What Happened to Summer?

Well, I guess that summer is almost over with last weekend being Labor Day weekend. How did that happen? Lukas is already 6 months old. It's been a while since my last posting, so here's what we have been up to these last few weeks. We have been really busy looking for new childcare. I spent a lot of time interviewing nannies and family daycares. Most of them were not right for us. Little things like kids with runny noses, cereal on the floor, kids roughhousing, the TV being on, not having any toys, having too many kids, etc. These are all the little signs I would see that would make me think that this is not the place I want Lukas to be in everyday.

Ultimately, we were trying to decide between 2 nannies. One was in the city that was one block from my office that I found on craigslist and the other was a nanny share at our house from a neighbor's recommendation. I really liked them both, but we ended up doing the share at our house because the nanny in SF was just too expensive. What I liked about that option was that it was so close to work that I could see him at lunch and we wouldn't have to pay for as many hours of childcare. We have been using our new nanny Claudia for 3 days now. I worked from home the first day to show her where everything was. It is kind of strange to invite a stranger into your home and see things moved around, but I figure she's taking care of the most important person in our lives, so why not trust her in our home?

She seems to enjoy spending time with Lukas and Charlie (the 11 month old boy who Claudia also watches in our home for 6 hours a day.) She sings songs to them, reads to them, and takes them to the park. She takes great care of them. I just wish that I didn't need to use her that much.

The other family that we nanny share with just moved to Alameda from Portland. They seem like a nice family. We had them over to the house to see if the boys got along and so that they could inspect the facilities. They also invited us over to their apartment for a day at the pool to discuss the terms of the share. They just closed on a house in Alameda, so they'll be moving next month.

To prepare for the nanny share, we decided to do a little painting. We painted Lukas's closet and then the entryway. The entryway has been painted for a while, but we have been meaning to paint the 6 inches of walls above the moulding. We should have done it when we painted the entryway, but we thought it would make it look too dark. However, it now looks larger because it draws the eye up higher. That was 2 weekends ago.

We also attended Kinsey's first birthday in Marin. They had a farm animal theme which was very cute. I can't believe that she's already 1 because I feel like they had Kinsey right before we had Lukas. I guess it's only 6 more months before Lukas turns 1. Scary.

Last weekend, we went to Cayucos with some friends. Where is Cayucos you say? It is close to Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo where Edwin went to college. We rented a house with 3 other families with young kids or dogs. It was a full house, but fun. I finally got to finish a book that was not completely about babies. It was still related in that it was about one mom's opinion of all the issues you face as a new mom, but it was very funny and I could totally relate. It was not a reference manual on how to care for a baby, yourself, or some kind of pregnancy guide. It was a gift that I got from Priyanka for my birthday. All these years and she still knows what to get me for my birthday.

So here's an update on Lukas's development. He is now able to sit-up (kind of.) He still occasionally will fall over, but his core is pretty strong and he now sits up in his stroller. This is prompting us to think that we may need to get a new stroller so that he can sit up instead of reclining in his car seat. That way, we'll have a stroller in each car which will save me to having to transfer it between cars or worse- forgetting to transfer it and needing it. He's getting heavy. I'm not sure how much he weighs now, but I would guess that he's at least 19 lbs now since he weighed that much with his clothes on 2 weeks ago. He has a pediatrician appointment next week. He still sleeps pretty well at night. We were worried because he didn't sleep well in Cayucos, but I think it may have been too loud or because he was sleeping on his back instead of his stomach. He usually turns over, but he wasn't for some reason. Now we are home and though it took a few days to get back to where we were, he seems to be sleeping better again. Unfortunately, he may be a little sick. Nothing major- he just gets a little crusty around his nose and coughs every once in a while. It doesn't seem to bother him and we haven't given him any medication. Edwin has the flu as well and seems to be doing worse with a fever, sore throat, and achiness. We're just hoping that Lukas doesn't get that, so I have been having to do most of the childcare. We've been lucky so far in terms of not getting sick, so hopefully this will pass quickly.