Not really a whole lot needs to be caught up on, to be honest, but I feel bad for not writing for several over a week.
Charlotte did 2 cute things today, at least according to my husband. Recently, Char has been having a minor potty regression, but only overnight. I think it's because of the new daycare situation; they make the kids go to the bathroom every 45 minutes to an hour, and Char is used to going about 4 or 5 times a day. So she may be getting used to having an empty bladder and not wanting to hold it at night. So instead of her previous holding it all night and then for an hour or so in the morning, she has been wetting the bed a couple/few times a week. I don't want to put her back in diapers, so we've been dealing with it with training pants, fleece pants, etc.
Anyway, I decided to put her potty chair in her room last night, in hopes she'd use the potty instead of the bed. And guess what???? She used it. And then? She picked the potty up, and put it on her bed, and then she got in bed and pulled the covers up over herself so she was completely hidden. So when the husband went into her room, all he saw was a potty in her bed. LOL!
The other funny was that this morning, she told him, "I want to go see mommy." He replied, "Oh, mommy's at work." And she replied, "Let's go get her! Let's go rescue mommy!" Heheheh, some days she speaks the truth, and today would definitely be one of those days.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
This guy, right here
Totally non-child related post here! Saturday, Alan and I drove to Atlanta to see Frank Turner live. I've wanted to see him forever, but the only time he comes to Nashville is for Bonnaroo, and, yeah, well, that's not happening. The last time he came through Atlanta, he was opening for Flogging Molly, and I really wanted all 3 of us to go, but they were sold out so we couldn't. At that time, Char was 8 months old so I could have worn her; this time she is 2 and would never be worn long enough at a place like that, and I can't have her get trampled, so she stayed home with the in-laws (who drove here from Knoxville to stay with her for one night so we could go; wasn't that nice???).
We've had the tickets for a while, but we never actually planned the trip out much. So we took our chances when we got there in finding a hotel. We ended up staying at the Hotel Indigo a few miles down the road, which we've actually stayed at before. Our room sucked; we were next to the ice machine so we didn't sleep well, but the manager comped us $50 so that's helpful at least.
We drove up there, found the Masquerade venue (it was deserted in daytime and looked really small) and checked into the hotel, unpacked, and ran across the street to dinner at Baraocanda, an Italian place. Across from Hotel Indigo is the Fox Theater, and Wicked is playing (as it was the last time we stayed there; weird!), so it was a little crowded. The food was yummy, though.
Off we went to the Masquerade. And this time it was not remotely deserted. In fact, there were police cars with lights flashing and officers directing traffic. Lots of traffic. Alan and I start giving each other the WTF look, and pull into the parking lot. Every car was spending a lot of time with the lot attendant, which seemed odd, so we asked the attendant if we were in the right lot. We were.
Then we started noticing the people getting out of their cars in the parking lot. Now, let me tell you a bit about Frank Turner. He calls himself a folk/punk singer. Some of his songs are more folk and some more punk, but the people getting out of their cars did not look like they were dressed for a folk OR a punk show. Women in stiletto heels and fishnets, guys with arm measurements bigger than their IQ's. So we were still giving each other the WTF face.
We both decided we had to know what was happening there. So we raced each other on our Droids. I won. "Masquerade Fight Night". Twelve rings of Mixed Martial Arts, fight (nearly) to the death, no holds barred. Nothing at all like Frank Turner. Luckily, the venue has 2 sections: "Heaven" upstairs and "Hell" downstairs. Frank was in Hell, possibly not for the last time lol.
And the show ROCKED! Definitely in my top 3 of all time. And you want to know the best part? Before the show, FT went out to the merch table and chatted with someone, and I had a pretty good view (you know, through the corner of my eye when I was pretending not to stare? yeah). And I saw him leave the merch table and run up the little stairs on the side of the venue, and he looked really, really, genuinely, truly HAPPY! I loved that!
