Congrats Bella - great news!
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I think there are loads of things to consider, Bella. But the main thing for me was to be happy with the way the carers speak to the children. At our centre I am very happy that the primary aim of the creche teachers (where P is) is to provide as 'homey' an environment to the kids as they can. Lots of cuddles and kisses etc. I looked at a few places and our current centre was the only place where the director spoke to Natalie, not just me when we visited. It sounds like a given, but at our centre they all seem to really like kids and I think you can find places where that's not the case.
I would totally recommend having a look at several places. I was happy with one place until I looked at our current one. Then the other one looked much less good. LOL! If that makes any sense! I also like the newer facilities, the play area has an 'older kid' section and a younger kid one, the toys are in really good nick and the artwork the kids do is proudly displayed. I don't care about the academic stuff they do, although I know they do it - they follow a govt syllabus, but that's not as important to me as their interaction between carers and kids.
HTH & GL!!
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Congrats Bella - great news!
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Yep everything that Aimes said
I had Baileys name down at a few, and in the end my preferred option was the smallest and had the least 'modern' facilities, but is a real family environment and they will 'parent' your child exactly as you ask
I think its important to visit a number of times and not just when it suits them - see how they handle busy times (eg meal times etc) as well as play times. Watch how they interact with the kids - eg nappy changes, play times etc etc
I asked them questions like - what do you do if all the babies are crying at the same time (they get the office staf, the director or borrow carers from the other rooms), I wanted to know what they'd do if Bailey was upset or not wanting to sleep etc etc, they answered my questions perfectly. When he was littler they would cuddle him to sleep as I asked (even if it took a while) and they give out cuddles freely (often I see kids sitting on laps in the office so they get some 1on1 time away from the noise if all the kids are on the go at once)
Our centre has an awesome menu and Bailey eats like a king, they are good with ensuring regular nappy changes and each child (even the babies) has their own little development program - eg when Bailey was younger it was things like learning to use a spoon, building with blocks, communication - such a varied program depending on the childs own speed of development, and they each have a folder where they put artwork, photo's their development plan etc in.
Find out their communication style too - Although I know all the carers now and usually stay ten or so minutes when I pick Bailey up, they use a communication book and record exactly what he has eaten, how long his slept and his activities for the day so I know exactly how he has been.
Personally I found that the smaller council or community run centres are more in line with my gentle parenting philosophies than the 'chain' centres like ABC etc which are more rigid in their programs, but can afford better facilities - but frankly that's not that important to me - the nature and values of the carers was my first priority.
Also find out how they transition children between rooms - eg at Bailey's centre the babies room is from 0-2 so in the coming months he will move to the toddler room (sometime between April and July)
And ask what type of activities they do, I found even the baby program was awesome - Bailey paints, playdohs, waterplay, drawing, storytimes, singing and lots of outside time which is great and lets them use lots of energy and builds lots of gross motor skills and balance with climbing, running, jumping, bouncing, swinging etc
Bailey has much more fun at care than he does at home, he LOVES it and even stops to give all his carers a kiss when we leave, he is totally in love with them
Also, importantly get on it now - to get my preferred centre I had Bailz on the waiting list for 12 months!! Although there were vacancies in other centres - I wanted THIS one and so did everyone else!!!
Hope that helps, feel free to give me a call if you have any other Qs
Nay
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Arghhh how can anyone do that much washing when on holiday - one or two loads a day! ILs driving me mad, away for a week I probably do none! Let alone multiple a day!
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Congrats on your pregnancy Bella!!
Hi everyone! Busy busy busy here. Hope you are all well.
Sorry I've not been in much.
xx
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You deserve a medal, there is NO way I could go away with my IL, done it once, but it was with a big group, I would kill them
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LOL Vic,that's crazy! How many times do they change their clothes?!? When we went away over Christmas we were gone not quite 2 weeks and I did 2 loads of washing.
Thanks for coming out the other day! The girls and I had a great time playing in the sand with you and Cerys.
