We’ve got a climber. Astrid’s bucket of skills and tricks continues to grow at a rapid pace. I was lucky to be home for 2 weeks this month to witness her transformation personally. She quickly learned to crawl, climb over obstacles, pull herself up into a standing up, and open drawers. Every day she seems to move with more confidence and coordination, and get into more mischief.
A lot of her growth seems to have come after our Easter weekend in Kamloops. Hanging out with her cousin Jacob has inspired her. It was adorable watching the two of them interact. It was also reassuring to to my sister Kelsey who is pregnant with her second, and Emily and I, as we transition Astrid into daycare.
Yes, daycare. That’s our big accomplishment of the month. Although Emily deserves all the credit for doing the frustrating work of calling over 50 daycares and reading through hundreds of Facebook and Craiglist posts. She found Astrid a spot starting next week at a small in-home (or rather in-condo) operation with 1 other kid that’s only a 20 minute walk away. It was the only spot we found, so we didn’t have a lot of choice, but we like the lady who runs it and her references were glowing – and she’s agreed to feed Astrid a vegan diet and change her clothe diapers (we’ll see how long that lasts).
Daycare in Vancouver is ridiculous. It’s expensive ($1300 – $1800 per month per child) and even at those prices there are hardly any openings. We’re still on the waitlists for the bigger facilities, but even though we applied as soon as Astrid was born we don’t expect to hear back from any of them. The YWCA let us know we were #120 on their list. It’s crazy. We’re in the midst of a provincial election right now and the NDP have promised daycare improvements if elected. Hopefully we’ll see some progress soon (please VOTE!).
The other big news this month is Astrid has started using the potty. She’s far from potty-trained, but every time we change her diaper we sit her on the potty, and she’s intuitively known what to do from the start. Although I almost screwed it up. The first time I put her on she peed, but I didn’t notice and failed to give her any positive feedback. The second time I sat her down, I wasn’t holding her and she face-planted on the ground. Luckily, no lasting potty aversions, and she usually poops and pees in the potty once or twice a day.
It’s been hard going back to work. I enjoyed being a stay-at-home parent for two weeks. I took Astrid to the play gym, music class, and story time at the library. We went to the park as a family and enjoyed the swings and had picnics. It was luxurious, but now it’s time to earn some money so we can pay for that daycare spot.
Canadian Veggie 