Actually it's a BIG problem...
I know I over react.
That said, I'm in tears just rehashing this in my brain. I had Katen on my mind all day yesterday. When I left her at daycare she was cranky so I told both ladies to call me if it continued. She's teeting and having a REALLY bad allergy day so I told them I'd rather deal with her than have her be cranky away from home. There were no calls, but I still thought about her and went to pick her up early.
When I got there I about fainted. I could hear her wailing the second I stepped out of my car. When I got into her room both daycare ladies were talking with other parents like nothing was going on. I went and picked her up out of her crib. Her lovey was soaked. She had blood on her face because she'd scratched herself in a few places and it was mixed with snot all over her chin, cheeks, nose, forehead and in her hair. She was a mess! I wiped her off and got her calmed down to just sobs and hiccups and then asked what was going on.
The lady said Pickle had been in her crib all afternoon because she just didn't know what she wanted. She didn't want to be held and she didn't want to play so they didn't know what to do with her. I asked why they didn't call me. Hadn't they remembered? She said "we don't really do that unless they're sick." Not even when I specifically asked them to? C'mon! Then I looked at her shedule and she hadn't been fed since 10:30am. It was 3:30! So not only was my kid hysterical for no good reason but she was starving.
This is not the first offense. I've spoken to them on two other occasions about leaving her in her crib to cry. I've also spoken to them on one other occasion and thought we'd agreed that they would not ever let her go longer than 4 hours without being fed. Previously there were two days where she'd gone 6 hours witout a bottle. At home, she's starving every three hours. Poor kid!
I feel trapped because I can't just quit my job to stay home with her. I also can't just transfer her to another daycare b/c it doesn't work like that. There are waiting lists everywhere. We're at the top of the waiting list at Daddy's office daycare and a child just has to move up or leave. However, we don't know how long that will take. They guessed it would be around the end of the year. That's too long for me to wait.
I spoke with the director this morning and she told me that "with 3 other children to deal with, Katen can't always be the top priority and if she's causing a "disturbance" sometimes the ladies have to make the call to let them cool off in their cribs." So... I guess they condone this kind of thing. That's. Just. Great. :(
I'm hunting around today for a new center and staying home with her. I don't know what else to do.
Print Page
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
I LAUGH in the face of Danger! Ha!
Pickle and I took a trip to visit family on Saturday. While she loves our cat, she's never encountered a small dog before, so I wasn't sure what she'd do when she met Indy, our family dog. Indy thought pickle was a fun toy and barked at her hoping she'd play (note the wagging tail). Check out Pickle's response to the barks...
(...and don't ask me why it comes out sideways. I changed it to upright in the editing program but it still insists on viewing sideways. Just tilt your head.)
(...and don't ask me why it comes out sideways. I changed it to upright in the editing program but it still insists on viewing sideways. Just tilt your head.)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Funky Pickle - Finger Foods - Why Organic
I ate at a restaurant called the Funky Pickle yesterday. I HAD to because it reminded me of Katen. Food was so-so and it lacked atmosphere but now I can say I ate at the funky pickle.
Speaking of food...
Pickle is showing me signs that she's ready for finger foods. She shows a lot of desire to feed herself and does pretty good with her pincer grasp. She's also an adventurous eater like Dad. The only thing she's wrinkled her nose at was a piece of watermelon that I gave her. She gobbles up peas, squash, avocado, and other yuckier veggies but she turns her nose up at watermelon. Huh? She'd even suck on a pickle if I'd let her.
Okay well I don't want to hold her back. We've been giving her puffs and freeze dried yogurt bites for a while now and she's doing great so I think we'll move on to tiny bits of soft food. I've been reading up (are you shocked?) and these are some of the things I'm going to try:
Banana – in small quantities. She's a little sensitive to banana
Avocado – we'll start slow
Tofu
Cheese – Kraft makes cheese crumbles with no added growth hormones which are a great size
Cheerios
Rice puffs – similar to Krispies
Kiwi
melons
And the messy ones...
Cherries
Blueberries
I'll also steam some of the following so that she can try them:
Apples – steam on HIGH for 3 minutes
Plums
Pears
Peeled eggplant
Peaches
Asparagus – I'll watch to make sure it doesn't cause extra “toots” – the kid can clear a room!
Carrots – cooked really mushy
squash
broccoli – same deal with the toots
Sweet potato cubes – steam on HIGH for 5-7 minutes
New potato cubes
Beans
Peas
Whole Wheat Pasta
Rice balls
Chicken chunks
Garden Burgers
Most of the steamed produce will stay fresh 4-5 days in the refrigerator, or 2 months in the freezer.
And some combinations:
peas and carrots
fruit salad
cereal and banana
fruit and cottage cheese
I think I'll try pairing foods that tend to constipate with those that do the opposite. I'll also try to balanced out the nutritional values in the foods that I combine when possible so that they're more well rounded. (ie not too many carbs, balanced vitamins, etc)
I might also introduce cinnamon, nutmeg or ground ginger for a variety in flavors.