Nay: I am loving your photography, girl! I loved the boxes - can't wait to see your final production
BG: Great to see you the other day too! I hope the holiday has been great and that you did get a bit of a chance to rest... just a little
Nicky: Was so pleased to read that the little guy is enjoying kinder! It's great when they love it and have no reservations about getting right in there. Does he completely wear himself out and go to bed early? That's the BEST thing about Natty's CC days. She sleeps soooooo well and goes to bed so easily.
I've had a great week at work this week - I have felt really good about myself and the work I've done. Plus the girls are getting along really well with DH lately - they just adore him and climb all over him whenever he's home. Especially Phoebe. I am going to have to work FT again throughout May as the other secretary is going away on another extended holiday. It will be much more full-on this time as opposed to last time when I got a few days off. This time I doubt I will get a day off in the whole 5.5 weeks she's away. It will be massive. But the $$ will come in handy I guess. We are still tossing up as to whether we can afford to move house, so any extra income will be really valuable if we do.
Probably babbled enough now! Helloooooooo everyone else.
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I'm trying to work out how to steal the idea lol. Hmmm, now what did you use as the box? Oh, and most importantly, how did you get Bailz to stay inside the box??I am loving your photography, girl! I loved the boxes - can't wait to see your final production
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Hmmmmm - Should I give away my secret??I'm trying to work out how to steal the idea lol. Hmmm, now what did you use as the box? Oh, and most importantly, how did you get Bailz to stay inside the box??
Krystie it's MUCH simpler than it looks...
- I bought an expedit white bookcase from IKEA[/URL] for $59 and when I put it together I didn't put the shelves in, I just put together the outside casing to get the cube if that makes sense! I looked around at a few of the cheap shops for a cheaper version but it was hard to find one the right size (even this one is a bit small).
- Bailz just loved it for some reason, however I tried a second session today and only got a few shots because he was a bit tired and uncooperative.
- Have ALL your props ready and you need a tripod as if you look at my test shoot because I moved back and forth setting Bailey up, I would move to a slightly different spot so they are all shot from a slightly different angle. When I put them all together in a collage (I just used picassa) the angles were more obvious
With a tripod you know you are going to have consistency in the framing of your pictures.
- You also need some nice white natural light so you dont get too many shadows in the box - so perhaps try to do it about 9am or 4-5pm when there is some nice natural (but not super bright) sunlight about.
- Fortunately our walls are pretty much the same colour as the cube so the backing matched, otherwise you might need to drape a white sheet or get some white cardboard as the backing
Hope that helps - give it a go
Nay x
Last edited by Olive; March 1st, 2011 at 11:45 AM. : please dont post links
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CJ is going to have a little brother - Stirling Arthur.
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Wow - not twin boys?Are you in shock?
Congrats babe - nice to have a pigeon pair
Little boys ROCK!!!
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Woohoo!! That's cool, Vic. Hope all is well
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Yay for a little boy!
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Dear me, this is "take two" of a previous post. I wrote half a post then Kyson clibed on my lap, turned off the monitor then grabbed the mouse. He managed to click the side button on the mouse which is the "back" button, so when I got the monitor back on I had was back on the BB main page and my post was lost in cyber space, lol. So then I typed a quick "I be back to repost" post, and I've just noticed that he somehow "disappeared" that one too! Soooo, let's see if I can remember what I wrote, hehe.
Vic, I agree with Nay that little boys rock! Although, now that I have a little girl I realise that little girls rock too, hehe. Congrats on finding out you are having a little boy, and I hope all the medical news was fantastic and that Stirling is growing strong and healthy. I really like the name Stirling and I think it goes really well with Cerys. I find it odd when parents give their sibling really different names, like one child having a really old-style classic name, and then another having a really odd modern name. It just seems strange. Although I guess it's all subjective. I'm sure there are some people out there that don't think that Kyson and Shayla match even though we do
Would you girls believe that Kyson slept from 7pm last night until 11.45am this morning?! That's almost 17 hours! Craziness! I kept going in to check on him but each time he was just still sleeping peacefully. I was worried that maybe he was coming down with a sickness, but he woke up happy and was fine all day. Suffice to say he didn't have a nap today, lol. He's so funny though and he has DH and I in hysterics every day with all the cute things he does. He seems to have grown up so much over the last few months and he's learning lots of new things and words. I love when he sings along to songs (even when he doesn't know the words!). He even sings the music sometimes haha!
