Category: Uncategorized

I have a love/hate relationship with alliterative blog post titles.

Yesterday I had my first prospective client meeting of the year, and I’m happy to say it went perfectly! The mom brought her little girl over during nap time and we ended up talking for over an hour. The kids I was looking after yesterday woke up before they left so she got to see me interacting with children other than her own, and also see her baby interacting with the children who already come here. Barring complications I’ll have a new one-year-old baby starting at the daycare in the last week of February. Yay!

During our meeting, the mom said one of my favorite things: “I really like talking with you and your whole setup here and I feel good about leaving my baby with you.” I can literally never hear that too many times! Wooing new clients is tricky; first-time moms are justifiably nervous and skittish about leaving their precious wee baby with a total stranger who they picked off a list. I do get some clients via referrals from other families I work/have worked with, or from acquaintances or other child cares, but most people who call me have gotten my child care’s name and number from the Child Care Resource and Referral Centre, which keeps a list of all the registered and licensed child cares in the city.

There are tons of things for a parent to consider when selecting a child care, practical things like:
Are the hours suitable for the family’s needs?
I’m open from 7:45 until 5:15 so obviously someone who starts work at 7am or doesn’t get off until 6pm wouldn’t choose to send their child here, but someone who works from 8am until 5pm could easily drop their child off and pick him or her up on time.
Are the fees reasonable/within the parents’ ability to pay?
My fees are about average for the part of the city I live in, but like most things in Vancouver, child care isn’t cheap.
Is the child care conveniently located?
It totally is! My apartment is in a nice residential neighborhood in the West End, near parks and schools, but also within walking distance to the business, financial and shopping districts.

While these things are all important, the most important thing of all is this: Do the parents like and trust the child care provider enough to leave their child with them? If someone had a daycare half a block from you and charged well below the average fee, but the provider gave you the creeps or seemed nasty, you would probably keep looking! This is why I like people to come by to meet me and see the space, even if they don’t need child care right away. I had one client who, before coming here, had been 99% sure she was going to go with this one daycare. After a year of emails and phone calls, she finally went over to see the child care in person and the place was filthy and smelled bad and the provider had a weird vibe. It could have been super nice and fun for the kids there, but the parent didn’t feel comfortable so she ended up starting her daycare search all over again.

When selling prospective clients on choosing my child care over another, what I’m really selling them on in me. Is my apartment clean and safe enough for their child, with plenty of room to play and grow? Do I provide fun and suitable games and activities for children of that age group? Am I going to take good care of their baby for them, love and nurture him or her while they, the parents, are at work? How can you even tell that about a person when meeting them for the first time, talking for 30 or 40 minutes?

I really can’t even imagine, I didn’t have to worry about this when Symphony was a baby. I didn’t go back to work until she was three, and when I did start working part-time she first went to my friend Jenny’s child care downstairs from our old apartment, and when I went full-time she started going to the YMCA group daycare two doors down. I had seen both Jenny and the women who worked at the group daycare interacting with kids every day for years before my daughter ever went to those daycares. I guess I was pretty lucky then, but I’m also pretty lucky now, that I’m one someone who people do trust to take care of their kids, so I get to do this great job!

Vacation time is over! I was kind of dreading getting back to work this week, mostly because the ridiculous 3 to 10:30 am sleep schedule I’ve been on for the last couple weeks really doesn’t mesh well with my 7:45 to 5:15 work day. I had to get up extra early this morning to tidy up. For some reason last night I started building my new bookcase and rearranging some furniture, and I left a huge mess in my wake. Yesterday I decided to turn the nap room (a small-ish third bedroom used only for the daycare kids to nap in) into a mancave-slash-study for Taylor, so in the middle of sawing and drilling bits of wood I dragged the grey couch in there from the library. It was totally stupid too, since the couch is too big to fit on the south wall where I want it, but at least it gives me more room in the library to practice my woodworking and cabinetry skills!

It’s actually been an alright day so far, mostly because I only have two kids to look after right now. This is nice because less kids obviously equals less work, and also the opportunity to do lots of things around the house I would never get around to otherwise. For example, this morning I repacked some books into smaller boxes while the 2 1/2-year-old played Legos and the 16-month-old supervised me and critiqued my work. Right now they’re both snoozing away- having a workday with a scheduled nap is great, even if I’m not the one napping! It gives me time to catch up on housework, have my own relaxed lunch and sometimes, just sit on the couch and read. And write blog posts, of course.

