Well - I was going to post this last week - or even the week before but time got away from me.
First week at the new daycare center synopsis:
No one "in charge" was there the day to give us our pass codes or introduce us to the center and the routine. Even $$ wise, no one who was there first thing in the morning knew anything about what we needed to do. Found out on the second day that the director works 9-6 every day - so Clark will never meet her.Finally saw the owner at pick-up time on Wednesday.Every day when I ask Ronnie what he did today - he says "nothing".The take-home sheet with lessons indicates that they are learning about the letter "A" and numbers 1-3 this week. No wonder Ronnie thinks he's don nothing.By end-of-week Ronnie has pee'd on himself 3X during nap time. Something that only happens when he's really upset and not talking about it.I've had an uneasy/unhappy feeling all week.
Second week at the new daycare center:
Well, only Ronnie was going during the second week...due to Evan's Pneumonia...Monday - when I picked up Ronnie at 5pm they were watching TV. (I was aware of the TV and not extatic about it, but had been told that it was a 5:30 and beyond activity)Tuesday - Picture day - actually several things happened - Hubby found out when he dropped Ronnie off that Pre-K photos had been taken the day before, when he asked about a re-take since we had been unaware of that the teacher was a bit snippy with him. He also tried to drop off Ronnie's nap pillow that morning and was rudely told that it was NOT ALLOWED.The fact that the center uses only the state minimum employees:child ratio became a problem when several staff called in sick over the course of the week.The director was working in the classrooms daily and no one was "up front" in the office all week.There were several additional incidents as well as continued bed-wetting at naptime....but you get the picture.
By Wednesday last week I was strongly regretting taking the boys out of their old place....so I picked Ronnie up at 4pm and we went visiting - and fishing for information on whether we'd be welcome back there again.
Third week at the new center:
Monday - I called the old center to ask if we could come backTuesday - I met with the new director of the old center to discuss the issues involved etc, and gave notice at the new center.Wednesday - Ronnie's rude teacher was actually nice to Clark this morning and actually took time to talk to him about Ronnie.
Wonders will never cease.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Happy Birthday to EVAN! My little guy is 3!
Months ago, when asked what kind of birthday party he wanted this year, Evan responded DORA! DIEGO!
So, Mommy of course, complied...heck, we've been thru 2 Blue's Clues parties how hard could it be???
HMMM...
So, last Friday I took the day off to get ready for the teaming hoards of young people who would invade on Saturday and wrote the great DORA adventure!
Party highlights:
It was a BEAUTIFUL fall day and the kids played outside a LOT! YAY!
We did go inside to do the big craft event - T-shirt decorating...
Toward the end of the decorating "Swiper the Fox" showed up and stole Backpack, but left "The Map" behind.
Map told us that our BIRTHDAY ADVENTURE would be to go Thru the Bounce House, Rescu Backpack in the Garden, and come To the Canopy to find Evan's Birthday Treasure!
Unfortunately, during the adventure some of the girl party guests had some meltdowns due to fear of Swiper....(Played by Auntie D).
We went back inside when Pizza arrived and had Pizza and Cupcakes...
Then back outside to play...
All-in-All while I wouldn't call it a TOTAL success it was a pretty good day - especially for the BIRTHDAY BOY!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Pneumonia
If it's not one thing - it's another.
I've been home 3 days this week - no - not enjoying the wonderful sunny autum days - nursing a sick boy....
Evan came home sick from the weekend with Gram and Gramp on Sunday. He'd been telling them he didn't feel so good all weekend, and Sunday he started running a fever. He seemed ok overnight Sunday, but I took him to the doc on Monday morning just because he's our sneaky ear-infection boy...and she kept listening to his chest....She sent the nurse in with the nebulizer and did an albuterol treatment in the office. When she re-checked his lungs - they still sounded congested and she sent us for a chest x-ray. Sure enough the little tyke had a touch of pneumonia.
