Daycare Drama

Since March, we have been exploring all of our daycare options.

There is only one institutionalized daycare facility that accepts infants in our town. We checked them out early on, before I even gave birth. They seemed really nice, but I realized why there is only one place that takes infants, and that's because infants seem sort of out of place in institutionalized care. They are snotty and crawling all over each other, napping in cribs lined up against the wall. While I can appreciate this type of care for preschoolers, I felt like our four month olds needed to be in a more home-like environment.

We talked to my mom about the possibility of her moving up from Orange County to be the nanny, but after months of going back and forth, the logistics of moving up here (job and home) were too difficult to overcome.

We got a referral through my teaching job for a woman who was starting a home day care. Her husband is a teacher in the district so we made an appointment and visited her house. She was sweet, somewhat shy, but had early childhoood education experience (she worked at the instiutionalized care place among other child care facilities) and seemed very organized. We put down a deposit with her.

Then through the twins club in our town, we were referred to a nanny with high recommendations. She was young, but experienced, CPR certified, and had some great references. But then one of her references didn't check out, and told us that the nanny had been calling in sick alot (she felt due to partying). We were scheduled to meet with her the next day so we planned to confront her about it and see what her response was. But when she called in sick the next day, we knew we wouldn't be able to rely upon her.

Finally, we realized that the in-home care lady seemed like the best shot. So I called her to see if she remembered our schedule, and still had us on the books. We hadn't been in touch in over a month so I thought it would be good to check in. But when we called her to check in, the number was disconnected! What the heck?! (She cashed our deposit! I am still trying to track her down!)

With two weeks left until I needed to go to work, I started to panic! Then an old friend from my previous job at The Oxbow School told me that her nanny was cleaning houses and was looking for part-time work to supplement her income. She used this nanny for four years, she was reliable, kind, energetic and in fact she still used her to babysit her 9-year old this year! The only thing was, that she doesn't speak much English. We interviewed her with some friends as translators, and loved her.  She happens to live right in our neighborhood and was very excited to be around the girls. When I asked her if she was interested in this kind of work, she replied, "This is not work! This is fun!"

I have always wanted to be fluent in Spanish (this is a great way to practice!), and I hoped that my kids would also be fluent in more than one language. Therefore, it seemed like a good fit. So we hired her. Phew!

I am still looking into other nannies to use as babysitters in case we need extra days or nights as meetings, Back To School Nights and extra classes start to creep into my schedule. Here I go! Foray into the work force once again...