We've had the tickets for a while, but we never actually planned the trip out much. So we took our chances when we got there in finding a hotel. We ended up staying at the Hotel Indigo a few miles down the road, which we've actually stayed at before. Our room sucked; we were next to the ice machine so we didn't sleep well, but the manager comped us $50 so that's helpful at least.
We drove up there, found the Masquerade venue (it was deserted in daytime and looked really small) and checked into the hotel, unpacked, and ran across the street to dinner at Baraocanda, an Italian place. Across from Hotel Indigo is the Fox Theater, and Wicked is playing (as it was the last time we stayed there; weird!), so it was a little crowded. The food was yummy, though.
Off we went to the Masquerade. And this time it was not remotely deserted. In fact, there were police cars with lights flashing and officers directing traffic. Lots of traffic. Alan and I start giving each other the WTF look, and pull into the parking lot. Every car was spending a lot of time with the lot attendant, which seemed odd, so we asked the attendant if we were in the right lot. We were.
Then we started noticing the people getting out of their cars in the parking lot. Now, let me tell you a bit about Frank Turner. He calls himself a folk/punk singer. Some of his songs are more folk and some more punk, but the people getting out of their cars did not look like they were dressed for a folk OR a punk show. Women in stiletto heels and fishnets, guys with arm measurements bigger than their IQ's. So we were still giving each other the WTF face.
We both decided we had to know what was happening there. So we raced each other on our Droids. I won. "Masquerade Fight Night". Twelve rings of Mixed Martial Arts, fight (nearly) to the death, no holds barred. Nothing at all like Frank Turner. Luckily, the venue has 2 sections: "Heaven" upstairs and "Hell" downstairs. Frank was in Hell, possibly not for the last time lol.
And the show ROCKED! Definitely in my top 3 of all time. And you want to know the best part? Before the show, FT went out to the merch table and chatted with someone, and I had a pretty good view (you know, through the corner of my eye when I was pretending not to stare? yeah). And I saw him leave the merch table and run up the little stairs on the side of the venue, and he looked really, really, genuinely, truly HAPPY! I loved that!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Child Care is just NOT my friend!
Luckily we're all set to start the new daycare tomorrow, and Char had fun playing at a friend's house today (gave her a run for her money, though!). So, yay for that. But I realized that, in general, child care has not been easy since day 1.
Day 1: Phone call from DCS offering us placement of 2 day old baby girl (now known as Charlotte). Problem: We both work full-time and babies aren't eligible for daycare until 6 weeks. I called several friends who are SAHM's and was about to give up, when DCS called back to say that they had a foster family who would watch Char until she was 6 weeks old.
4 weeks: Find a daycare that has space for a newborn, and they tell me I'm on the waiting list.
6 weeks: Discover that the daycare filled our spot. Frantically look for another daycare that takes the state certificate (req'd for foster families) with space for newborn, because the foster family she stayed with was going to have to stop watching her due to not having space for a carseat in their van and needing to drop their teenage daughter at band camp every day. Find a daycare, yay!
Ongoing through first year: Char's reflux caused a lot of issues with the daycare. She wouldn't eat, they didn't know how to get her to eat, she reverse-cycled and ate most of her daily formula intake at night, meaning we didn't sleep, daycare was stressed, etc. Also, in watching some of the other classrooms playing outside when doing pickups/dropoffs, I noticed that most of the teachers sat and chatted while the kids played, and essentially ignored the kids. When they did need to intervene, they shouted to/at the kids. Such as "Johnny, Kim wants to swing and you're in her way. MOVE!" rather than walking over to the children and gently guiding their behavior. Not that they were "abusing" the kids by any means, but they were not doing the kind of positive discipline I prefer, so I knew I didn't want her there past the nursery.
13 months: Found a Montessori school in my neighborhood that I really liked.
16 months: Charlotte started biting and was asked to leave the Montessori school with NO notice. DH went to drop her off at school one day and was sent home and told not to return. MIL drove 3 hours to keep Charlotte for the week while we found a nanny.
16 months: Nanny was found. She did a good job keeping Char, but became really unreliable in terms of call-offs from work, being late, etc.
