This moment - snacking on the beach

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

New Daycare, Knitting, and all about me.

This week has been the first full days at the new daycare.  So far I think it's going great!  My new hours of 7am to 4pm are working great too!  It's kind of hard getting up at 5:45 am every morning but it's getting better.  The first day was SUPER hard because Little Miss CGR woke up at 3 am and wouldn't go back to bed until 5!! However, after the first full day of daycare and playing with the other kids, she has been sleeping wonderfully since...yes I just realized I am jinxing myself.  She has been a bit fussy lately but we are all thinking that it's teeth coming in.  Not only has she been fussy but she has been putting everything in her mouth and slobbering all over the place.

Along with the new daycare, she just reached the age where she has separation anxiety.  I knew that this would hit around this time and thankfully it doesn't come with her crying as we leave daycare but she just doesn't like to be left alone anywhere.  If I try to put her in her excersaucer and do things in the kitchen, which is in site she will fuss at me.  I just talk to her and she usually settles a bit but she doesn't like to not be within site or really near you.  I know this stage will pass but it is nice to know that she wants me.  I think it also is this way because of the teething.  

Knitting related, I have been knitting! Lots of knitting going on.  I finished a slouchy hat for my niece for her birthday and it didn't fit so I'm in the process of fixing the ribbing.  I will post pictures of the process once it's completed.  

I'm also doing a test knit for a friend.  It's a super easy and fun scarf pattern.  I picked some of my latest handspun to knit it with and I'm loving how it's coming out.  I don't want to post pictures of the pattern as she hasn't posted it yet but here is a sneak peak.

In a couple posts ago, I talked about how I had lost some friends.  Along with losing these friends, I also felt like I couldn't go to my old knitting group anymore.  It was just somewhat uncomfortable and I didn't feel I wanted to go to a place I really didn't feel welcome anymore.  It's been sad and hard because I really did love going to knitting and when it no longer felt that way, I just felt I couldn't go.  In the end, I have found a new knitting home and it's a very small group, however, it's a great group too.  I miss some of the other ladies from my old group but I just can't bring myself to go anymore.   The new group consist of one old friend and two new ladies that I enjoy spending my Tuesday nights with.  We are all getting to know each other but there is no stress or drama and I love all the ideas and knitting content with our evenings.  My old friend and I are planning some VERY exciting new things so keep your eyes pealed for that! ;)

I also have some giveaways I will be posting on here and one on my barknknit podcast blog.  I just haven't had a chance to post them yet.

Hope you have a great evening and are having a great week!  Happy Knitting!

This moment - napping while out to lunch with the girls.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

Dogs on Thursday: A pup on the mend.

This weekend our little girl Abbygirl wasn't feeling good.  This weekend she wasn't acting strange but she puked up a couple times, which she never does.  Jackjack is our puker dog.  He's the one where every couple months he'll decide that he wants to puke up his dinner for a couple days and then he's over it.  We've had him checked out and there is no reason why he pukes he just does.  So, at first we though the puke we found was his...but then we actually saw Abby do it.  That was the start of being concerned.  Then on Sunday night she refused her dinner.  Abbygirl never refuses food!  Special K made her a pb sandwich and she ate that.  The next morning, again she had puked in the middle of the night, she refused her breakfast and this time refused the pb sandwich as well.  We waited a little bit and at this point we started getting a little concerned.  Right before leaving the house I tried a piece of bread and she ate that. 

On my way to work, I called the vet and they said that we should bring her in.  I went to work for a couple hours and then raced home, grabbed her and off to the vet we went.  She is so spoiled!  I love her to death but she is so funny when all she wants is someone to hold her hand.

 (Here is where I go into a bit of detail about stuff...if you don't want to read that kind of stuff...skip this paragraph.)
Once we got the vet, we waited to be seen.  The vet tech came in to check her out and took a stool sample.  She then came back and wanted to get a pee sample...in my mind I was thinking...Yeah right! :)  They took her out without me first and nothing.  She came back in and asked me if I could help her and out we went.  I walked her around and told her to go potty and she would pee. She did relieve herself and this time the vet tech looked and we could plainly see there was lots of blood in her stool.  We went back in and waited for the vet to come see us.

 When the vet came in, he asked more questions and said that he thought she got into something and that it seems to be passing through her system.  He gave her some meds for the bloody stool and some nausea meds.  I took her home and let's just say she proceeded to then have the opposite of constipation.  I was worried about leaving her home and not being able to let her out frequently.  I went to work, told my supervisor that I needed to be home, packed up my stuff and headed back.  CGR stayed with the nanny because 1. it's the nanny's last week and 2. I would be able to deal with Abby a little better and I wanted to wait until she was able to stop going often before bringing CGR home. 

I spent the afternoon organizing somethings in the house that I don't normally have time to work on and letting Abby out every 30-45 minutes, which I'm very glad I was there to do.  Here is some proof of my organizing.  If some of you have been to my house you are not surprised of the state of my dresser but I'm not sure any of you have seen it this cleared off. ;)

Well, Abbygirl is doing much better now and she started feeling so good later that day that she started annoying her brother again. :)  That's when I know she feels good.  He of course was not too pleased with being bothered but I was happy she was feeling good.

