Under Staffed

A daycare center is like any other business operation: it has employees, rules and regulations, money flowing in and out, customers and bosses, and precious, precious cargo.

Sadly, like any other business, employees get sick, people have emergencies, bosses go on vacation, and 13 infants and toddlers are being cared for by 3 people. Kinda makes you wonder about those friggin crazy assess, The Duggars. Unfortunately, toddlers are unable to change diapers and do laundry, so the whole "child labor" philosophy that family employs, doesn't work in this situation.

I got a call at 2 pm yesterday, saying LB had 5 accidents at daycare and she needed more clothes and underwear. My jaw dropped. 5 ACCIDENTS?! Did they even TAKE her to the potty? I know she's a smart kid and all, but she really hasn't figured out how to pull her pants up and down on her own yet, and you still need to ask her if she has to pee. I don't think that's too much to ask for a 23 month old.

Since I live in the quaint mountain town of Durango, Wal-Mart is the only shopping option for baby undies. Wal-Mart happens to be on the exact OPPOSITE side of town. Apparently summer has come early, because I spent the entire 30 minute drive behind a GOD DAMNED TOUR BUS.

Needless to say, an hour of my workday was obliterated. The worst part was showing up at daycare, watching the chaos of crying babies, sweaty, miserable workers, and LB with her pants soaking wet. Her face lit up when she saw me, only to melt into a sob as I hugged her and rushed out the door.

Yes, I made my daughter cry. Yes, I left her at a daycare where they didn't have enough people to run it. Yes, I returned to work, where I had 50 summer school applications waiting to be filed, when the deadline was last Thursday.

Yes, I drank two glasses of wine after I put Boo Boo to bed.

I better get a friggin raise soon.

Potty

Potty training is going remarkably well lately, and I'm happy to say LB has ahem....done her dirty work 3 WHOLE TIMES in the potty. I'm practically salivating over the notion of NOT having to buy diapers anymore. My co-worker told me that once the kids are out of diapers its like getting a raise...woo hoo! Since I'm not getting any salary increases in real life, this will certainly come in handy.

Still, she is only 22 months (on the 8th) and I really don't want to push it. My daycare's potty training policy is that I am NO LONGER ALLOWED TO PUT HER IN DIAPERS. That's it. Cold Turkey. Only Undies from here on out. They told me to pack LOTS Of extra clothes, and they will reduce the mess by setting a timer and putting her on the potty every 30 minutes.

Freakin' Potty Nazis!

So I'm going to quietly introduce the daycare potty to LB and see if she starts using it on her own.....without installing their Potty Boot camp Program. I mean, are they going to yell at her if she suddenly wanders over to the toilet and uses it?

WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING? GET YOUR BUTT ON THE CHANGING TABLE MISSY!

Speaking of butts. This morning, as I was getting LB dressed, I pulled off the cold, wet morning diaper and said "Oh wow kiddo, your butt is COLLLD! That's probably NOT very fun to sleep in!"

She grabbed her booty and said to me, quite proudly "MY BUTT."

Everything is MINE at 22 months. Can't wait till she actually TURNS 2.

Mundaes

Things I'm not happy about today:

1. My Egg Donation is NOT going to be in New York, but Santa Rosa, California instead. I guess they mixed up the coastlines or something. I was really looking forward to finally visiting the Big Apple.
2. I am going to have to drive to Albuquerque for my Ultrasounds instead of getting them here in Durango. I will have to take time off work for these days, as it is a 6 hour round trip. I really cannot afford to do that, ON TOP of the time I will have to take off during the actual retrieval process.
3. I have a late meeting today, and have no one to pick up LB from daycare. Everyone is out of town, sick or busy with work or school. So I will have to leave my meeting early, another step down on my job performance.
4. The horrendous display of shoddy footballing by my home team, The Broncos. It was just too painful to watch, honestly. I kept yelling at the screen "Champ Bailey can't cover the whole field YOU MORONS!" When even Mike Shanahan says he's embarrassed by his team, then you know it was a bad bad game.