A fun thing I want to try is crushing graham crackers, cereals, puffs, or yogurt bites and then rolling some of the fruits or veggies in them. That sounds interesting! I think banana (which is slippery anyway) might be tasty rolled in ground up peach yogurt bites.
This could be fun!
Why Organic?
Some people have asked me why I chose organic produce over regular fruits and veggies. For me, it's just a personal preference. I like to limit the exposure to chemical pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones if possible because a baby is more sensitive to toxins and hormones than adults are. Will it make a difference? Who knows, but it's an easy precaution to take and doesn't require extra work so why not? Plus have you tasted organic produce? Some it really does taste better.
If you're not totally on board with eating organic, you can also pick and choose. These are some of the items that tend to have higher chemical/hormone exposure:
meat/poultry/eggs/dairy products
apples
pears
peaches
nectarines
cherries
grapes
strawberries
potatoes
celery
bell peppers
spinach
These are some of the items that you could probably get away with not using organic:
bananas
kiwi
mangos
papaya
pineapples
asparagus
avocados
broccoli
onions
cauliflower
sweet peas
sweet corn
(Lists created from info on freshbaby.com)
In the end you just do what you can with the resources you have, right? Truth be told, I do use frozen non-organic cherries in Pickle's diet. I pitted all of those cherries for her babyfood once and I'm not doing it again. Hello, I'd rather spend the time snuggling the kiddo. If they come out with frozen organic cherries then great! I'll use those. Until then, thank you Dole.
Print Page
Speaking of food...
Pickle is showing me signs that she's ready for finger foods. She shows a lot of desire to feed herself and does pretty good with her pincer grasp. She's also an adventurous eater like Dad. The only thing she's wrinkled her nose at was a piece of watermelon that I gave her. She gobbles up peas, squash, avocado, and other yuckier veggies but she turns her nose up at watermelon. Huh? She'd even suck on a pickle if I'd let her.
Okay well I don't want to hold her back. We've been giving her puffs and freeze dried yogurt bites for a while now and she's doing great so I think we'll move on to tiny bits of soft food. I've been reading up (are you shocked?) and these are some of the things I'm going to try:
Banana – in small quantities. She's a little sensitive to banana
Avocado – we'll start slow
Tofu
Cheese – Kraft makes cheese crumbles with no added growth hormones which are a great size
Cheerios
Rice puffs – similar to Krispies
Kiwi
melons
And the messy ones...
Cherries
Blueberries
I'll also steam some of the following so that she can try them:
Apples – steam on HIGH for 3 minutes
Plums
Pears
Peeled eggplant
Peaches
Asparagus – I'll watch to make sure it doesn't cause extra “toots” – the kid can clear a room!
Carrots – cooked really mushy
squash
broccoli – same deal with the toots
Sweet potato cubes – steam on HIGH for 5-7 minutes
New potato cubes
Beans
Peas
Whole Wheat Pasta
Rice balls
Chicken chunks
Garden Burgers
Most of the steamed produce will stay fresh 4-5 days in the refrigerator, or 2 months in the freezer.
And some combinations:
peas and carrots
fruit salad
cereal and banana
fruit and cottage cheese
I think I'll try pairing foods that tend to constipate with those that do the opposite. I'll also try to balanced out the nutritional values in the foods that I combine when possible so that they're more well rounded. (ie not too many carbs, balanced vitamins, etc)
I might also introduce cinnamon, nutmeg or ground ginger for a variety in flavors.
A fun thing I want to try is crushing graham crackers, cereals, puffs, or yogurt bites and then rolling some of the fruits or veggies in them. That sounds interesting! I think banana (which is slippery anyway) might be tasty rolled in ground up peach yogurt bites.
This could be fun!
Why Organic?
Some people have asked me why I chose organic produce over regular fruits and veggies. For me, it's just a personal preference. I like to limit the exposure to chemical pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones if possible because a baby is more sensitive to toxins and hormones than adults are. Will it make a difference? Who knows, but it's an easy precaution to take and doesn't require extra work so why not? Plus have you tasted organic produce? Some it really does taste better.
If you're not totally on board with eating organic, you can also pick and choose. These are some of the items that tend to have higher chemical/hormone exposure:
meat/poultry/eggs/dairy products
apples
pears
peaches
nectarines
cherries
grapes
strawberries
potatoes
celery
bell peppers
spinach
These are some of the items that you could probably get away with not using organic:
bananas
kiwi
mangos
papaya
pineapples
asparagus
avocados
broccoli
onions
cauliflower
sweet peas
sweet corn
(Lists created from info on freshbaby.com)
In the end you just do what you can with the resources you have, right? Truth be told, I do use frozen non-organic cherries in Pickle's diet. I pitted all of those cherries for her babyfood once and I'm not doing it again. Hello, I'd rather spend the time snuggling the kiddo. If they come out with frozen organic cherries then great! I'll use those. Until then, thank you Dole.
Print Page
Sunday, August 17, 2008
We have lift-off Houston!
Yep, she's crawling. The real way. Not combat crawling. In fact she's pretty fast and with it comes a fascination for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING she's not supposed to be in. Ha! I think most parents would yearn for the days when their baby would stay in one place but I'm happy to hit this milestone. Katen lives to do things herself and she's happier when she can get around and play with whatever she sees at the moment. She's quite the explorer, but happy baby = happy mommy!