27 months: Fired nanny with no notice due to ongoing lies and inability to do the job. Spent the week looking for places to send her daily and ongoing. Found a daycare where she will start.
30 months (3 months into the future): Start a different preschool.
Now, does 7 child care centers in 30 months not seem like a lot for one child? Poor kiddo! I hate it for her and feel some guilt about it, though I'm not sure what I could/would have done differently.
In funny news, I put Char to bed wearing play clothes tonight so that DH doesn't have to dress her in the morning. Dressing her seems to take FOREVER on any given day.
Day 1: Phone call from DCS offering us placement of 2 day old baby girl (now known as Charlotte). Problem: We both work full-time and babies aren't eligible for daycare until 6 weeks. I called several friends who are SAHM's and was about to give up, when DCS called back to say that they had a foster family who would watch Char until she was 6 weeks old.
4 weeks: Find a daycare that has space for a newborn, and they tell me I'm on the waiting list.
6 weeks: Discover that the daycare filled our spot. Frantically look for another daycare that takes the state certificate (req'd for foster families) with space for newborn, because the foster family she stayed with was going to have to stop watching her due to not having space for a carseat in their van and needing to drop their teenage daughter at band camp every day. Find a daycare, yay!
Ongoing through first year: Char's reflux caused a lot of issues with the daycare. She wouldn't eat, they didn't know how to get her to eat, she reverse-cycled and ate most of her daily formula intake at night, meaning we didn't sleep, daycare was stressed, etc. Also, in watching some of the other classrooms playing outside when doing pickups/dropoffs, I noticed that most of the teachers sat and chatted while the kids played, and essentially ignored the kids. When they did need to intervene, they shouted to/at the kids. Such as "Johnny, Kim wants to swing and you're in her way. MOVE!" rather than walking over to the children and gently guiding their behavior. Not that they were "abusing" the kids by any means, but they were not doing the kind of positive discipline I prefer, so I knew I didn't want her there past the nursery.
13 months: Found a Montessori school in my neighborhood that I really liked.
16 months: Charlotte started biting and was asked to leave the Montessori school with NO notice. DH went to drop her off at school one day and was sent home and told not to return. MIL drove 3 hours to keep Charlotte for the week while we found a nanny.
16 months: Nanny was found. She did a good job keeping Char, but became really unreliable in terms of call-offs from work, being late, etc.
27 months: Fired nanny with no notice due to ongoing lies and inability to do the job. Spent the week looking for places to send her daily and ongoing. Found a daycare where she will start.
30 months (3 months into the future): Start a different preschool.
Now, does 7 child care centers in 30 months not seem like a lot for one child? Poor kiddo! I hate it for her and feel some guilt about it, though I'm not sure what I could/would have done differently.
In funny news, I put Char to bed wearing play clothes tonight so that DH doesn't have to dress her in the morning. Dressing her seems to take FOREVER on any given day.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
48 hours of holy hell
^^This is how I feel
So, you may know that we've had some nanny issues. All was well until June (other than a few short notice cancellations and no-shows on weekends), when her car died and she couldn't pick Charlotte up from preschool (2x per week) anymore. It was supposed to be a couple of weeks. After about 6 weeks, we gave her a bonus check to help her buy a car. She still didn't buy a car, and we just kept getting lame promises all summer.In early September, I basically laid down the law and told her she needed to get a car or have an alternative plan to get my kid home from preschool by the time we returned from vacation. She didn't. And, she didn't show up for work yesterday because she assumed she was fired. Ugh! So several hours were spent yesterday afternoon making phone calls to try to find someone to keep Char for the afternoon. DH left work at about 1:45 to pick Char up from school, and got back to work about 4:30. Ridiculousness! And where did Char end up, you ask? With a friend's FATHER. We're not just inconveniencing our friends, here, we're inconveniencing their families!
So, a back and forth conversation ensued with the nanny, and she said she assumed she was fired because she didn't have a car, and she was sorry for the inconvenience and misunderstanding. She said she really liked working for us and wanted to work for us, but she just didn't have a car yet and didn't know when she'd get one. So, we expected her today at noon.