However, these are the things I AM happy about today:

1. Its currently 65 degrees outside, and we are pulling into the second week of November.
2. I snuck out to see my apartment this weekend, and they actually have the numbers up, so I peeked into MY ACTUAL HOUSE!!! I saw MY ACTUAL CARPET! MY ACTUAL STOVE! I can't express how excited I was, I may even sneak out there later this week and harass a construction worker into letting me inside.
3. I did my Hula Buns & Abs this morning, and was very satisfied with the results of my half.com purchase. It was fun (even challenging), and I finished the whole thing before LB woke up.
4. In general, I feel good. I can tell that my body is getting stronger. I can chase LB around the playground and not feel like I'm going to die afterwards. I am not scared of going to store, because I know I can head off my toddler before she rips down half the canned food aisle. I'm still stuck at 153 lbs, but my post-baby belly doesn't look so scary anymore, and I feel like I'm going to get below 150 this week.

So between those two conflicting ups and downs, I think I may be able to survive the day.

Health Issues

I did not get up at 5 am today. I literally could not do it. I think all the tension from watching my first horror movie in over 2 years left me a little exhausted after I finally managed to stop looking for upside down sickles on my ceiling. Actually the movie was pretty funny for the most part. I think my favorite scene was when the town posse grabs their sawed-off shotguns (why are they always sawed-off in movies?) and hop in the back of decrepit pick-up trucks, and go off to kill some white-trash swamp-folk. Hmm....kinda like what you see in Bayfield on the weekend :) The movie also featured the hunkaliciousness of Irdis Elba, which I didn't mind at all.

But anyway, I sacrificed calorie burning for sleep this morning, and honestly, I felt even more tired when I got up at 6:30. Why, why why? What's the point in sleeping in if I feel WORSE. Maybe its the fact that my throat has gotten consistently scratchier in the last few days. I was informed TODAY that there has been Strep Throat running around our office, and nobody decided to tell us. GRRRRRRRRR. If I am getting seriously sick and its only the first of November, this winter is going to have me by the balls. If LB gets Strep, or any of my dear Friends who I have been around the last week or so, I am going to throw a fit.

Also if you haven't heard about the recent outbreak of Staph Infection, it has made its way to Colorado. CU Boulder treated 8 students who had it, and in the Herald they reported traces of it as close as MONTROSE. So my boss was just called to an "Emergency Health Meeting" about half an hour ago. I have a daughter in daycare. This is scary. So all of you out there, wash your hands and don't go near some one's dirty towels (I'm TALKING TO YOU GRADY, you work at the Rec Center!). God, I am so NOT the type of person to be paranoid, but a kid DIED from this a few weeks ago.

Ugh is November gonna be one of THOSE months?

Just be careful out there, ok? I love you all too much.

I killed the Tree

Hey there. I failed in my goal to work out every morning this week :(

Yesterday I got a call from daycare to come pick up LB cause she was "projectile vomiting." Needless to say, I rushed over there to pick her up and found that several other babies had been sent home too. LB puked till about 7 pm last night, couldn't keep any food down, only water. She's really never been this sick in her 16 months of life. She was to the point where all she wanted to do was lay her head on my chest and whimper between puking.

When I put her to bed, I was worried she might choke on her own vomit in her sleep, so I got up ever hour until about 2 am. Thank God there was no more puking. I finally was convinced she was ok and went to bed.

When my alarm went off at 5 am, LB was already awake, calling "Mama, Mama" which soon turned into "Nana nana." She devoured a whole bowl of oatmeal and a banana, along with a full glass of water. No puking. No crying. No pale, sickly face. No fever. Just lots of energy and high pitched squealing at dawn.

My diagnosis is that she is NOT sick. She does NOT have the Gastrointestinal daycare flu. She is simply a piggy little toddler who made herself sick by eating too much. I looked on her daily sheet and it said they had cottage cheese for snack. Cottage Cheese is hands down LB's favorite food. I haven't bought her any in the last month or so, because it consists of her gulping it down until I make her stop, which results in screaming. She would eat the whole container if I let her.

My theory is once she saw the cottage cheese on the table, she was like "SWEET, GORGEFEST!" and ate as much as she possibly could, in the fastest possible manner. Shortly after snack was when I received the phone call. It was either that, or the cottage cheese was bad. I have no clue.

All I know is that now I am sitting at home with a completely healthy toddler (daycare has a 24 hour quarantine policy for kids who are sent home sick) and I missed my damn workout this morning.

I guess I should be thankful LB didn't aspirate during the night, instead of complaining about missing my workout. I just wanted to complete the goal I had set for myself. I wanted the tree to survive the first week. Thank God JL is hardcore and STILL got up without me calling her.

I promise to do better next week!