I'm Back - Daycare - I Am Project

I have missed blogging. I probably could have made time for blogging but haven't. Any ways, I've realized that I've missed it and am back. Today I was thinking that it may be a little difficult to blog about the kids without including what goes on in my home daycare too. Therefor, you'll see some new faces. I will only post pictures of children who I have permission from their parents to do so. I will also avoid using their names and instead just use their initial.

I guess I will start with a little daycare update. For the last 2 years my daycare has been full or close enough where I wasn't looking to fill a spot (like when I had a part time opening). In this time, I did have a couple kids leave (started school) and a couple join but that all happened without me advertising. I've even had to turn people away in that time. I've been blessed! This pass December I got notice from 2 families within weeks of each other telling me that they would be moving. I was saddened with both announcements. We miss those kids. After getting notice from just the first one, I had decided to not advertise the openings. I didn't need to have those spots filled right away and had decided to enjoy a lesser work load for awhile. Plus, the other mom was pregnant so this would keep a spot open for her baby. However, after the second notice I knew I had to start advertising. Things would just be too tight for my liking with just one family. The one family I was left with was D's family. D has been with me for over 2 years now. I've watched him grow since he was an infant. As a matter of fact, D's mom had recently had a baby. D's baby brother, T, will eventually be joining us. I can't wait! So, I'm currently working on finding the right family (or 2) to join us...but haven't found them yet. For now, I'm enjoying the more one-on-one time I'm having with Sean, Maddy, Emily, and D.

Last week I discovered the facebook page, I am. I love their message and accepted their challenge. The pictures below are from that challenge. I'm going to take it a bit further here. I posted these pictures on my daycare's facebook page and mentioned that it's just the tip of the ice burg about these awesome kids. I'm going to tell you about the rest of that ice burg here.

Sean is: smart, a leader, a helper 

Maddy is: creative, determined, unique 

Emily is: silly, an entertainer, energetic 

D. is: caring, imaginative, a music lover

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Jan 10th - Jan 15th in Pictures

Jan 10th

Maddy excited about her new ear rings:

Jan 11th

The cat must have thought Em looked lonely.

Jan 12th

The chickens have learned how to roost!

Jan 13th

Little baby, deep in thought:

Jan 14th

I forgot to take a picture but I also forgot about this picture from earlier this month. She's wearing the same thing so that must count for something. ;)

Jan 15th

Daycare snack time

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Family Update: Dec 2012

I've been a bit MIA lately and haven't posted a lot. A lot has happened over here and I think an update post is needed. Go grab a cup of coffee because this is going to be long. Things are going very well here. The kids are doing great! Maddy still absolutely loves dance and Sean has been talking about maybe trying soccer next year. They both have started going with me to the church I run nursery at. Maddy loves children's sermon and Sunday school. Sean is still hesitant about Sunday school but he enjoyed children's sermon last Sunday. Sean is doing great with homeschooling. We've made some changes though (and still working on some changes). --surprise, surprise, right? School is always a work in progress. We are using Starfall's free printable curriculum for reading. It's working great! I finally bit the bullet and bought a curriculum, Miquon Math. It came in the mail yesterday. I've heard great reviews from friends so I think it'll work great too. Our around the world unit study was a fail. Sean just was not as interested as I had imagined. I'll just file the idea away for when he's older. Sean has given up naps so nap time is now when he does some of his school work. It works better because the littles aren't in the way. He does the rest of his work and Maddy does her pre-k work after nap time when my school aged daycare kid does her homework. Em, well, here's her latest update.

On the daycare front, things are going great. A family that lives just a block away and has 2 girls, toddler and school age started this month. I'm once again at my max on Tues. and Thurs. Even though I'm exhausted at the end of the day, it feels great to have a full house again. The added income right before Christmas is a bonus too.