So, Monday was spent in and out of medical establishments. Yesterday and today we've been staying close to home. He's not running a fever any more, but he's still not well either. Poor little guy!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Happy Anniversary!
WOW!
Last Thursday was our 4th anniversary!
We started celebrating at dinner time on Wednesday when Clark got home - each boy got to bring mommy a dozen roses! And daddy brought her sushi (YUMM!).
On Thursday, the actual anniversary day I presented Clark with a yummy fruit basket - did I mention that the traditional gifts for 4 years are fruits and flowers?!?!?
Auntie D babysat for us that evening while we went to dinner on the Lake.
It was a wonderful day!!!!!!!!!
As one of my cards said "To the journey...to the joy...(to the boys...) happy anniversary.
Toxic Synovitis
On August 29 Ronnie woke up and told us he couldn't walk.
After trying to move through the morning in the usual way we ended up at the doctor's office and the lab for blood work.
The doctor asked us - wasn't he sick recently? - to which we answered no.
He said he thought it was Toxic Synovitis, a fairly common virus that causes hip pain, but was sending us for some tests because TS was usually preceeded by a really bad cold virus.
The symptoms in the links below described Ronnie to a T.
And to keep you from worrying unnecessarily - he was walking again by evening and running the next day.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000981.htm
http://www.drgreene.com/21_1212.html
http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/S/synovitis_toxic.html
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/parents/special/bone/181.html
After trying to move through the morning in the usual way we ended up at the doctor's office and the lab for blood work.
The doctor asked us - wasn't he sick recently? - to which we answered no.
He said he thought it was Toxic Synovitis, a fairly common virus that causes hip pain, but was sending us for some tests because TS was usually preceeded by a really bad cold virus.
The symptoms in the links below described Ronnie to a T.
And to keep you from worrying unnecessarily - he was walking again by evening and running the next day.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000981.htm
http://www.drgreene.com/21_1212.html
http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/S/synovitis_toxic.html
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/parents/special/bone/181.html
Monday, August 27, 2007
Daycare
Over the past few months, I've mentioned daycare woes.Let me start at the begining on this one.
We officially started full-time daycare in January 2006. Prior to that we had done as much home-care as we could and had done some part-time day care at two chain-centers (Goddard School and Lipton Corporate Child Care). Neither of those was financially viable as a full-time option - and even if they had been, I would not have chosen the Goddard School we used again.
We ended up at a local community run daycare, loosely associated with our public school system. From the first day there, we LOVED the center. The teachers were good, friendly and LOVED the kids. Included in the price, the kids are served breakfast (some days hot items) with fruit and milk, Lunch (almost always hot) with veggie, fruit and milk, and snacks. It was close to home and convenient for drop-off/pick-up. I got involved in the Parent Association immediately and Clark joined in a few months later.
In November of last year, the Director of the center, who had been there for more than two decades resigned. She took a position as a kindergarten teacher in the township.Since then, things have been in a slow crumble. The day-to-day care has continued pretty well, but we have gone LONG periods of time with no director; we had one for 6-8 weeks (Feb Mar time frame) one "acting" Director for 6-8 weeks (June-Aug time frame) and now have another. In addition, a new Asst Director was hired in April and the old one left in June. There have been long stretches of time with no leadership - no point-person - no one who had ALL the information about what was going on - no one who was totally RESPONSIBLE.
The parents association started bringing this up as an issue (along with other items) at the March meeting - by June we had all been labeled as troublemakers. I really didn't think too much of that until late-July/early August when the following happened:
I had been keeping loosely in-touch with a former center staff member who sent me information about how the parents association had been presented to the acting director and what actions were going to be taken.
1)The acting director was told that we had written to the board of directors with our issues without "going through channels"; and that we were being unreasonable about our requests - we were requesting staff coverage of the front entrance for all hours of business.
2)Further, the parents association was going to be disbanded and new parents would be hand-selected who were "committed to the center".
