Annoying Adventures in Babysitting

Sit back now while I tell you the tale of the wicked daycare provider. OOooOOOooOOOooOOOooOOOOOHHHHH!

It started back in a cold winter, a beautiful princess named Elizabeth was very early on in her pregnancy. And at the wisdom of friends and family, she sought after a daycare provider for her soon to be born baby boy.

Twas a chilly day that winters morn when the beautiful princess had met with a daycare provider who seemed to have all that she was looking for. All the state qualifications, an educational curriculum, and probably what sold her the most was how close the daycare provider lived to her. It wasn't until much later that the princess realized she should have dug into this much deeper.

On February the second, two thousand and thirteen, the princess and her husband, the prince, wrote a check securing a place at the daycare providers home when the princess had to go back to work.

Everyone went about their routines without a hitch for the next few months.

After the baby prince was born in July, the princess gave notice to her daycare provider that she was scheduled to return to work on October the seventh. A short 12 weeks after giving birth to the handsome baby prince.

The week before she was scheduled to return to work, the princess texted her daycare provider asking to set up a time to meet her baby prince. She did not want to introduce her child until he had his proper vaccinations especially considering he would be going to a daycare facility and could likely pick up an illness rather easily.

The wicked daycare lady wasn't too thrilled about meeting the baby prince as he cancelled on an appointment to meet the baby twice. Here is the actual text message exchange,.

Proof that we had open communication until the date of her dropping us from her service.

On September 26th the wicked daycare lady said that she couldn't meet with Nolan before starting daycare. She "had something come up that needs to be dealt with before we leave this weekend." You can see this from her text above!

On September 27th she wrote a letter, a really generic one (I have it at home and I'll probably post a copy of it later) about how she can no longer care for us.

On September 28th, the USPS postmarked this envelope.

On September 30th at 4:00pm I went to check my mail and I found this letter. I, I mean the princess, was very upset by this news as she was scheduled to return to work 6 days from then.

So in a panicked frenzy, the princess called a bunch of people to try to get help. Of course, it's difficult to find caretakers on such short notice, even more difficult to find someone who has a place for an infant. So reluctantly the princess started to call providers that this wicked daycare lady recommended in her letter in which she was dumped from her care.

This process was extremely difficult for the princess. Imagine having just one week left with your baby before going back to work full time - and instead of having a blissful week without anything to worry about, you're instead frantically searching for a replacement caretaker. Tearfully the princess called caretakers. Each caretaker that she called didn't have space, so they recommended 3-4 people that might have space. The princess called each of those caretakers and so on and so forth.

The princess unfortunately spent the last week of her maternity leave in actual emotional distress. She had the rug pulled out from underneath her and she needed to find new care. When she finally found a place that could take her baby temporarily, she felt better, but not MUCH better. She wanted to vet her new caretaker and try to make sure she was doing the very best she could for her child.

Uhhhh...

So far the TL;DR is: I got dumped by my daycare lady just 6 days before I was scheduled to go back to work.

The letter the daycare lady wrote stated that she would pay us our deposit back in 30... 30 what? days? weeks? months? years? She didn't clarify.

This is where it's getting sticky. The daycare lady isn't responding to my text messages. She will henceforth be called a coward. She defriended me from facebook within minutes of me acknowledging receipt of the letter via text in which, yes, I called her a coward. So maybe she wasn't too pleased with me but I'm not too pleased with her either.

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This blog has gotten really long, and honestly I just don't have it in me to finish the recent happenings of the last few days just yet. Maybe i'll post the resolution to this when it happens but for now I'm honestly just exhausted to relive it right now.

Picture Overload

I have a hard time deleting pictures from my phone, my camera, you name it. I have to triple check that it's saved in some other media before I take it off of my memory card.

My brand new Samsung Galaxy S4 took the brunt of my picture taking these past few months. I couldn't update my apps and that's no good!

Anyways, after confirming that my pictures are being uploaded to Google Plus (AWESOME) yesterday, I cleared my phone of all videos and pictures. Additionally, I added a 32gig (megabite? I really don't know, it's 32 of whatever units of measure they are) to my phone so I can really go overboard going forward.

So without further ado, here are some phone pictures that haven't been seen elsewhere. OHHHH!

He can DRARRRR

I bought this chalkboard and liquid chalk as a photo prop. I already love it! It's fun to drarrrr.

Capturing the smile! Nolan & Daddy Edition

Nolan is getting soooo big! Every single morning it's hard to believe how chubby his cheeks are getting, or how he's getting too big for his sleep sack! He's growing up and now he's starting to discover his voice! I swear when he cries sometimes I hear him calling out for Mama!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cJ6VCTSync&feature=youtu.be

And I've been trying very hard to get Brian to take pictures with me and Nolan. This was a morning photoshoot that consisted of me trying to get Nolan to stop pulling out my hair! I somehow smiled through it anyway.

 

This week I ordered a buttload of real prints to hang around and give to family. I also created a "pregnancy" photo book that I think will be kind of neat for Nolan to see when he gets bigger. And I'm doing a Nolan's First Year - "Yearbook" something that I want to do every year for him.

