Daycare

The girls go to a wonderful daycare but it is unlicensed. In the state of Colorado if you watch more than one family you have to be licensed. The stupid thing about this law is an unlicensed daycare or babysitter can watch one family. That one family can be 1 kid or 10 kids as long as they are brothers and sisters. But if you watch more than one family (even if it is 1 kid from each family) you have to be licensed.

The girls' daycare, a husband and wife team, have taken all of the necessary daycare classes but they rent their home and at the time (quite a few months ago) they did not have a fenced in yard so they could not be a licensed daycare. A couple of months ago they moved into a new home with a large fenced in yard but they have not taken the time to get licensed. At the beginning of November they got a letter stating they had to close down the daycare. The daycare did the responsible thing and gave everyone notice. Since we had 2 kids we had until the end of November to find a new daycare.

I had found a new babysitter for the girls and she was ready to watch them whenever I wanted but we decided on December 1st. I had Tuesday off for Veterans Day (I know I have it made at the law office). That night I got a phone call saying that they had received another letter and no more daycare. So for Wednesday I had no daycare. I was very upset that they could just close it down just like that. I called the new babysitter and she was more than happy to start watching the girls but the girls had never met her before. Joe and I decided to take Wednesday off in shifts and that afternoon I took the girls to meet the new babysitter and her kids.

I was more worried about Lily since she is going through separation anxiety. But while we were visiting I disappeared a few times and Lily was not happy but the new babysitter was able to calm her down and Lily was not screaming horribly just fussing. So after the meeting I felt MUCH better.

On Thursday the babysitter and Lily were able to bond and had a great morning. When I dropped Mikayla off after preschool she had a blast playing with the 5 year old and on Friday the babysitter's other kids, twin 8 year old girls showed up and LOVED playing with Mikayla.

So after all the stress and headache of moving to a new daycare we are much happier. I also love the new location. The new babysitter is only 3 blocks from preschool so I now have over 1/2 of my lunch hour back and I plan to use it to run. I really slacked off this week in my marathon training so I gotta get my butt in gear.