Of course, having less kids in the daycare has its drawbacks, or rather one huge drawback: I am totally broke! For some reason I just started hemorrhaging clients last fall, not because of me, just different things for each family. One little boy left in September to attend the same suburban child care as his older sister, another little boy left in November because his mom had a new baby and it was more practical for them to have a nanny, a girl left in December because her mom had a baby as well (seriously, if you’d like to get pregnant with your second child, send your first to my daycare. One of my current clients is pregnant right now as well!), and due to complicated financial issues another little boy is gone. At the same time, there seems to have been a real lack of people looking for child care, so out of the four that left I only filled one spot. My neighbor who also does childcare had the same problem, she was down to I think one part-time client. I’ve been walking around like Abby Elliot’s Angelina Jolie asking everybody if they have any babies, because I could always use more babies. Did someone say baby? I thought I heard a baby in here.

However, this morning started out with my first prospective client call of the year, and we have a meeting set up for tomorrow. I always like people to come by and meet me and see the space as a soon as possible, even if they don’t need child care for months and months or even years (I already have someone on my waiting list for spring 2011), but this woman is looking for child care for late February, which would be great. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that this one works out- I had a few meetings in November and December but nothing came of them- because really, I could always use more babies!

The Zombie Survival Guide, 1/104

I technically started this book before NYE but I was only as far as machetes so it’ll be my first book for 2010. Taylor got this for Christmas from his mom, I think because a few months ago we spent an afternoon coming up with our own zombie survival plan and he mentioned it on facebook. I’m out of my own books to read, and I can’t reread anything because when I took down the bookcases in the library I packed all our books away in a particularly inaccessible way. I guess now I’ve given myself some real motivation for getting the new book cases built!

Last night Taylor and I celebrated a quiet New Year’s Eve. I made dinner using some oddly-coloured food- roasted blue potatoes and pink navel orange chicken (I thought they were regular oranges until I cut them open and saw the colour) with a leafless salad, which was supposed to be a regular salad until I discovered that my spinach had gone wrong. With dinner we had some Veuve Clicquot Rose- pink champagne for my pink orange chicken!

Later we watched the Yeti episode of The Mighty Boosh, mostly because we’ve both had this stuck in our heads this week:

Genius. Genius.

Afterwards we had our Second Annual New Year’s Eve Viewing of the Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. To me, it just isn’t NYE without Sex Panther by Odeon. While we watched the movie we had more pink champagne (and when that ran out, a few glasses of regular champagne, which we didn’t finish but I miraculously managed to recork) and a snack buffet I’d arranged with some of our precious Bean Boy hummus & Que Pasa red corn tortilla chips; strawberries, grapes and more pink orange; and a bowl of the white, grey and green M&Ms I got in my Christmas stocking. We ate and drank so much that wen we went to get ready for bed I could hardly even bend over to pull up my sweatpants!

No, I don’t generally do New Year’s Resolutions, but I do have a few goals I’d like to set for myself in 2010:

1. Start going to the gym again and get back into shape. Note: I don’t set weight loss goals. I just want to take the weight I have and reconfigure it into more muscle, less fat. Last year when I was working with a trainer I only lost about 10 pounds (most of that after I stopped eating starchy foods after 6 pm) but I went from a size 12 to a size 10 and reduced my body fat percentage by 10%.
2. Read 104 books.
3. Paint a smaller version of Sym’s deer, and a unicorn version, and have prints made to sell. This was supposed to be my January project, but since I was too sick and exhausted to do any of my holiday projects I started them already, doing the sketch for the unicorn while laid up in bed. My goal is to get this done by my birthday (February 5th) and the profits from any sales are going to be put towards Symphony’s college fund.
4. Do all the things around the house I wanted to do in the last two weeks but couldn’t!

I had insomnia again last night, after Taylor fell asleep I stayed up reading and did the dishes after midnight. Clearly, I’ve gone crazy. I didn’t sleep in this morning though; instead, I got up early and made blueberry mini-muffins (tiny food!). Double crazy.

They came out all different sizes because I have zero patience for spooning batter into into muffins trays, and I just made them from a mix, not scratch, but I’m pretty sure getting up early and baking anything gives me tons of homemaker points.

On to reading- I mentioned yesterday that I’ve read 89 books so far this year. Clearly, reading is something I do a lot of, all the time. I’ve always loved reading, ever since I was a little kid. Some of my fondest memories of childhood are of the hours I would spend curled up behind the woodstove with a book on cold winter days. I easily become lost in books and tune out the whole world- it used to drive my younger sister buggy (we shared a room) because she’d spend fifteen minutes telling me some complicated story and in the end I’d look up and go “Huh? Did you say something?”

