Another Hurdle Leapt

So we signed up the Spawn with a day care today.  We've been mulling this for months, and doing actual searching and visiting for, um, a few days.  Last Thursday and Friday we visited four places: (1) a "small family day care" that's been in operation for about 25 years, is very impressive, seems to have its best practices down, is somewhat expensive, and a little bit inconveniently located; (2) another small family day care run by one woman a block away from our apartment, who's been operating for a few months, seems to still be running things by the seat of her pants, and is only a little less expensive; (3) a Montessori day care in Marin which seems to be a little bit run down, costs the same as the second place, and only the E-i-C would be in a position to pick up or drop off the Spawn; (4) our friend BK, formerly a professional nanny, at her place in Fairfax (central Marin), which is even farther off the map, and if we paid her minimum wage we'd still end up paying the same amount (or maybe more) per month as the day cares, plus she doesn't have the facilities, equipment, and backup personnel of the other places.

Only the best for our Spawn, of course, so we went with the most expensive, slightly inconvenient place.  I'm going to ask my boss if, when I return to work, I can change my hours to 7-4.  This way the E-i-C can drop off the Spawn in the morning, and I can pick her up in the evening.

When we move to Fairfax, of course, we'll have to do this all over again.  But at least we have things settled in for now, since we don't know how long it will be before we can move.

In related news, tonight is our first night out without Page since she was born.  We're going to dinner, for Valentine's Day (we never go on V-Day itself), to Quince.  Neither of us have been before, and we're quite excited.  I guess it's going to be a kind of double celebration.