her being there when I'm perfectly capable of driving the extra 15 minutes. I like to come into the center and see her busily playing with one thing or another, it makes me feel much better about what she's up to all day. B says that I'm "wasting gas", but whatever. I drive a hybrid!

Family-wide daycare plague

Well, it turns out that my hopes for a painless return to normalcy last Friday was not to be. Mia continued to be sick throughout Thursday night, which prompted me to take her to the pediatrician on Friday morning and taking one for the team. We decided the night before that since B's salary is commission-based, I'd take a second sick day in a row. At the pediatrician, we found out that Mia had, in addition to a stomach bug, a second installment of Strep Throat. So, on the way to the pharmacy to pick up the antibiotics, I started to feel very very ill. As soon as we got through the door of our apartment, I was surprised to find B sitting on the couch looking miserable, and I barely had the time to thrust Mia into his arms before making it in time to the bathroom.

So, we spent the next few days all basking in our independent miserableness. While I was "sick" all day Friday, B waited until 1am to take his turn sitting on the floor of the bathroom. Luckily, the adult version of this stomach bug only lasted about 24 hours, so by Sunday, we were all relatively vomit-free and enjoyed fitting significantly less snugly into our respective pants. This morning, we all returned to our regularly scheduled programming. B's at the Bank, Mia's at Daycare, and I'm at work. Exhausted, but presumably a lot less miserable than we all were.

The joys of daycare.

Baby's First Day of School, or Mama's having an anxiety attack.

Last night, I conscientiously packed Mia's daycare bag. Diapers, wipes, blankets, bottles, formula, etc, all labelled "Mia C" just in case picking a first name in the SSA's top 10 (#10) for 2010 is already going to bite us in the ass. I didn't pay any toys, since they have plenty, but she's got lunch for all five days this week (even if she's only going in for 4 days). It's going to be a lovely day (88* and sunny), so they said that she might be able to go outside with the one year old class, if she seems mobile enough for them. I assured them that she was almost walking (which she is) and would be just fine cruising from one tiny piece of playground equipment to the other.

B did the first drop off and said that she made an upset face when he put her down on the playmat, but that she didn't cry. She usually does just fine whenever we've left her with other people, and she doesn't realize that we were gone until we're back. There was another little girl her age already on the mat, so I expect she'll just follow her lead. I'm willing to bet that her spending time with all these walking kids will get her walking unassisted in no time, too. She's already climbing in and out of boxes. Hopefully, she won't get upset in the next few days, once she realizes that going to daycare means being away from Mamam and BaBa.

As is often the case, I will be the one who will have the most difficulty adjusting to this new routine of ours. I realize that a working parent should be used to not spending 100% of their time with their baby, but I am NOT USED TO SPENDING TIME AWAY FROM MY BABAY! It was supposed to be a good week to transition. I had an Big Thing scheduled for the 18th, so much so that I was getting stressed out last week about when I was going to have time to do all this paperwork while Mia was demanding that I sit on the office playmat with her so that she could pretend to put things in my mouth. So, starting today was great. I'd have the first three days of the week to prepare for this Big Thing, two days to send the documents to the Chicago office and go over the documents with them, just in time to be available by phone starting the 18th until who knows when this Big Thing would be concluded.

Instead, I got on the phone with Government Inspector in charge of Big Thing this morning (Government Inspector had last week off, so I could only speak to him once I was already one week into prep work) who was extremely friendly and told me that he was really only looking for one thing so instead of doing all that prep work my letter originally asked for, why don't I just send him those documents and he doesn't even have to make the trip out to the suburbs? Why yes, Government Inspector, we can do that. So the 20+ hours of paperwork I had planned has been condensed down to a cool two hours, tops. Half of which I've already done, since, you know, I've been working on this all week. Oh, and he gave me until the end of next week to send it to him.

Obviously, it's a huge sigh of relief not to have to go through Big Thing with Government Inspector, but now I've got all this time to think about various crazy mama things. (Are they wiping her little sensitive behind properly?? Did they find her pacifier?? How did my office get suddenly so huge, I am LONELY!) The daycare center has webcams, but THEY'RE DOWN! How dare they have technical difficulties on our first day of school??

update: I've decided to leave work at 4 today, so that I can sneak over and pick Mia up before B does. I figure, it's allowed since I took a 15 minute lunch. Plus, Mama should see what that little bug is up to!