She's also found that it's really fun to ride on mom and dad's shoulders. She just sits up there and giggles the whole time. We walked with her to the grocery store yesterday and she got a little cranky. She doesn't like being confined to a stroller, so I carried her home on my shoulders. Well fate would have it that she also had a full belly and puked in my hair, down the side of my face, on my shirt, and on my shorts. Just imagine baby spit dripping from your chin as you walk in 85 degree heat. Nice! Now I know better. :)
Katen is also doing really well with bigger chunks of food. A friend of ours generously gave us some of her fresh Colorado peaches, so I pureed most of them into babyfood, but saved one for myself. Yesterday morning I had it for breakfast and shared pieces with Katen. She was in heaven. Actually, so was I. They were really awesome peaches. (Thanks Erin!) It was cute to see the juice dripping off her chin as she made like a baby bird asking for more.
After that I mixed some blueberries into her mangoes for lunch, and today I microwaved 1/4 of an apple chopped into tiny bits to make it soft and she enjoyed that too. She's done well with cooked peas too but the skins seem to be a little harder to gum up. She's really an adventurous eater and takes a real interest in whatever mommy or daddy is eating. If you want to eat while she's present, you'd better have a snack handy for her too.
We're actually getting some better sleep these days too. Generally when a child learns a new skill they don't sleep well for a while but just this once it hasn't proved true. We've finally cut out that annoying 11:30/12:00 feeding and for the most part she's just up once to eat and then she goes back down fairly well. I've been letting her fuss but standing right by her with my hand on her back so she knows I've not left her. That's my compromise instead of letting her cry and leaving the room which seems to be a more popular way of sleep training. I've seen some pretty good progress as there have been times where she'll wake and put herself back to sleep. We're getting there!
It will be interesting to see how many crashes occur at our house going forward. I can tell Katen is anxious to walk because she tries to pull up to standing on anything she can get a hold of. My goal for this weekend is to baby proof everything. Just by letting her "play" this morning, I have a whole list of things we need to be aware of. She's a very curious girl!
Print Page
She's also found that it's really fun to ride on mom and dad's shoulders. She just sits up there and giggles the whole time. We walked with her to the grocery store yesterday and she got a little cranky. She doesn't like being confined to a stroller, so I carried her home on my shoulders. Well fate would have it that she also had a full belly and puked in my hair, down the side of my face, on my shirt, and on my shorts. Just imagine baby spit dripping from your chin as you walk in 85 degree heat. Nice! Now I know better. :)
Katen is also doing really well with bigger chunks of food. A friend of ours generously gave us some of her fresh Colorado peaches, so I pureed most of them into babyfood, but saved one for myself. Yesterday morning I had it for breakfast and shared pieces with Katen. She was in heaven. Actually, so was I. They were really awesome peaches. (Thanks Erin!) It was cute to see the juice dripping off her chin as she made like a baby bird asking for more.
After that I mixed some blueberries into her mangoes for lunch, and today I microwaved 1/4 of an apple chopped into tiny bits to make it soft and she enjoyed that too. She's done well with cooked peas too but the skins seem to be a little harder to gum up. She's really an adventurous eater and takes a real interest in whatever mommy or daddy is eating. If you want to eat while she's present, you'd better have a snack handy for her too.
We're actually getting some better sleep these days too. Generally when a child learns a new skill they don't sleep well for a while but just this once it hasn't proved true. We've finally cut out that annoying 11:30/12:00 feeding and for the most part she's just up once to eat and then she goes back down fairly well. I've been letting her fuss but standing right by her with my hand on her back so she knows I've not left her. That's my compromise instead of letting her cry and leaving the room which seems to be a more popular way of sleep training. I've seen some pretty good progress as there have been times where she'll wake and put herself back to sleep. We're getting there!
It will be interesting to see how many crashes occur at our house going forward. I can tell Katen is anxious to walk because she tries to pull up to standing on anything she can get a hold of. My goal for this weekend is to baby proof everything. Just by letting her "play" this morning, I have a whole list of things we need to be aware of. She's a very curious girl!
Print Page
Friday, August 15, 2008
Last night of Music Together
I'm so sad that summer is coming to an end. It seems like winter is so long. Last night was our last session of Summer Music Together and as much as I've groaned and whined about going, Katen really is catching on and grooving with the music. She even figured out how the maracas work. FINALLY! I guess I'm going to sign up for the fall session now. It's good for her, right? Okay I like it a little. Not much but a little. Here are some pictures and video. The video gets boring so feel free to cut it off half way through. :)
This picture is of Katen and her friends Maya, Jacob, and Ella. Aren't they all just precious? Their moms and I are part of a group on "The Nest." There were other kids in the class. These were just our favorites. :)
Print Page
This picture is of Katen and her friends Maya, Jacob, and Ella. Aren't they all just precious? Their moms and I are part of a group on "The Nest." There were other kids in the class. These were just our favorites. :)
Print Page
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Comment Policy:
Subscribe with your reader
Posts
All Comments