No more daycare!

We have decided to hire a nanny for Miss M. Those stressful incidents at daycare I mentioned earlier haven't improved. Even though I asked the Administrator multiple times about moving Miss M to a new room and that I wanted to be kept in the loop, I showed up on Tuesday and was told by her current teachers that she has now been moved and I need to take her to her new room. No warning. Nothing. I WAS MAD!

I started asking one of her old teachers if they would consider a nanny position. We met up and discussed options and Miss M now has a nanny, Tiffany. I have no worries about putting Miss M in the care of Tiffany. While she was at our house, Miss M only wanted to be held by her. Threw a fit when B tried to distract her in the other room with toys. She just wanted to sit in Tiffany's lap. I also heard yesterday from one of the other teachers that Miss M got upset because she could hear Tiffany's voice in the other room and her new teacher wouldn't let her go see Tiffany.

My only concern about the new nanny situation is my dogs. They can be a bit much to handle. Especially for people who are not used to dogs. Their play wrestling can often escalate into a dog fight if you don't maintain order. I'm not sure if Tiffany can be the Alpha Bitch (as my friend Deb likes to call it). We are trying out a few options that should help Tiffany manage the dogs though. The old squirt bottle of Listerine has been brought out of the closet. It was originally used to curb the nipping when the dogs were puppies. As soon as they try to nip, you squirt some Listerine in their mouth (they hate the taste of it) and they soon stop the nipping. It also helps with the aweful doggy breath.

We've started using it again to stop Onyx from her constant licking and whenever the dogs start wrestling too rough. A couple squirts grab their attention much faster than our raised voices. I've also been revisiting the doggy daycare idea. It would be nice to get them out of the house a few days a week. I've heard some bad things about the place near our house so I'll have to do some research on other options. Maybe it's also time for more obedience classes.

In any case, I'm very excited about our new nanny. It will help with my guilt of leaving Miss M at daycare for so many hours. She sleeps much better at home and will now have that one-on-one attention. It will also make it easier to have baby #2 in the future.

So many plans...

Aussie was in town this weekend and it was really great seeing her. I organized a tea with Aussie and some friends from work that was set to start at 2pm on Sunday. Aussie suggested that she come over early to hang out and help make scones before the others arrived. I suggested she and her friend whom she was staying with that weekend come over for lunch and scone making at noon and Aussie agreed.

So in typical fashion, I went a little overboard in the food preparation area. I love to dust off my culinary skills when people come over to visit. Spicy Pumpkin Soup, salad, roasted chicken sandwiches for lunch and biscuits, scones, brownies, lemon bars, cheese, crackers and fruit for tea.

I wasn't surprised that no one arrived at noon. Aussie is often late. I did get concerned at 12:30 so went to call her just to get an ETA. I needed to get some other stuff done for the 2pm tea and wondered if I should proceed or if they were about to arrive. No answer on the cell phone although there was a missed call from Aussie at 11:30. Hmmmm. I started my prep work for 2pm tea. By 1pm, still now word and I was not thrilled. I got a call at 1:30 from Aussie saying she was at Target and would be there soon. She realized I was not the happiest camper and realized she had forgotten about lunch. Oh well, B and I will eat leftovers for dinner.

Aussie arrives around 1:40 in tears. She is very sorry about missing lunch and cannot find her credit card. Probably lost the night before while out at the bars. I get the number for the credit card company so she can cancel her card and continue finishing stuff for 2pm tea. One friend did not come with Aussie because she is still suffering from a hang over.

2:30ish one of our tea-mates calls to say she is not well and won't be able to make it. 3pm another calls and wonders if we are still there. She has been delayed but will probably get there at 3:30. No problem! Please come because we have LOTS of food that needs to be eaten. I'm even suggesting Aussie contact other friends in the area and invite them over. B suggests we invite Judy next door who looks like she is at home.

In the end, I sent the 2 ladies home with lots of leftovers and tried not to consume all of the remaining food all by myself. It was lovely to catch up with Aussie and visit with some friends but the other issues and drama definitely put a damper on the day.

Dealing better with stress

There have been a few things lately causing me extra stress. Whenever I start obsessing or over analyzing these things I feel the need to reach for food that is not in the current healthy eating plan. For example...

Miss M is getting ready to move to a different room at daycare. Once they become more mobile, the graduate from the infant room. First issue with this move is that the Administrator has not been very forthcoming about the transition plan, timeline, etc for the move. The only reason I even know about the move is from her current teachers. When I have tried to talk to the Administrator about the move, her response has been, "The teachers should not be talking to you about this." If they hadn't, I WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT! It's like the Admin is having her own personal power trip over this move. GRRRRRR.