At 11:00, I got a text message saying that she would be late because she was "still in court". And no, we had no idea she was in court, or why. Again, we had no alternatives and a couple of hours of texts, emails, and phone calls ensued to try to figure out what the hell to do! (By the way, every bit of my vacation time was taken last week, so leaving work is not an option for either of us). In the end, DH picked her up at the courthouse.
And then we did a search on why she was in court. Apparently it was a 2nd offense of driving on a suspended license. This is why she didn't have a car! So, all these weeks we've been strung along, she was most likely lying to us all along by telling us she'd have a car soon. Needless to say, I fired her tonight. Her claim is that she didn't know her license was suspended until she got to court. I don't see how this is even possible. At one point over the summer, she missed 3 days of work because she had borrowed her brother's car and then had a wreck. My guess is that the police at the scene discovered her license was suspended and that's why she ended up in court today. So I know the police at the scene would have told her that her license was suspended. They may even have arrested her at the time. So, another lie. I feel so used.
The good news is that I found a daycare facility near where I work that has immediate openings. It's a preschool type daycare of the traditional variety, so not exactly what we wanted long-term, but short-term it will be fine. We're going to check it out tomorrow to do a tour, but I know someone whose kid goes there and I have no doubt they're fine. They're a 3-star facility (the state of TN has a 3-star program), blah blah. So, with any luck, Char will be starting there on Thursday. Tomorrow, we're inconveniencing a friend but hopefully not her whole extended family lol.
And, the topping on my shit sundae was when I let my dog out of his kennel to find he'd pooped in it. Then he came back inside after I let him out and puked 2 huge nasty puddles in the living room. (By the way, DH steam cleaned the entire living room yesterday - ugh!). NOT COOL!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
An overall trip review
I was really happy with the trip, and I think the rest of the family were, too! We stayed at the Caribe Hilton hotel in San Juan, which touts itself as the only beachfront resort in San Juan proper, and also the place the Pina Colada was invented 50-something years ago.
We stayed in a one-bedroom garden-view suite. Even though it was technically garden-view, we were on the 5th floor and we had a view of the ocean over the tree tops. Pretty neat! We were also at the very end of the hall with only one neighbor (whose room was adjacent only to the grown-ups' bedroom), so I didn't feel like I had to keep Char quiet the whole time. The first day or two I'm pretty sure no one was even in that room, and after that there was a little boy about Char's age, so it's not like he was perfectly quiet either. So that helped, too. The room was pretty big, like a decent-sized one-bedroom city apartment. One bedroom with a queen bed, a living room with a pull-out sofa, a big dining room table, a small kitchenette with mini-fridge and microwave and more cabinets than we needed for sure, and 1 1/2 bathrooms. Also a balcony leading out from the living room and bedroom, but we kept the doors closed and locked (and in the living room, blocked) just in case. We only used it to dry our swimsuits (which didn't really work because of the humidity). I wouldn't change a thing about our room (except maybe the windows in the dining room which let in too much light and made poor Char wake at 6:30 every day).
The rest of the hotel was really nice, too. They had all the things you'd expect a resort to have, including several very nice pools, swim-up bar, fitness room, playground and kids' room, protected beach, boardwalk, sea walk, spa, and even an old fort! There were several restaurants on-site, but I must say none of them that we tried were very good, and they were all EXTREMELY overpriced. Think $22 for an individual pizza! So, instead we ordered Domino's. It took a whole hour on the internet to find a phone number, plus a phone call to somewhere in the middle of Puerto Rico at least 100 miles from San Juan (whoopsies!), but we got pizza! We had Subway another night, which was around the corner. Leftover Domino's another night, and Sofia's in OSJ the last night. Breakfast and lunch were a combination of Starbucks and in-room food (DH took a taxi to Walgreen's one night, LMAO).
Which begs my only other criticism of the hotel; it's not very close to any restaurants or stores. It's pretty much right next to a big park, which is kind of cool, but it's just the other half of the protected beach from the hotel, so we didn't really see a point in going there. There's a Subway, a bodega, and that's about it.
