Daycare provider, take 3

I hope to hold true to my tag line and that soon enough, I can claim "triumph" over childcare.

D's first sitter was my dear friend Ms. E. She is my dear friend who was (and still is) able to stay home with her daughter. As my maternity leave drew to a close, all I could think was how perfect it would be if D stayed with her. I had joked with her about it, but had no idea it would come to fruition. It was a match made in heaven, until we had to move away.

I moved closer to work - which is 45 miles from my previous residence and a seriously steep increase in cost of living. We were leaving behind D's father and his paternal grandmother who occassionaly cared for him. I was terrified about trying to find ANYBODY I could afford, let alone somebody who would actually be good for us. My wonderful friend Ms. E made a few calls, and found a friend of hers in the area who was recently 'retired' from a daycare center and is now staying home with HER daughter. For over a year it was basically a match made in heaven. But the spring brought us a rocky road, and ended in us parting ways abruptly. Long story short, D was no longer a good fit for their family. Discipline issues had returned.

D is now with Ms A, the mother of one of my students. She is a wonderful woman, in her 50's with a sincere love for D and his well being. He is an angel for her (of course) and is gleefully spoiled by being the only child under her care. She used to run a licensed day care with a head start program, so he is getting lots of structured learning activities. His behavior with me, however, has not improved...I would go so far as to say it has declined.

I'm being patient - as this has been a HUGE transition for him, and he asks often about his previous sitter and her family. He is also either getting a nasty sinus infection, or 2 year molars. Hard to tell. Regardless, it has been a rough week, and I'm exhausted. I'll be anxious to see how things go as my schedule at school thins down to nothing :-) I'm also excited that my sweet, loving, godmother/aunt has gotten us the 1-2-3 books! Soooo excited. I have heard from a few parents that it works. I'm hoping for some real-life examples, and some "if child does A, then parent does B" advice.

In all the chaos of the past week though, D has created his first painted masterpiece. He is SO in love with his creation. He insisted on carrying it down 3 flights of steps from daycare, held it in the care the whole way home, and only surrendered it to me for careful placement above the fire place. The medium is finger paint, done in red to celebrate "RED WEEK" at daycare. Enjoy!