I hope you and your pups are all doing great!  Happy Dogs on Thursday!

This moment - holding items while crawling.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

Journey into non-family daycare

I feel the harder I try to blog more frequently the longer between blog posts.  I'm working on it and I do have a review and giveaway coming really soon!  I just need to make sure to get the pictures set and then I'll post it. 

This past week has been a whirlwind of looking for a new daycare.  My niece has been taking care of Little Miss CGR since she was 2 months old.  They have been having lots of fun and my niece has been there for the last 6 months Mon-Fri other than a trip she took to Italy back in March.  She of course sees her on weekends too so you can imagine they have seen a lot of each other.  I have a feeling they will both miss each other a lot.  My niece posted a picture of CGR the first day she started and then this week. 

2/1/11 to 8/1/11

It's amazing to see how much she's grown both physically and emotionally.  She's a happy baby and I'm so proud to be her momma.  And for those counting, she turned 8 months old yesterday. 

So, knowing the my niece was going off to Grad school this fall, I should have started looking for daycare a while ago but every time I did no one knew if they would have an opening in Aug and said to call back.  I decided just to wait then. 

Well, August was fast approaching and I decided to make an apt with a lady that was close by and see if she would work. It took us a week to finally meet her as our schedule didn't work out.  At first I thought she would be fine, but then right before we were leaving she felt the need to impart her "wisdom" on how I should be raising my child.  I didn't sit well with me as I am not ok with the whole cry it out method of sleep training and I feel if my daughter wakes up at night and wants to nurse that I will nurse her.  Nursing isn't all about food but I won't get started on that.  After meeting her, I decided to check her up on the licensing board and I was further disappointed in her when I found a complaint.  I won't say what the complaint was but It wasn't one that I was willing to over look.  Armed with the knowledge that this lady wouldn't work, I had to figure something out and soon!

I put a call out to my mommy and me group on facebook and a mommy mentioned that her daycare had an opening. I quickly called her.  The lady was very sweet, however, she lived too far away.  Graciously, she said that she can post on her daycare board for people to email me if they had openings.   She forwarded me the email she posted and within several hours I already had 5 options to meet. 

Since SK had gone to the last one and I knew he really wouldn't want to meet all these ladies, I asked my sister Fleas to come with CGR and me.  Looking back, thank God I did!  That night we met two ladies, and they could not have been more polar opposites!  The first lady was such a sweet woman.  She brought us into her home and we talked and did a tour and then about 30 mins after being in the house, she asked me if she could hold CGR and of course I said yes.   CGR cuddled her and seemed to feel very comfortable with her.  I left with a good feeling after being there for a little over an hour.   From there, we trekked up to the 2nd lady.  I should have just called and cancelled when I was driving up there but I insisted that I needed to meet all my options.  When we got to the home, I already knew I didn't want to be there.  We walked in and as soon as the woman opened the door we were bombarded with a very strong perfume smell.  She had not even closed the door when she snatched little miss CGR out of my hands.  I felt a wave of panic and the intense need to get my daughter back as soon as I could!  We were polite but asked very few questions and I could not get CGR back and us out of there fast enough.  We drove home and all I could think was absolutely NOT!

The next day, we met with another woman during lunch and she was another very nice woman.  I enjoyed her and I think she would have been a great choice.  She had a comfortable home, however, she has 3 boys of her own on top of the potentially 6 daycare kids and I just felt that CGR wasn't ready for that.  After driving far for the one woman's house, I decided it was better to find someone closer and cancelled the last two options.  Since we had all loved the first woman I met, I decided to have SK meet her and if he liked her then that's who we would go with.  We met her on Friday and I think SK felt as I did that she would be perfect to take care of our little girl.  We signed papers and put a deposit down on Saturday and worked out the details of the switch.

We are not going to switch her over to the new daycare for another two weeks so everyone has some time to transition over.  It's going to be a bit tough as I have to change my hours at work and SK will need to be doing the drop off in the morning.  And the hardest of all will be losing our nanny.  At this new daycare, CGR will be one of 2 girls around the same age and then there is another boy who is 10 months old who comes twice a week.  She has openings for 2 over 18 months but she has not filled them yet.  I'm feeling good that most the week at least in the beginning, she will be with only one other girl around her age.

It is so hard to pick someone you can trust to take care of your child that is not your family.  Family is always best but when you have to choose I feel it all goes with your gut...and as the daycare lady we chose said to us, we really have to feel we trust her in order for it to work.  She's been doing daycare for 26 years and she is a grandma to several grandchildren.  As she also said, no one is perfect but you have to find the best pick.  We've had to make some changes, such as we introduced a sippy cup finally even though I still just give her water in a glass most the time.  We've also introduced cereal which to be honest, she really doesn't like.  She will take about 2 bites and then wants whatever else we have to offer her.

In the long run, I didn't feel these were things I couldn't compromise on.  I had wanted to ask her to do cloth but at the time I just really wanted to find someone great after the bad experiences we had.  I am sure the first day we drop off I might cry...but I thought that about the first day coming back to work and I didn't.  Only time will tell if we made the right choice but I feel we did.

Thanks for reading my story and I hope that you enjoyed it.  If you have any daycare stories good or bad, please feel free to share them. 

Happy Mothering!