We stayed in a one-bedroom garden-view suite. Even though it was technically garden-view, we were on the 5th floor and we had a view of the ocean over the tree tops. Pretty neat! We were also at the very end of the hall with only one neighbor (whose room was adjacent only to the grown-ups' bedroom), so I didn't feel like I had to keep Char quiet the whole time. The first day or two I'm pretty sure no one was even in that room, and after that there was a little boy about Char's age, so it's not like he was perfectly quiet either. So that helped, too. The room was pretty big, like a decent-sized one-bedroom city apartment. One bedroom with a queen bed, a living room with a pull-out sofa, a big dining room table, a small kitchenette with mini-fridge and microwave and more cabinets than we needed for sure, and 1 1/2 bathrooms. Also a balcony leading out from the living room and bedroom, but we kept the doors closed and locked (and in the living room, blocked) just in case. We only used it to dry our swimsuits (which didn't really work because of the humidity). I wouldn't change a thing about our room (except maybe the windows in the dining room which let in too much light and made poor Char wake at 6:30 every day).
The rest of the hotel was really nice, too. They had all the things you'd expect a resort to have, including several very nice pools, swim-up bar, fitness room, playground and kids' room, protected beach, boardwalk, sea walk, spa, and even an old fort! There were several restaurants on-site, but I must say none of them that we tried were very good, and they were all EXTREMELY overpriced. Think $22 for an individual pizza! So, instead we ordered Domino's. It took a whole hour on the internet to find a phone number, plus a phone call to somewhere in the middle of Puerto Rico at least 100 miles from San Juan (whoopsies!), but we got pizza! We had Subway another night, which was around the corner. Leftover Domino's another night, and Sofia's in OSJ the last night. Breakfast and lunch were a combination of Starbucks and in-room food (DH took a taxi to Walgreen's one night, LMAO).
Which begs my only other criticism of the hotel; it's not very close to any restaurants or stores. It's pretty much right next to a big park, which is kind of cool, but it's just the other half of the protected beach from the hotel, so we didn't really see a point in going there. There's a Subway, a bodega, and that's about it.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Just a few more pictures
Yes, I am wearing that shirt because I got sunburned. Day 1, no sunburn. Day 2, BAD sunburn (but only right along my tan lines; I guess the 2 identical swimsuits I own aren't actually identical). Day 3, no sunburn. Day 4, sunburn.
Char got tanned. A lot of tan. Her hair also got lighter, which makes me wonder how dark it will get this winter when she's not in the sun much. But yeah, she left looking like a blonde goddess and I left looking like a bright red potato. AND I have an ear infection and a bladder infection. BUT this is why my husband rocks: The last night in PR, he went on a mission to find me cranberry juice. No luck. So he went to the bar and bought the entire cranberry juice bottle for like $20. LOL. Hooray! My hero!
Old San Juan
Tuesday afternoon, we decided to catch the bus to Old San Juan. Unfortunately, city buses don't go all the way into OSJ because they could damage the amazing blue cobblestones (picture somewhere down below), and it's quite a hike mostly uphill (really? uphill to the ocean? who'd have thought????) to some of the best attractions. Turns out there's a trolley, but we ended up on the wrong street and never saw it.
Also, Tuesday while Char napped, it rained. A lot. And the rain merely brings out the humidity. And holy moly is it humid in Puerto Rico! I mean, I've lived my whole life in Tennessee, where they say it's not the heat, it's the humidity, but I've never seen anything quite like it. It was only in the 80's but it felt at least 100 after a rain! The only good thing about the humidity is that it made Charlotte's hair curl up GORGEOUSLY! By the time we walked all the way down to the end of the islet and explored El Morro, we were done. We hopped a taxi back to the hotel. Best $15 we ever spent!
I apologize for these pictures being out of order. In fact, they're essentially backward, because that's what Blogger does. Sigh.
El Morro lighthouse
View of Old San Juan and the north shore from the grounds of El Morro.
