baby

The Catchup

7:35 PM

Wow, so it's been a while since I blogged. Life happens. I have a baby. The struggle is wanting to spend time with her but also wanting to write a blog post to remember everything that's happened. So here are some quick highlights:

  • Daycare - Maisie has been attending daycare full time since the week before Thanksgiving. She is really thriving. She appears to love her teachers and having that interaction. She's usually the first child to be dropped off and loves that one-on-one time with her teacher. Having her on a set schedule has worked well for her. They taught her how to nap and go to sleep (no more fighting it!) And I think she sees the older kids in her class and wants to do what they are doing, so she comes home and it seems she has learned something new every day. 
  • Illness - She had her first cold the first week in December. And her first fever the first week in January. I am sure this isn't the last, but we survived. STRESS!
  • Solid food - I waited until she was 6 months to start her on solid food. I let her tell me she was ready and boy was she ever! She sits in her highchair while we eat dinner and kept eyeing our food and wanting it, so we offered her baby food and she loved it. We haven't really found anything she doesn't like. She takes it like a champ, some days more than others. She also hasn't had an allergic reaction to anything either. Fingers crossed she stays a good eater because Mommy and Daddy are adventurous eaters.
  • Teeth - Her first bottom tooth popped through Jan. 11, and the second came, a week later, on Jan. 18. I haven't figured out yet if teething is going to be terrible for her or not because she was sick the whole time. I am hoping the fever doesn't come every time she has a tooth because that was miserable for her.
  • Sitting and Crawling - These two go hand in hand because they happened together all of a sudden. She has always liked to sit up but she can finally sit up on her own and not look like a weeble-wobble. She started crawling last week and by the beginning of this week is full on using it to get anywhere, especially Caesar's gross dog toys. She loves those the best. 


Other than that we are enjoying watching this girl grow..(Seriously, how is she 7 months!?). Every day is a new experience and we can't wait to see how she blossoms.

baby

The Great Daycare Hunt

1:42 PM

Daniel and I are really lucky to have his mother watching the little one until she is six months, but that means we need to find a daycare soon as the months are ticking by fast!


We went and toured Bright Horizons near our house and while it’s beautiful with great curriculum and SO convenient, the price is outrageous. I don’t think the location can justify paying so much.

We have two others to tour, both currently have a waiting list with one fairly close and one further than we would like, but both with everything we are looking for in a daycare. Both come HIGHLY recommended but each come at a cost. Daniel and I will just have to discuss what we can and cannot give up when it comes to a daycare. Before we had Maisie, daycare was one stress that slowed me down from wanting to have a baby. How crazy is that – daycare?! It’s the cost. Everyone wants to give their kid the best and when you can’t afford to send them where you want to send them it’s stressful and sad.


It’s so maddening how much daycare costs. I was reading a book before Maisie was born called “Bringing Up Bebe.” The book is written by an American woman who raises her daughter in Paris. She goes on to explain several differences in how the French women raise children. While I don’t agree with everything in the book, the daycare part really stuck with me.

“The French have all kinds of public services that surely help make having kids more appealing and less stressful. Parents don’t have to pay for preschool, worry about health insurance, or save for college.
Many get monthly cash allotments—wired directly into their bank accounts—just for having kids.”

They don’t have to pay for preschool and daycare is subsidized by the state on a sliding scale for people based on income so everyone can afford it. The author goes on to say she had her reservations about a government program for her child, but that she was pleasantly surprised with the care her daughter received and ended up sending three kids there. Want to read more from her on daycare in the United States? Read here.

So we continue our search and although it might put us in the poor house, it’s all for the babe and that’s really what life is all about now.





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