I’ve been keeping a list of what books I’ve read this year on Shelfari. I don’t tag or review them, partially because I have a hard time expressing what it is I like or don’t like about a book and partially because I’m usually already too busy reading the next book! In fact, since yesterday I’ve read Audrey Niffenegger’s The Adventuress (it’s actually a picture book, or “a novel in pictures”) and the first 258 pages of When Autumn Leaves by Amy S. Foster, a book I picked up because I liked the bright orange on the cover- yes, that’s how I judge books!

Sym lost another baby tooth this morning – lucky number seven.

This vacation is turning out to be a lot less fun then I had hoped! I had that big list of all the things I wanted to do and see during these two weeks but I’ve actually been pretty sick for a lot of it, exhausted and nauseous and just riddled with phlegm. My sleep schedule has been all out of whack and I’ve had terrible insomnia a couple nights. On Saturday I was up until after 4 am, then slept until three on Sunday afternoon. I tried to regulate my schedule by going to bed early-ish the last couple nights and getting up at eight yesterday morning, but lo and behold I didn’t wake up until noon today! I feel like I’m wasting my holiday.

I have gone out and done a couple things- we went to the bookstore on Sunday and Sym and I got new books. She chose Knuckleheads, a book of fairy tales in which the characters are body parts- Handsel and Gretel, Nose White, etc, and I got Mommies Behaving Badly by Roz Bailey and Inside Out Girl by Tish Cohen. Last December I set a goal to read 52 books in 2009 so I tend to just pick whatever books are in the bargain price bin at Book Warehouse. I’ve already finished both of them, which brings my books read total to 89. I think I should set next year’s goal a little higher!

Yesterday we went out post-Boxing Day shopping. I didn’t find either of the things I was actually looking for (California fleece tulip skirt from American Apparel and this amazing swan sweater my e-friend Hana got at H&M) but I did get a grey twill anorak and some tank tops from the Gap. I swear, Gap tank tops are softer than any other tanks in the world. The anorak was a little overpriced, but here in Vancouver the Gap is running a program called “Sprize,” where if something you purchase goes on sale within 45 days, the difference is automatically put on your Sprize card in the form of store credit. Which you can use to buy more tank tops! Taylor is a twelve-year-old boy and got comic books and a new video game, and Symphony got a big-eyed stuffed turtle that makes a bubbling sound when you squeeze him. Taylor and I have christened him “The Turtle Who Sounds like a Bong” (disclaimer: we don’t smoke pot, but who doesn’t know what a bong sounds like?).

Now I get to spend the afternoon catching up on housework, especially laundry, which has been spiraling out of control, and hopefully if I feel better this evening Taylor and I are going to have a movie Date Night and go see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Fingers crossed!

*for 2009

For me this Christmas has been all about starting new traditions for my little family.

On Christmas Eve after dinner we all got to open one gift, new pajamas. Originally I’d planned on having the pajamas be from Santa and we’d put them on on Christmas morning, but Taylor forgot and had mine wrapped and put under the tree. Since Symphony had already seen it he couldn’t exactly re-wrap it in the Santa Claus paper (yes, of course I have two sets of wrapping paper to differentiate between gifts from family and gifts from Santa), so instead I rewrapped Taylor and Sym’s pajamas. We immediately put them all on and I said I wanted a cheesy picture of us all, and the pets, in front of the tree. Shenanigans ensued.

We also decorated gingerbread men to leave out for Santa. Sym’s class decorated them on the last day of school, and her teacher gave me the leftover extras to decorate with the daycare kids. However the last day of school was also my last day of work, and other than Symphony I was only looking after a baby that day.

I went with the classic Mr Bill-style face and gumdrop buttons (left), Symphony’s is a baby with a star-patterned diaper cover (right), and Taylor repped his heritage by making his (center) mustachioed, wearing a mesh shirt and ruby red slippers (a friend of Dorothy). I’m sure Santa really enjoyed these!

I don’t have any pictures from Christmas Day, which is kind of a bummer but kind of not. You can see how tired I look in the Christmas Eve pictures already, and Christmas Day started early. Really early. Taylor was switching from his work night schedule to his vacation day schedule, which means he woke up at around four that morning. Sym woke up at five and at five-fifteen I heard them talking and it woke me up. I could have sent Symphony back to bed, but she was so excited and happy and cute that I really wanted to hang out with her, so I said “Why don’t we open our stockings now?” Once you’ve opened those you might as well open your other presents from Santa (note: I had wanted the only things from Santa to be little stocking stuffers, as per my childhood family traditions, but my ex insisted on buying Sym all the Playmobils she’d asked Santa for, none of which even fit in her stocking, so Taylor and I ended up buying a bunch more things to fill it. Spoiled!). I think we managed to hold off opening the rest of our gifts until seven-thirty. Needless to say I looked haggardly with mad hair, so I’m not exactly depressed about not having photos to commemorate this.