3)Then, one of the main teachers in Ronnie's classroom went on vacation. A teacher who loves him very much. The whole time she was away, I was told every day that Ronnie had had behavior issues. As soon as she returned the issues vanished. It really made me wonder about what was going on in that room...what the teachers were being told etc.
At the begining of August I had half-heartedly begun looking for other places. For reasons 1&2 above, and because we're starting to worry about kindergarten...our town only does 1/2 day and the before-and-after care associated with the school has a bad reputation. So one of our requirements if we were going to "bail" from the current situation was for the new center to have kindergarten offered. I went to and/or called at least a dozen centers between home and work. It was CRAZY - in the sort-of affordable price range - there was no one that offered everything you'd want. Of course for 300-800 more a month per child....one place even had a swimming pool.We settled around 3:
#1 we're on the waiting list for - and has almost everything we'd want - the drawback for this one is that it is associated with the Catholic Church and closes the month of July.
#2 is in a strip mall - the classrooms have half-walls separating them from each other and the play area is across the parking lot. This one is a single-proprieter who has one other center. Plusses are that they do the nap-time laundry as well as food. In addition to offering kindergarten they also offer before&after care and our town will bus to them.
#3 is a brand-new facility but is corporate-owned and has that "by-the-book" feel. They have a wonderful in-door play area as well as a decent outdoor area. BUT - they do not offer food in the price or even as an add-on.
Then item 3 happened - and that brought back memories of having seen some things happen with the pre-school classroom that weren't to my liking...and one of those was hammered home by the child of a friend being asked to leave the center and labled ADHD.
I became convinced I had to have the kids - esp. Ronnie OUT of there. So, last week, I paid the "enrollment" fee at #2 and scheduled the kids to start there in a couple of weeks.
I gave notice last Friday at our current center - and still have mixed emotions about the whole thing. Clark asked me on Friday "What are we gaining by doing this?" and one thing is kindergarten and a presumably better before-after-care program, but besides that? I don't really know. All I know is that I'm not comfortable with the current situation anymore. What makes it harder is that I loved it so much for a while.
We officially started full-time daycare in January 2006. Prior to that we had done as much home-care as we could and had done some part-time day care at two chain-centers (Goddard School and Lipton Corporate Child Care). Neither of those was financially viable as a full-time option - and even if they had been, I would not have chosen the Goddard School we used again.
We ended up at a local community run daycare, loosely associated with our public school system. From the first day there, we LOVED the center. The teachers were good, friendly and LOVED the kids. Included in the price, the kids are served breakfast (some days hot items) with fruit and milk, Lunch (almost always hot) with veggie, fruit and milk, and snacks. It was close to home and convenient for drop-off/pick-up. I got involved in the Parent Association immediately and Clark joined in a few months later.
In November of last year, the Director of the center, who had been there for more than two decades resigned. She took a position as a kindergarten teacher in the township.Since then, things have been in a slow crumble. The day-to-day care has continued pretty well, but we have gone LONG periods of time with no director; we had one for 6-8 weeks (Feb Mar time frame) one "acting" Director for 6-8 weeks (June-Aug time frame) and now have another. In addition, a new Asst Director was hired in April and the old one left in June. There have been long stretches of time with no leadership - no point-person - no one who had ALL the information about what was going on - no one who was totally RESPONSIBLE.
The parents association started bringing this up as an issue (along with other items) at the March meeting - by June we had all been labeled as troublemakers. I really didn't think too much of that until late-July/early August when the following happened:
I had been keeping loosely in-touch with a former center staff member who sent me information about how the parents association had been presented to the acting director and what actions were going to be taken.
1)The acting director was told that we had written to the board of directors with our issues without "going through channels"; and that we were being unreasonable about our requests - we were requesting staff coverage of the front entrance for all hours of business.
2)Further, the parents association was going to be disbanded and new parents would be hand-selected who were "committed to the center".
