better get crackin'

So, I thought I should probably get cracking and post some new pictures... Amy has only had little Kaylen home for a few short days and has already posted more pictures of that little girl that I have in my 8 weeks!! So, I thought I should post a few more while she's sleeping!

Here is a cute picture of Belle at "play time". I put her down to play on her little play gym thingy which she usually likes, but she was down there for about 2 minutes before she fell sound alseep! I let her sleep there for about 30 minutes and the dogs didn't even bother her. They actually like it when I put her on the floor - they think it's their time for me! As soon as she's out of my hands, they sneak right in and are on my lap before you know what happened! It's kind of cute and kind of annoying, but I really can't blame them. The poor little guys are so cooped up and bored now. They only get to go out in the backyard and once in a while to the park or daycare, but for the most part they are just in the house. They have way too much energy to burn and nowhere to burn it!

Mommy's little lady. The dogs dropped a bone down between the end table and the couch and were driving me crazy trying to get it (digging at the couch and trying to step on the table and whatnot) so I had to sit Isabelle down in the chair for a second to get it and she just sat there and crossed her little legs, like a little lady and just watched TV. It was so cute! :) Oh yeah - her feet are so long and skinny and I have a hell of a time trying to get socks on her that fit... Although I have to say, now that she's put on some weight it is easier because her ankles aren't so skinny. When she was first born, her feet were so long and her ankles were so skinny that if I found some socks that were long enough in the feet, they were too big on her ankles so they fell off, and if I found some that were tight enough on the ankles, they were way too short on the feet and fell off... still have that problem, but it's a little better now! :)

Finally sleeping... She's been having some fussy nights and we've been having a hard time getting her to fall asleep, so this is a picture of her finally sleeping (on a pillow on my lap, but sleeping none the less!)

Well, that's all that's new around here. I have been slowly getting things done around the house and getting things cleaned up and put away. Tonight I have to undecorate the tree and get it out on the curb for the recycling guy tomorrow, but then our house will finally be less cluttered and I'll be able to stand it a little more! It's so crazy how much my attitude on cleanliness has changed since Belle came along... Before, a messy house didn't bother me until it was REALLY messy and leaving the clothes in the basket for a week or two didn't bother me at all. Now, I can't stand for the house to be messy. I vacuum a ton and do the dishes at least once a day and when I can't get to the laundry for a day or two, it makes me crazy... It's so weird. Nick likes it though - he gets to do much less cleaning now!

Okay, my final rant for the day... Daycare. What the hell man?? I am going to have to pay more for daycare than half my family makes in a year!!! It's so ridiculous. I called on over 50 daycares around here (I used up all the names that the county had for our area...) and of all those daycares, only 6 had openings for infants. 4 of those five were daycare centers, which automatically charge more because they (generally) run them out of a center that they have to pay rent, utilities, etc for and have more people that they have to pay - essentially, higher overhead, thus, higher cost. Anyway, we really liked the first home daycare that we went to, but the lady lived about 10-15 minutes from our house, in the opposite direction of both of our works and her hours were only 7am - 4:30pm which we could make work, but it would be REALLY tough. The other home daycare was really pretty crappy. I wasn't really comfortable with this lady and her entire daycare was run out of a garage, converted to a room, which would have been find had the room been an open space, but she had this one little room broken up into 4 different "areas" so all of a sudden, the only open floor areas are only about 4'x4'... Certainly not enough area for the older kids to play on and a baby to play on the floor or something... Needless to say, I axed that one right away. Next was a daycare center, run out of a lady's house. I was in love with it the minute I stepped in. The location was great, the price was good and her daycare was super roomy with separate rooms for infants to sleep in and stuff. I just loved it... Then we found out that she takes 14 holidays per year (which you have to pay for) and 2 weeks of vacation a year (which you have to pay for) and on top of that, if the schools are closed, she closes (which is like every week out here... swear to god they close schools when there is snow in the forecast - it doesn't actually have to snow, in fact, most times it doesn't... they also close schools half the time when it rains because they are afraid it might turn to ice)... anyway, the amount of time she had off (minus the holidays that Nick and I get) was more time than the two of us get off, so we'd either have to split our vacation/sick days just to cover all those days, or we'd have to take time off without pay just to watch the baby... and that's only the SCHEDULED days closed... ugh. Or we'd have to find someone else to watch her on those days and pay double... So, that crossed that one off... The next center was really nice - huge backyard for the kids to play in and stuff, but it was just too far away. Finally, I went to the last two centers, which are both located within a little strip mall type thing. They both have separate rooms for infants where they have up to 6 infants and each baby has their own crib and they have enough little play gyms or jumpers or whatever kind of toys for each baby to be using one. Plus, because the babies are on the floor for all of their playtime, they make everyone take off their shoes and put on these little booty things before they can go in the room. I thought that was pretty sweet. Both of these places are located close to home and both are very expensive. One is $20 more per week than the other, but I liked them both equally, so we are going to end up going to the little bit cheaper one. The good thing about these places - the only days they are closed are major holidays, so that's good. :) So, I finally have daycare taken care of!!! Thank goodness! That's a big relief for me, but now the stress about how we are going to pay for it begins... ugh. It's a never ending stressful job being a mom! :)

Well, I'm going to get my tree taken down now... I'll work on getting more pictures posted. :) Gotta keep up with the Starkey's!!! ;)