El Morro turret.
These steps may not have slowed Charlotte down, but they sure wore my fat butt out!
I kind of like this one! I would have rather made the aperture smaller so that DH and Char would be in focus better, but it was getting late-ish so the light was getting poorer and poorer, so some of these shots reflect that I had to use f-14 and less.
Peering through the binoculars with the El Morro lighthouse in the background.
An city wall to OSJ. These old walls were so cool, with plants growing out of them at odd places.
Just a cute picture of Char outside El Morro (it has a very large, mostly flat-ish piece of land in front that is like a big park. Lots of locals having picnics and whatnot). In my exhaustion, I named the picture for the building in the background "yello building". LOL
Char exploring a turret.
LOVE! Wish I would have taken more time to adjust the focus so that I could have a companion shot of her in focus and the front not, but she ran out pretty quickly.
Again, LOVE this picture of her dancing. That's the port of San Juan in the background, which El Morro was built to protect the entrance to.
These 2 were inside an enclosed circular staircase thing. Thankfully, she never noticed the staircase, because it looked just like going down into a dungeon in movies!
Just a pic outside El Morro.
Because, who DOESN'T need a picture of their 2 year old riding a 500-year-old cannon?
The amazing blue brick cobblestones from OSJ. So cool to think they're nearly 500 years old!
Grounds of El Morro
DH wearing Char. Love the hair!
Walking down the path outside the city walls along the sea.
On a staircase above the main gate to the city.
A cool fountain.
Also, Tuesday while Char napped, it rained. A lot. And the rain merely brings out the humidity. And holy moly is it humid in Puerto Rico! I mean, I've lived my whole life in Tennessee, where they say it's not the heat, it's the humidity, but I've never seen anything quite like it. It was only in the 80's but it felt at least 100 after a rain! The only good thing about the humidity is that it made Charlotte's hair curl up GORGEOUSLY! By the time we walked all the way down to the end of the islet and explored El Morro, we were done. We hopped a taxi back to the hotel. Best $15 we ever spent!
I apologize for these pictures being out of order. In fact, they're essentially backward, because that's what Blogger does. Sigh.
El Morro lighthouse
View of Old San Juan and the north shore from the grounds of El Morro.
El Morro turret.
These steps may not have slowed Charlotte down, but they sure wore my fat butt out!
I kind of like this one! I would have rather made the aperture smaller so that DH and Char would be in focus better, but it was getting late-ish so the light was getting poorer and poorer, so some of these shots reflect that I had to use f-14 and less.
Peering through the binoculars with the El Morro lighthouse in the background.
An city wall to OSJ. These old walls were so cool, with plants growing out of them at odd places.
Just a cute picture of Char outside El Morro (it has a very large, mostly flat-ish piece of land in front that is like a big park. Lots of locals having picnics and whatnot). In my exhaustion, I named the picture for the building in the background "yello building". LOL
Char exploring a turret.
LOVE! Wish I would have taken more time to adjust the focus so that I could have a companion shot of her in focus and the front not, but she ran out pretty quickly.
Again, LOVE this picture of her dancing. That's the port of San Juan in the background, which El Morro was built to protect the entrance to.
These 2 were inside an enclosed circular staircase thing. Thankfully, she never noticed the staircase, because it looked just like going down into a dungeon in movies!
Just a pic outside El Morro.
Because, who DOESN'T need a picture of their 2 year old riding a 500-year-old cannon?
The amazing blue brick cobblestones from OSJ. So cool to think they're nearly 500 years old!
Grounds of El Morro
DH wearing Char. Love the hair!
Walking down the path outside the city walls along the sea.
On a staircase above the main gate to the city.
A cool fountain.
Also, we did go back to OSJ on Thursday night for dinner. It was dusk when we left, and the city was starting to come alive with nightlife, which was pretty cool. We got our picture taken with 3 parrots (Char was SO excited to "touch the carrot, mommy") which I will scan and upload at some point. We ate at Sofia's, which had great Italian food. The only decent food (outside of Starbucks) we had while there!
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