Second issue is that her current teachers recommended that I do a few surprise visits in the afternoon once Miss M moves to her new room. WHAT?? WHY?? They personally think there are some things going on with the afternoon teacher that shouldn't be but their efforts to report it to the Admin have not had any results. A parent has to place a complaint. This has me VERY worried. I really like Miss M's current teachers and already like her new morning teacher. I incorrectly assumed that there standards applied to ALL the teachers.

This worry has caused me a lot of stress. Should we look for another daycare? Look into hiring a nanny? How would we manage this? Etc... My first reaction to this worry was to reach for a donut (there happened to be one nearby at the time). This is BAD. I knew it was bad at the time but all I could think about was how I could easily justify eating that unhealthy donut.

I came across this article while surfing my favorite food blogs today and hope it will help me along with any others out there that suffer from similar reactions to stress - http://wellfed.net/2008/01/15/7-steps-to-reduce-your-stress-by-changing-your-diet/#more-1333.

Changing your diet to reduce stress. It is all common sense stuff but I needed a refresher course. There were also a few examples mentioned that I didn't know about. Like sweet potatoes are a great comfort food that also help with stress. I know that doesn't help my friend Firecracker who can't even look at a sweet potato without having flashbacks to a miserable experience of harvesting them. However, I happen to really like them. I need to stick more to my healthy eating plan and now sweet potatoes are high on the list (even though they are high in carbs). I'll deal with the carbs if it will help reduce my stress.

Food blog whore

I admit it. I am a food blog whore. I have over 20 sites in my favorites and visit them daily to see what new recipes I can drool over. If I was a stay at home mom, I would be cooking all the time (and probably weigh 50 more pounds than I do today). Even though I have way too many cook books, whenever a chance comes up to make something, I search the internet to find a recipe.

For once, I actually made something from one of the blogs I visit. This recipe for Hot Buttered Rum Caramels caught my attention because I love carmel and my friend PIC loves buttered rum things (ice cream for example). When trying to come up with something to give her for the holidays, I decided to make these caramels. 

The first batch was a huge failure. Little did I know that my digital thermometer only went up to 212 degrees and not the 250 needed for the recipe. I ended up with caramel sauce, not candies. Second try worked great! 

2007 Recap

I haven't had much to talk about over the last year that didn't involve babies and I didn't want to subject my audience to my mommy talk. Now some things are changing and I'd like to get it out on my blog. But first, a recap of 2007.

• Little Miss M. was born on Jan 1 and changed our world completely.
• I (reluctantly) went back to work in April to find that not a lot had been done in my absense. I spent the next 6 months working crazy hours trying to get a few projects completed. Not exactly how I wanted to ease back into things after maternity leave.
• Went to Toronto in July for a friend's wedding. I got to see a bunch of friends from high school who were also at the wedding and meet up with some other buddies while in town. The down side to that trip was finding out that B's grandma had died. Miss M and I hopped on a plane to get to S. Indiana while B drove the car. I didn't want to drive all that way with a 6 month old. It would have been at least 30 hours in a car over a 5 day period. No thanks.
• One of my best friends moved back home to Toronto after being just down the street (figuratively) for seven years. Even though I know this was the best thing for Firecracker, I reeeeealy miss being able to visit and talk to her whenever I want.
• Went to visit Aussie in NYC in October. We had a blast walking all over NYC, just us girls. I was a bit bummed that another friend (PIC) was not able to join me on the trip. Aussie is getting married in March 2009 and PIC and I are already planning a fun bachelorette party in NYC.
• Went to visit my dad and step-mom in Gulf Shores in November. Miss M and I had a great time and the weather was pretty nice. B however, had an AWEFUL time. It started with the tailgate of our SUV hitting him in the head as we unloaded at the airport for departure (blood, headache, a bit dizzy - NASTY) and escalated to a terrible case of stomach flu that laid him flat on his back for nearly 2 days. He didn't even leave my dad's house until the last day we were there. Poor guy!
• B quit his job at GE. He has worked there for over 10 years so it is a huge change for him. He is now working at a dental claims company for a friend of his that left GE earlier in the summer. It's a different kind of job for B and I hope it will make him much happier than he was at GE. So far I haven't seen a huge difference in him but it's been less than a month. Learning a new business and new team can be stressful.
• The year ended with not so much as a hiccup. The holidays were so crazy that as soon as we arrived back home from our travels, all I wanted to do was veg out. A while ago we had made some fun plans with PIC and her hubby but something came up and we had to cancel. Nothing else really sounded half as good so we stayed home. I didn't even stay up to watch the ball drop. My own fault though for being such a lazy bum. This year I will strive to be more social!