May update

Bean is miraculously sleeping soundly (knock on wood!) in his bouncy chair right here in the living room at 8:15pm.  Will I actually get to write a post?  He usually needs me to take him up to bed or hold him before he will get to this point so this is quite an accomplishment for him and a relief for me.  His progress has been crazy lately.  This past week I couldn't get a new level of baby proofing done fast enough.  He has shaken the top floor baby gate right off its hinges.  The one my brother installed.  I don't think it was actually in the studs though so I bought a stud finder at the hardware store to re-install it properly.  In the meantime however, he has learned to climb down the stairs (backwards) so I am less worried about him than I would be otherwise. He learned that just today after a couple of weeks of me daily showing him how to slide down on his tummy. His way is even better than that - more co-ordinated looking.  Oops... here he is now!~

Now, it is the next morning.  So back to Bean's many new accomplishments.  He is walking more and more every day, steadier and steadier but still a bit coltish and ready to plonk onto his bum any moment he needs to.

In addition to now being able to manoever himself downstairs, he loves to toss objects like the lid of the hamper or my frisbee down those stairs to watch it bounce and land at the bottom.  He must get that idea from watching me do the same with things that aren't breakable down to the lower level, like the garbage. Anyway I hope that he is learning from watching those things fall and that it is registering some proper fear in him that he needs.

We (meaning I) packed away the baby swing yesterday because Bean was climbing into it and swinging himself on all fours in the seat, toppling out, and then climbing back into it to do it all over again.  It was nice to have the space clear for a moment, except it meant that he could now easily get to all the books on the book shelf behind it and he set about taking each of those books out and tossing them onto the floor.  Oy vey!!  So, obviously, I then had to re-organize the book shelf so that there are now NO books, or anything actually, right now on the two bottom shelves and then I secured the whole book case to the wall, using my new handy dandy stud finder.  There's a new use I hadn't expected to need it for but am so glad to have it.

So that's the type of thing we're doing right now.

The tougher task is proving to be finding a good daycare.  I am working with an agency right now and we saw two home daycares this week and they were awful.   Neither of them had a yard, one was in an apartment and I met the care-giver at the playgroup where she goes three times a week.  The floor was absolutely filthy.  It looked like it hadn't been washed for months.  I can't imagine a school, or even an office building with such a dirty floor, so why in the world would they have it so when there are babies and toddlers crawling on it.  There were a few rugs interspersed but they didn't make up for the dirt.  There were hardly any toys, and the smell of bleach from the adjacent hallway floor just outside this room was so strong I asked if there was a pool in the building (and there isn't).  I just don't get it.  The whole thing made me angry and upset.  It is also the whole reality of finding a place to hand over the care of my child that is starting to kick in and it is traumatic after this idyllic time we have been having and are still in.  So I am spreading out my search, asking everyone I can think of for their suggestions and this is now my main focus until I find the very best fit for my heart and soul.