They Are Totally Worth It!

I spent my morning sitting next to the new trampoline's zipper-door singing the same song over and over with heartfelt enthusiasm…..

To the tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”

We ON-LY jump

when the ZIPper’s ZIPPED!

We ON-LY jump

when the ZIPper’s ZIPPED!

We ON-LY jump

when the ZIPper’s ZIPPED!

So we can be SAFE!

Letting the kids get into it when they are not strictly taking turns jumping, but rather just to sit and play, watch Blue’s Clue’s, or just hang out in there IS a lot more trouble for me to manage, but it’s such a cool place to play – how can I NOT let them?

Teaching anything is so much easier when you start out clear and consistent on procedure (a ‘la Harry Wong’s First Days of School book). I have faith that my short friends will “get it” and we will have many, many happy bouncy times together, learning to cooperate and take turns as well as many other lessons.

P.S. 2 outta 4 of them had a BLAST jumping on the "JUMP-A-LENE" -with the zipper zipped, of course!

Why I Love My Daycare Mommies So Much

If you talk to me for very long you’ll probably hear me say I am thankful for my wonderful families that I serve in my home daycare (or something along those lines). I am super-blessed by these awesome people, but not surprised… God has always been faithful to bring the most awesome people into my life when I needed them the most. I could fill pages with examples of this, but I think I’ll save that for another blog entry. This entry is just about the awesome Mommies who trust me to help them with their little ones while they work.

Each of “my” Mommies is someone who I learn from and look up to in some way, but they also show me that they respect my own hard-won knowledge from years of experience with children, reading, and classes. We often bounce ideas off each other or give each other advice on parenting issues.

They are also very appreciative of my work with their kids and they each show it in their own unmistakable way.

One Mommy wrote a beautiful letter of recommendation for me in which she told all about many of the things I do for the kids which I’d thought had largely gone unnoticed. She listed so many of my ideas that reading it makes me feel very validated and valued. She’s also very artistically creative and makes fun goodies (t-shirts, little pillows, etc) for holidays which make them even more special. She also helps me with craft/gift ideas for my kids and their families.

One Mommy is a great giver of gifts. She often brings good food for me to share with the kids (fruit, chicken, cheese, etc). She’s also WONDERFUL at finding the treasures we need at garage sales or as curb-pickings. I never know what she or her husband will show up with from day to day, but we always appreciate it. A quick look around my playroom, lanai, and backyard reveals lots of things they have contributed.  She, also, makes holidays more fun by supplying fun activities that engage the kids (cookies to decorate, gingerbread house kit, etc).  I have not been good with the thank-you notes, but I hope she knows how much we do appreciate it all.

One Mommy is intellectually challenging to me and I love talking to her. She often stays to visit at pick-up time and sometimes gives me a different way of looking at things. Her perspective has helped me clarify, and even changed, my thinking on several parenting issues. She is very socially conscious, with a tender, caring heart and I always enjoy the time I spend with her. I know I can come to her with any cause or request and she will go out of her way to contribute or to help me.

My newest Mommy is out to make a positive difference in the world, and she absolutely will. I am sure her hard work and dedication will inspire me to be a better person.

Most of my Mommies have brought extended family to meet me and their child’s friends. This seems only natural since I feel related to them all anyway. I really do love their kids as if they are family and I’ve been told more than once that THAT is what makes my child-care so valuable. My MIL says, “They (the parents) know that they could pay someone three times as much money and not get better care for their kids. You can’t pay someone to love your kids while you work, and Diana… you DO!”

I consider all of these strong, beautiful women my friends and thank God for the little problem I had which led me to the lactation consultant at Bayfront (She was also a God-send to my life.), which led me to the New Mommies Group, which is where I met them all!

My dads are awesome, too. I think I write a different blog about them, though. This one’s just for the Mommies. 

Toddlers + A Ton of Rain = "Wahhhhhhhhh!"

The sun did not shine. It was stormy and bleak.

So we stayed inside at daycare all this wet, wet, wet week.

A few stormy days in a row can be hard for adults to get through. The dim light may make you cranky, sleepy or unfocused. The wet roads and sidewalks are a nuisance.  Here in The Tampa Bay area, especially, close lightning strikes and the resulting booming thunder may unnerve you. Finally, It’s just plain NO FUN to have to cancel plans outside or to miss out on fresh air and exercise.

Now imagine you are a toddler. You have to deal with everything that the adults do, but you also have your precious schedule disrupted on top of all the soggy blah-ness. I’m not being facetious here about just how valuable a predictable routine is to these little ones. Knowing what to expect next gives them the security they need to focus their energy on the vast amounts of learning that they must accomplish each day through their all important playtimes.

Is anything more fun than dumptrucks in the dirt and sand?

Up, up, up! Down, down, down the slide.

Trying to catch bubbles in her mouth.

The weather had been so beautiful here that our daily habit was to go outside once in the morning and once in the afternoon (sometimes for up to an hour at a time). Just being outside makes toddlers happy. Swinging, playing in the sand, blowing bubbles, sidewalk chalk, running, throwing balls, climbing, sliding, pushing or riding in cars, it’s all just so magical. Who can cry or be cranky when there is so much to do! Airplanes fly overhead, squirrels frolic and birds fly. We even see the occasional lizard! Ah, we love it.

Looking at a lizard See him?

Drat this prolonged rainy spell for taking it from us! Today is Thursday and the fourth day in a row of rain and mud and indoors only for these antsy one-year-olds!  My bag of tricks is running low. We’ve made a fort, used the step-stool for climbing games, used many play-dough items for the first time, made ramps for cars and balls, brought the slide onto the lanai (that means screened porch for you non-Floridians) and eaten a picnic in front of Word World in the Living Room (a sort of off-limits place).

Playing with play-dough

Ramps are fun!

Picnic in the living room

It’s turned into an endurance event. I can manage to cheer up and engage them for the most part, but ultimately we are all a little weary and grumpy. I’m just glad today is the last day of childcare for the week and we can regroup and start next week on a sunnier (figuratively and I HOPE literally) note!

NOTE: This was written a few weeks ago. The weather and everything that goes along with it has improved a lot since then!