Pics from Daycare

The neighbourhood watch.....

Playing together....
Focused on her food....
What's up??

Our daycare provider sent along these great pics from today.  I love seeing pics of the 3 of them together having a good time!!

First Day of Daycare

While Maddy has had a nanny for the past month, Friday was her first day of care away from our house.
Since we share a nanny, we take turns having the kids at our house.
So all of last week I was feeling a bit nervous. I have spent the past month getting to know our nanny (hate that word...she's so much more than a "nanny"...I will call her our DCP for "daycare provider") and seeing how wonderful she is with Mads so I wasn't worried about that. But it just felt like such a big change to have to go drop her off somewhere for the entire day and not get to hear her and know that she's okay while I'm working from home.
I'm very good at WORKING, while I'm working from home. The TV never comes on and I don't do house "stuff" except for throwing the odd load of laundry in the wash. And I had also been very good at not running upstairs to say hi to Pooh Bear every 10 minutes.
I actually did the opposite - I tried to not say hi the whole day, as it tended to make things worse for her. She would see me and get excited and want to play.
So I usually came out of my office to grab lunch only when they were at the park or out for a walk.
But I still liked that I could hear what they were up to. I knew when she was napping or when they went for a walk. It was nice and it was comforting.
But now that she's at the other house, I don't get to have that comfort all day long. I'm sure, like all other things, I will adjust to this.
So Friday came and Michael and I both went to drop her off. I decided I would hang out there for a while to help her adjust. I probably ended up being there for close to 2 hours. It was hard to leave :) 
Once I got back to the house it seemed so quiet!
I worked for a few hours and then called Michael around 3:30 to see if we could go get her early.  Not my most productive day at work.  

Michael and I met at the house around 5pm.  He called me to make sure I didn't go inside without him.  We both wanted to be there to see how happy she was to see us.  

When we walked in she was playing with toys on the mat. In all honesty, she was happy to see us, but I was expecting her to be happier.  I think maybe she was a tiny bit bummed that she knew play time was over.  

It was so nice to give her a big hug and kiss!!  Sigh.  

We hit up our favourite Greek restaurant for dinner and asked Mad about her day.  She told us stories and made friends with 2 young girls at another table.  She's growing up so quickly!!

New wheels

In order to allow our nanny to get out of the house with the 3 kids, we've purchased a (used) triple stroller. We ended up finding one on Craigslist and Michael made the drive to Pickering last week to pick it up. Mad has already had a few walks in the TS and is apparently quite chatty while being chauffeured around. The stroller currently takes up most of my living room but it will soon find its new home in the shed that was just built this weekend.

Nanny Hunting

We're on the hunt for a nanny. It's such a difficult thing to do. I keep looking at the resume's people are sending me and there's always something that makes them not perfect for the job of helping raise Maddy. It's actually quite stressful. I'm trying to find the right balance of young & fun combined with maturity & experience with infants. I want someone local (East end of the city), with first aid certification, ECE or teacher's college a bonus :)
I'm sure most people know of the crazy day care situation in Toronto. It's nearly impossible to get a spot for an infant or toddler. I've had day cares tell me the waitlist is 2 years long (and also offers to put any un-conceived children on the waitlist, just in case). So that, combined with Maddy's age, make getting a nanny the best solution for us.
Just last week a couple we know asked us if we'd consider a nanny share. We know this couple from when we lived in the condo. They had dogs and we had Winston, so we met through our dogs. They were pregnant at the same time we were and also ended up moving to the East end and we've kept in touch on facebook and email. Their son is about 2 months older than Mad. They both seem to be easy going babies so I think they'll get along nicely. So we're hoping to make something work with them because it would be nice for Maddy to have someone to play with each day and it would save some money.
So with this other couple, we met a great potential nanny yesterday. She's a kindergarden teacher with a daughter (1 year old). All 3 kids played nicely while the parents chatted yesterday (a good sign). The teacher would look after all 3 kids each day and we would alternate between homes (one month at our place, one month at their place). The woman seemed great - I got a good vibe the moment she walked in. Most people say that you'll know if the nanny is right for you in the first 2 minutes. I had a good feeling about here.
So right now we're just seeing if we can work out the logisitics. I will keep you posted!