Maya's Kiss

Yesterday I had a really sweet moment in what was otherwise a VERY trying day. Maya, my second oldest, gave me her first kiss! I've kissed her a million times and always ask her to kiss me back, never expecting anything in return, but yesterday Maya gave me that darling, open mouth kiss babies give you before they know how to smack. It was soooooo sweet! And it made my day.

Today, Maya had her second milestone: she ate our table food! She's been on table food at home for a while, but her mom was a little uncomfortable letting her eat table food at day care. I asked her yesterday if it would be alright to let Maya at least eat mashed potatoes at day care, since they're soft, and her mom said yes. In fact, she gave me permission to give Maya any day care food that's soft (but absolutely no hot dogs!). I'm real happy about that because Maya's been eating baby food since she was, well, a baby. Now she's a toddler and she really needs more substantial fare at day care as well as at home. I also hope the extra "chewing" Maya will be doing now will help her finally cut some teeth; she's over a year old and is still toothless!

I don't know what other milestones Maya has in store for me. She's walking, can say "baby", and can wave bye-bye, so it seems that the only thing left is for her to get some teeth. But who knows? I may get back to work today and have Maya show me something I never expected. Those kind of moments are the best things about working in day care.

Our Old Friend Chickenpox

Chickenpox has reared its ugly head at Kiddieland. A child in the 2's class was diagnosed yesterday and now everybody's panicing a little bit. Of my four babies I was concerned mostly for Isabel and Jessa since they haven't been vaccinated and I hate the thought of them getting this uncomfortable illness at such young ages, but beyond that I don't think chickenpox is a big deal.

When I was a child everyone got the chickenpox; it was a rite of passage. Sure, the pox is uncomfortable with all that itching but it wasn't treated like a killer disease until the vaccine came out about 15 years ago, and then it became all the rage to avoid the pox. The vaccine became like a status symbol almost. I remember thinking, Just let your kid get the pox and get it over with. And you know what? Some kids who'd been vaccinated got sick anyway. True, the symptoms weren't as severe as those in the unvaccinated kids, but the idea of a vaccine is to NOT get the disease at all, not even in a milder form. So the rush by so many parents to get their children vaccinated against a nonthreatening disease proved, for some, to be an utter waste of time. And now chickenpox is again among us, whether we like it or not. Welcome back, old friend.

The Dollar Stretcher

Hey friends! As you can see, I've added my first link to this blog; it's called The Dollar Stretcher. Why The Dollar Stretcher, you ask? Why not something directly related to day care and/or children? Well, for all of you who work or have worked in day care you know that the pay sucks. The Dollar Stretcher is a site about living better for less; in fact, that's the site's motto. And all of us underpaid caregivers need all the help we can get to stretch our meager earnings.

The Dollar Stretcher is a simple but highly informative site. You'll find frugal info on everything from raising kids to natural living. I even found info on making gift baskets! That sealed it for me; The Dollar Stretcher is my new favorite website! I hope you get a kick out of it, too.