Symphony, of course, got her face spoiled off. She got her desk (as mentioned in my Ikea post) and handmade-by-me Sailor Senshi dolls (please stay tuned for a post about the blood, sweat and tears I poured into making these over the course of many sleepless nights) from myself and Taylor, arts & craft supplies, a digital video camera (!!!), and a boxed set of the Sailor Moon movies from our extended family and friends, as well as all the Playmobils, some KidRobot toys, Japanese stationary items and tons of candy from Santa. Taylor got a new bathrobe, a sweater I had to go into Armani Exchange to buy (it was like a cologne sauna in there!), a monopod for his camera, The Zombie Survival Guide, a calligraphy set and tons of scarves and mittens, as well as the obligatory KidRobots and candy. I got enormous sweatpants that make me look like an elephant but I love them, a super-cool miniature LED chandelier, a Dremel (haha) and 350 million attachments and accessories for it, and you guessed it, KidRobots and candy. I also got a box Sym put together for me of some of her favorite little toys and crystals- she is the sweetest kid I know, seriously.

The rest of Christmas Day was spent napping, eating junk and watching movies. Taylor made pancakes and reverse-mimosas (regular white wine + Orangina) for breakfast. Symphony and I watched all three Sailor Moon movies and Taylor fell asleep at four, prompting me to scrap making Christmas dinner (we’ll have it today instead). We kept drinking the reverse-mimosas, and at some point we ran out of Orangina and started using pomegranate Italian soda instead. After Symphony went to bed Taylor and I had our Second Annual Christmas Day Viewing of the Sex and the City Movie. A little history: last year, we were supposed to spend Christmas day on a Maui beach, relaxed, tanned and newlywed. Thanks to six snowstorms and a cancelled flight, instead we spent it at home alone, petless, kidless, presentless and definitely not married, daring each other to watch a series of increasingly terrible films, the worst of which was SatC. I think this year it was even worse than I’d remembered!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

It’s 2:30 in the afternoon and I’m still wearing my pajamas. I actually didn’t even get up today until 11, and all I’ve eaten so far is Lindt and After Eight chocolates and cheese popcorn.

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of my Christmas tree, well, it’s starting to look a lot more like Christmas in here! I apologize in advance for the crummy pictures- my official photographer isn’t on vacation yet so he’s sleeping.

So many gifts! I’m kind of livid though- last year I bought two strings of 100 lights for the tree at Canadian Tire, and sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Eve one of them blew out- it was immediately obvious because I had one string on the top half of the tree and one on the bottom half. This year I bought two more strings of 100 lights at Target, one is around the living room window and the other is on the tree with last year’s surviving string. Well, last week I was sewing on the couch and I thought I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t think anything of it. Then the other night I was putting more gifts under the tree and I realized that another string of lights has blown! I’m pretty sure it’s the other Canadian Tire string. I didn’t realize right away because both strands are wrapped from top to bottom, but seriously, how ridiculous is that? It’s annoying because in order to take it off I’d have to undecorate the entire tree, so I’ll just have to live with a hundred dead bulbs for another week or so.

For some reason Symphony really didn’t want to put up her little purple tree, so unfortunately I won’t have pictures of it this year, although I did do a green and silver themed Christmas display on my kitchen windowsill. Our apartment is a basement suite and this huge window above my kitchen sink looks out onto the underside of my upstairs neighbor’s porch, a muddy pit of half-dead ferns, and the back of a chainlink fence. So not a nice view! I don’t like to keep the blinds closed though; it makes the room seem too dark and closed in. Instead I try to make it look pretty inside to distract from the ugly outside.

I was going to have three glasses with disco ball ornaments and silver beads but as I was getting the third one down from the top shelf I smashed it against the cupboard door. Oops!

In other news, yesterday Symphony and I went to see a matinée of The Princess and the Frog. It was playing at the theatre in this weird, dead mall on the east side, and after the movie we stopped by one of the few stores there- Yoko Yaya, which is a big Japanese $2 store (practically everything is two dollars). I love/hate going there, I always find so many cute and fun things, but the two dollar charges really add up! I bought some toys, notebooks and random stuff like scented highlighters and fruit- and animal shaped erasers for stocking stuffers, and it came to about $60. My absolute favorite of all the thing I picked up were these adorable Japanese stationery sets. I’m kind of a cute stationary nut but I never write letters, so I’m not entirely sure what to do with it all. I might give some of them away after the holidays, so stay tuned!