day care.

since we found out we were moving to shoreview, i've been thinking a lot about what we are going to do for day care for bennett. we absolutely LOVE his current day care. honestly, i'd HIGHLY recommend them to anyone looking for day care in the area. we drive quite a ways to bring him there as it is, but have felt it was worth it for peace of mind. my friend, kari, sent her little girl there and raved about it, and i appreciated having a recommendation from someone i know. it has been a fantastic experience; his "teachers" have truly embraced bennett (or benny, as they call him). they know him and, we feel, love him.

also, they recently started using an app called "daily connect." we used to get daily "report cards" that would detail how ben's day went (what/how much he ate and drank, when/how long he slept, his mood, etc.). that worked well, but most days i wanted to know throughout the day how he was doing. often times his teacher would text me, which i really appreciated. but now with this new app, we get automatic updates throughout the day. i can check the app anytime and know how his day is going and what he's up to.  knowing that helps me feel connected to him and helps me feel more at ease. honestly, it's the next best thing to being with him myself.

the point is, we love our day care.

however, our move is going to make a long commute (20 min from home to day care + 20 min from day care to work in the morning, same in the afternoon) even longer. so, about a month or so ago i started looking into other day care options closer to our new house. i looked online and asked anyone i could think of in the area who might know good day care options. i've always been open to either in-home settings or centers. the biggest thing to me is knowing someone who's had a good experience with the center or provider.

at first, my search came up pretty short. most in-home options i could find did not have openings for kids under 2. finally i spoke with a friend, erin, who lives in shoreview. she has a daughter who's about 3 and just had a new baby. erin is a teacher so i knew she uses day care. she raved about her in-home day care provider who is located just over a mile from our new house and said she'd talk with her for me and see if she has any openings. a couple weeks later, erin contacted me with her day care provider's phone number and said that she'd spoken with her and been asked to pass along the contact info to me. erin said her provider was already talking with a couple other families, but that she wanted to meet me for AN INTERVIEW since erin had talked us up so much.

that's right. i'm being interviewed to have my child attend this day care. at first, i was a little unsure how i felt about that. but erin explained that it's really about making sure the provider and the parent(s) are on the same page and can approach things as a partnership. i can only imagine how difficult some parents must be to work with, so i guess i can't say i blame her for making an "interview" part of the process. ultimately, she probably just wants to make sure we're not crazy, so i'm working on my best "normal." i've been joking and telling friends that i'm busy creating ben's resume (which now can pretty confidently include walking, by the way!).

our "interview" is friday. i'm really hoping it could be a good match. it's cheaper, closer, and comes highly recommended. though joe and i (and bennett, i'm sure) would be disappointed to have to say goodbye to our current day care providers, i think it could be a great situation for us and may make the most sense for our family once we move. now i just gotta get ben's best suit to the cleaners. wish us luck!