On Thursday, Boden and I went to interview a home daycare in Victoria after being rejected by five home daycares in the Chaska, Victoria, Excelsior are because they had no room for infants. I had my fingers crossed for this one because they had an infant opening, could accommodate a part-time schedule and they were super close to home (making it easy for Todd or I to do random checks in the beginning and, of course, making pick-up and drop-off convenient).In preparation for the interview, I changed Boden's diapers, put him in a clean outfit and had a bottle ready for him--just in case. I anticipated we'd be there 30-45 minutes and, since he'd eaten right before we walked out the door and the home was literally less than 5 minutes away, the bottle was merely precautionary. We were ready to put these daycare ladies through a rigorous round of interviewing.
As soon as we got there, the other day care kids swarmed around me like they were itching for a sugar fix and I was handing out suckers. They all wanted to see the little baby! Boden stared at them all in wonder and amazement with that innocent wide-eyed, raised eyebrows look of his. There was lots of touching of his head and hands and the daycare ladies were saying things like "gentle" and "don't put your fingers in his eyes--just touch his head softly" (is there a history of poking baby's eyes here?).
As soon as we sat down, the mother of the mother-daughter tag team of daycare ladies, asked if she could take him out of his seat and for the next hour I didn't hold my kid (passed the test of "hold Boden often and enjoy it"). Within 15 minutes Boden was rooting around the daughter daycare lady's shoulder and arm--she asked if he might be hungry (thus passing the "correctly identifies Boden's hunger cues" test) so I gave her the bottle which he promptly sucked down with a speed that might imply I hadn't fed him all day.
Shortly after that, the mom was holding him and commented on how much he was tooting and that he might need to be changed. The daughter chimed in that he was a little stinky and she grabbed him and whisked him off to change his diaper (they passed the "change the poopy diaper as soon as possible" test). They asked if I brought a diaper which I had not (I failed the "always have a diaper on hand for emergencies" test): I was going to be 5 minutes from home for a short while and he only poops every other day now so what were the odds he would need to be changed there? Pretty good, I guess. Good parenting, huh?
The ladies were very attentive--multitasking a conversation with me, checking out the window for arriving parents, watching a kid in the time-out area, and putting on shoes and admiring the artwork of three of the kids who were coloring.
After I'd asked all my questions, got to know the ladies a bit and picked up a good vibe from them, I got references and left completely exhausted from all the stimulation--it was nap time for me when we got home. The final test was when I changed Boden's diaper later on at home; it had been applied correctly and there wasn't any orange poo residue on his buns--pass (she changed it better than I usually do despite my best efforts).
The good news is they passed my tests, they seem pretty nice, the kids there were happy and energetic and the daycare ladies are willing to take Boden for as many or as few days as I need offering some good flexibility as we try to figure out our daycare needs in the next few months. The bad news is there were lots of runny noses and little hands all over Boden--so on the days he does go there I'll just have to wrap him in plastic and leave some breathe holes :)
(for some reason, I can't get the picture to post in landscape orientation!)
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