 

I thought back to my baby book and how there is no discrimination about what pictures went in there because back then if you took a picture it was a keeper because of the steps it took to take that picture. You had to develop film and hope for a miracle that you caught something worth saving. In the end, I'm pretty sure no baby pictures were ever thrown away because I was blinking or because someone's hair didn't look quite right. I'm holding on to that mindset with Nolan's baby pictures. There is no picture worth deleting and no picture worth keeping out of the book. Yes, I realize this means the book will be really REALLY thick.

 

I don't care. And neither does this stud!

So strong, standing up with minimal help!

Kick Kick SMILE!

 



My baby is a gif!!!!

Google plus just DID this for me. How is this possible? I effing LOVE it and now I'm going to try and figure out how to make moreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

THUH-REE MONTHS ALREADY?!

My baby is THREE MONTHS OLD! I can't believe it. 

I am so lucky that Nolan is my baby. For one thing, he's so darn cute!

Exhibit A

And for another, he's extremely well behaved. He never cries unless there is a reason. Thank goodness he's not colicky. I'm sure I'd love him just the same if he was, but I'm just so lucky.

So my little guy is now officially 3 months old. I can't get over it. I honestly can't. My life has changed so much in the last 3 months and every hour of missing sleep is totally worth it. 

I can't get over how much he's grown from when he was a brand new baby. At his last appointment he was 11 pounds and some change. When he was born he was 8 pounds 4 ounces. I wonder what he'll be at his next appointment next month.

So here's the highlights of what's happened this last week or so:

• I got a bumbo from the consignment shop in town. I Luh-OVE this thing already. I can tell Nolan does too. He looks like such a big boy sitting in his new chair. I just got the thing yesterday so I don't have any pics I can easily access now (on digital camera, not my phone).
• He's got a kinda/sorta breathy giggle. I can't wait til I hear the real thing.
• He totally is going to say mama before dadda. I can hear the "m's" in his cries. I swear sometimes he does say "maaamaaaa" when he really needs me. I SWEAR. Brian thinks so too. 
• We had a photoshoot yesterday to celebrate his 3 month birthday. And we've started a "grow with me" package so he'll have professional 6, 9, and 12 month pictures too. 
• I shop for clothes for him still a little too much, but now I'm way more selective. I honestly needed to buy a ton of long sleeved shirts because I pretty much bought his entire first year wardrobe before he was born. Therefore only the summery stuff was out. So yeah, I needed to buy new clothes. It's consigned clothes so I totes feel ok about it. Seriously, it's not that much money. Yes, I realize he's going to grow out of them soon. SHUT UP I won't stop buying clothes for him. 
• Last week was his first week of daycare... 

This is a fake smile

It was a tearful morning last Monday when I dropped Nolan off at day care for the first time. He's my little guy and only I know how to take care of him! What if he doesn't get held the way that he likes to be held when he's upset? What if I didn't send enough milk with him?

But more upsetting was just being away from him at all. 

I've been away from Nolan a few times since he was born, but until last week it was never for more than... 4 hours tops. And that's a liberal estimate. It was extremely hard. Up until I was actually driving him to the day care it didn't feel real. Then all the sudden it hit me. 

Luckily, throwing myself back into work when it's extremely busy has helped with the transition. I don't have time to really think about how much I miss Nolan when I'm this busy. That's helpful in a way.

Here's a picture of us together this morning on his THREE MONTH BIRTHDAY!

This time my smile is just super goofy! But we got a Nolan smile so I'm using this one vs. the other one where neither of us look ready.

Awwwww he's so cute. Should mama get him a cupcake for his birthday (and then eat it herself)? Who am I kidding, that's what I'm doing!!!

Back2Work

I didn't have to buy any supplies (other than pants to fit my differently shaped buttocks) to go Back2Work but I do have that feeling of newness.

I am officially back to work. I had to take Nolan to day care this morning and I officially sobbed uncontrollably while dropping him off. UGH my heart hurts.

But the real surprise is how well I'm doing AT work. I really feel OK here. Maybe it's because when I'm here I just feel like I did pre-baby. I am working and bringing home the beneys (my job doesn't pay a lot so Brian brings home the Benjamin's, I bring home the benefits)

Getting ready to drop Nolan off was hard. I had to remember all the things he'll need on a daily basis. He doesn't need toys, but I just realized I forgot his blanket... you know, the one that smells like me so he feels like I'm there. BAD MAMA!

I'm really thankful that I was able to work out an arrangement so that I can take a shorter lunch and leave a little earlier to pick up Nolan. ZOMG I can't wait to see him and kiss him soooo much. He's going to be like, "Muh-OMMMM STOP! Not in front of my new friends!"

Nolan and K - I don't know her parents yet so I'd feel bad naming her on my blog!

Check out my boy, such a ladies man! He is actually 4 days younger than the pretty miss laying next to him. She looks so much smaller than him!

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Shopping is a problem for me. I'm constantly looking at Baby Gap's clothes. Seriously, someone needs to stop me. I can't afford that kind of clothing for my baby! CONSIGNMENT SHOPPING IS BETTER!

... but BABY GAP IS SOOOOOO CUTE!....

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Ummm yeah, I'm going to celebrate my first day back to work with my husband and NOLAN tonight! So excited to see my little man... just a few more minutes... :)