3)Then, one of the main teachers in Ronnie's classroom went on vacation. A teacher who loves him very much. The whole time she was away, I was told every day that Ronnie had had behavior issues. As soon as she returned the issues vanished. It really made me wonder about what was going on in that room...what the teachers were being told etc.
At the begining of August I had half-heartedly begun looking for other places. For reasons 1&2 above, and because we're starting to worry about kindergarten...our town only does 1/2 day and the before-and-after care associated with the school has a bad reputation. So one of our requirements if we were going to "bail" from the current situation was for the new center to have kindergarten offered. I went to and/or called at least a dozen centers between home and work. It was CRAZY - in the sort-of affordable price range - there was no one that offered everything you'd want. Of course for 300-800 more a month per child....one place even had a swimming pool.We settled around 3:
#1 we're on the waiting list for - and has almost everything we'd want - the drawback for this one is that it is associated with the Catholic Church and closes the month of July.
#2 is in a strip mall - the classrooms have half-walls separating them from each other and the play area is across the parking lot. This one is a single-proprieter who has one other center. Plusses are that they do the nap-time laundry as well as food. In addition to offering kindergarten they also offer before&after care and our town will bus to them.
#3 is a brand-new facility but is corporate-owned and has that "by-the-book" feel. They have a wonderful in-door play area as well as a decent outdoor area. BUT - they do not offer food in the price or even as an add-on.
Then item 3 happened - and that brought back memories of having seen some things happen with the pre-school classroom that weren't to my liking...and one of those was hammered home by the child of a friend being asked to leave the center and labled ADHD.
I became convinced I had to have the kids - esp. Ronnie OUT of there. So, last week, I paid the "enrollment" fee at #2 and scheduled the kids to start there in a couple of weeks.
I gave notice last Friday at our current center - and still have mixed emotions about the whole thing. Clark asked me on Friday "What are we gaining by doing this?" and one thing is kindergarten and a presumably better before-after-care program, but besides that? I don't really know. All I know is that I'm not comfortable with the current situation anymore. What makes it harder is that I loved it so much for a while.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Breif Update
Haven't had much time to blog lately...so update on life:
Work - project my department has been working on for a year has gone live and we're shaking out the bugs....so work has been unpleasant. The big "sport" at my company is finger pointing. Although there are errors and missing details in every area - we can't possibly work as a team to make it right...we have to spend as much time and energy as possible pointing out the other guy's flaws.
Home - garden is still pretty much as stated in the last blog. Squash Basil and tomatoes coming in - tomatoes did take a hit in a particularly nasty storm. They had grown over top of the cages and the storm knocked them down a bit....but they have finally started to ripen. LARGE bunches of basil and 2-4 med squash are being picked 2-3x a week. We had a great play-date with an old work buddy of mine ( we were preggo together twice so kids are same ages). She decided to stay home after #2.
Kids - Daycare - NIGHTMARE - I will actually need to devote a WHOLE post to this subject in the next week or so. For now just let me say I've visited 8-10 places this week....before work, after work, lunch time.....hence no time to blog.
More later.
Work - project my department has been working on for a year has gone live and we're shaking out the bugs....so work has been unpleasant. The big "sport" at my company is finger pointing. Although there are errors and missing details in every area - we can't possibly work as a team to make it right...we have to spend as much time and energy as possible pointing out the other guy's flaws.
Home - garden is still pretty much as stated in the last blog. Squash Basil and tomatoes coming in - tomatoes did take a hit in a particularly nasty storm. They had grown over top of the cages and the storm knocked them down a bit....but they have finally started to ripen. LARGE bunches of basil and 2-4 med squash are being picked 2-3x a week. We had a great play-date with an old work buddy of mine ( we were preggo together twice so kids are same ages). She decided to stay home after #2.
Kids - Daycare - NIGHTMARE - I will actually need to devote a WHOLE post to this subject in the next week or so. For now just let me say I've visited 8-10 places this week....before work, after work, lunch time.....hence no time to blog.
More later.
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