Shayla is also doing really well. I thought Kyson was an easy baby, but Shayla is just a dream! She rarely cries and even then it's only if she's hungry. The most I've heard her cry is sometimes in the car. But as long as the car keeps moving she's generally fine. It's just traffic lights that she's not a fan of. Kyson was the same. She's been sleeping quite well at night and many nights she is feeding at around 11.30pm when we go to bed, then at 4ish and then 6.30-7ish in the morning. Other nights she feeds a bit more but she's pretty good
Shayla started getting some nasty nappy rash that I couldn't get rid of with three different creams I had tried (sudocreme, aromababy bottom balm and nappy goo from the RCH). It was looking really bad so I made a couple of changes and now it has totally cleared up but I don't know what change fixed it lol! I made some cloth wipes and put them in a container with water and have been cleaning her bottom with them, and also our MCHN mentioned that you can use cornflour on the area that gets moist in neck rolls (lol) so I thought that might be good on her bottom too. Now I'm not sure if I should just keep using both of them or to either go back to store bought wipes or normal bottom cream. I guess I should just stick with what works...
Also, we got all our professional photos today from our maternity and newborn shoot. I LOVE them! Our photographer does such a wonderful job. I can't wait to get them framed properly and put them on the wall. I hope I can get the same frames that I have from Kyson's maternity and newborn shoot, otherwise I'll have to buy all new frames for the whole lot I think. We're also going to get the family photo made into a big canvas for the lounge room, and maybe a couple of small canvases (that you can get free from Huggies with newborn nappy barcodes
I hope you are all well! Hugs to you all and for your kidlets!
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Oooh, I was just about onto that canvas promotion at Huggies Krystie - but realised they specifically need newborn or infant size barcodes - I have 30+ in toddler!!!
If anyone has any smaller sized ones - want to swap?
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Thanks girls - yes all the medical stuff was good. We had two sonographers (one in training) so it seemed to take a bit longer than CJ did, but also I think Stirling wasn't quite so co-operative - I continue to be amazed at how much they can tell from an ultrasound (seeing the chambers in the heart etc - some parts of medical technology are so clever). He is a big boy, which we were expecting due to CJ's size, and midwife thinking was about 2 weeks ahead at 16 weeks, and his head is measuring 90th percentile but sonographer thought he was probably about 90th all over. DH was 10pd 13oz and if boys and second babies are often bigger it fits with that. Am hoping that we can avoid hip dysplasia girls are 4-5 times more likely to suffer than boys apparently, but if you have a sibling or parent with it then there is a 1 in 10 chance, and big babies increases the likelihood too. I will be getting a scan in week 1 this time!
Amy - I noticed you mentioned about cradle cap on one of the photos of Phoebe - am assuming is normal even though still have hair to get it then?- CJ still has it I was thinking as she got more hair would disappear?
One more weekend with the IL's who are due back in Mel on Friday - I wonder how many loads of washing they will do over the 3 days before they leave :-). I love seeing them with CJ though, is very interesting and often gives me ideas on stuff to do with her - her favorite activity with her Nana is reading holiday magazines! We had no toys to speak of (barring iggle piggle etch a sketch and a pink horse) for the week and found lots of interesting ways of amusing CJ, and have found she really loves dressing up so a box of dressing up clothes is on my list to sort out.
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ditto if we have a second!!! Unlikely with a boy (its 1 in 3000!! Let's hope Bailz remains that 1 in the 3000 in the belly belly community) but I totally understand your concern.
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krystie - thats how jazzy is too such a dream love having a bubba girl and boy we should catch up seeings as we are close now
vic - congrats on the boy ETA both jazz and jamie have had awful cradle cap and tons of hair
im thinking of trying solids for jazz already she seems ready but even if she isnt we'll try again later will check the wonder weeks JIC its just a growth spurt but its doing my head in work went well im tired from it but i'll get used to it its only one day a week and its a bit of a break
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