There's also some furry/feathery changes too. Last month we added 3 rabbits (Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter) to our backyard. The girls are sisters and are younger than Peter. They thrive on attention from us. Every time I open the cage door they run to stick their heads out to be petted. Peter loves attention too but he has a love/hate relationship with being petted. He runs to the door when he sees me but runs away when I put my hand in. But then he leans into my hand when I pet him. Silly rabbit! I bought them from a friend of mine that breeds meat rabbits. Our rabbits will have the same job. By spring they will be old enough for breeding. The kits will then be raised until they are big enough to be processed. I recently had rabbit meat for the first time. It's quite yummy! The difficult part will be staying disconnected from the ones that will be butchered..

Mopsy and Cottontail

Peter

As you may remember, I've been working hard with a group of people here trying to get the zoning regulations changed to allow backyard hens. Last month city counsel voted, 6-3, to allow up to 6 hens in all single family residential lots!! The lady that founded the group started last December. Less than a year is record time for this to pass. I'm thrilled! So, I ordered half our flock. And this week 3 baby chicks arrived at our door. I got an Easter Egger, a Buff Orphington and a Black Australorp. The are a hoot to watch! I love watching them chase after each other. The Buff Orphington is the tamest so far. She was the first to climb into my hand when I hand feed them. The Black Australorp is the adventurist one. Within the first few hours she figured out how to get out of the brooder. I fixed that though. The cutest thing is how they already seem to crave human contact. They chirp quite loudly when the house calms down; at nap time and bed time. We'll probably wait till spring to get the rest of our flock. We might even try hatching eggs.

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Feeding Time

As you probably know, I run a small daycare out of my home. I currently have 3 daycare kids. One is full time, two are part time, meaning two days out of the week there are 6 kids here all 4 and under. Crazy? Maybe. But it's a lot of fun. Meal times can get crazy but usually it's just entertaining. Today was a little comical. So, for your entertainment, feeding time at Mama Dani's house:

Today's story starts an hour before lunch. Sean begins asking me "Is it lunch time yet?" I swear we just had snack not long ago! He keeps asking every 5 minutes or so until I ended up making lunch a little early. The big kids get settled down at the little table. I surround the littles around me and begin the one bite for you, one bite for you, one bite for you, one bite for me. Here's where it gets funny. The sound track to lunch begins: "mmm" "more" "yum" "that". And the fingers start going: pointing, signing "more", signing "milk". I look over at little Emily, who's sitting next to me in the bumbo. She's watching everyone closely and starts pretending to chew. Soon baby but let's not grow up too fast! I must have slowed down because their mouths are empty and the anxious, panic sounding "more" and "that" beginning. Fingers are moving faster, signing and pointing. I give them each another bite and hear "mmm" "mmmm!" "yum!" I give them each their last bite. The littlest one signs and says "done!" and that's it! They are off to go play. I look at the floor. It's amazing the mess they can make so I call Annabelle, our canine vacuum. Annabelle loves the babies!

I love my job!

My littles:

*Used with parents' permission*

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Update On Me

Whew! It's been crazy around here lately! I've been keeping up with my posts but I feel like I've been MIA in the blogging community. Many apologies for the lack of comments, following back, ect. I swear I have good reasons!

The biggest thing occupying my time has been my home daycare. I've been below capacity for awhile now. This was mostly because of Keme's surprise pregnancy; I didn't try to fill spots while there were puppies in the house. Once they were gone, I started up again. The income from just 1 full timer is not cutting it. And I'm very sad to say, his last day was today. We are ending on good terms but it's still difficult. Needless to say, filling daycare spots has been top priority! I'm even looking into other ways to bring in income, such as weekend elderly care. Timing just stinks b/c no one wants to hire someone so pregnant.

I have a couple of update posts on the kids that are waiting in draft. Sean's will be finished today. Maddy and Jellybean's will be finished tomorrow.


A neat little tid bit: The mornings after a few of my most stressful days, we've had butterflies emerge and a couple have hung around longer than normal.


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