Welcome to Phoenix; now go take a hike.

I guess I should get around to answering the burning question on everyone's mind.

I really like Phoenix. Here's one reason why.

Most of Phoenix is flat. No hills, flat. Then right in the center are a couple of smallish mountains that stick straight up out of the flatness. Which means there is mountain hiking right in the center of metropolitan Phoenix, and very popular with the locals. We went up one of the 'moderate' trails (read, slightly above my current fitness level.) Actually, Justin, Russell and I got 3/4 of the way up, and Jus' parents and brother (who were visiting at the time) took the two dogs the rest of the way up while I fed Russell and waited for their return trip. Proof positive that when this dissertation is done, I need to get some more exercise.

But the views were lovely. I leave you with pics.

Another technical note.*

Now that I am paying much more attention to the blog, I realized the current comments settings weren't working for me, or for some of you for that matter.

I have therefore changed them, and if you weren't able to post a comment before you will be able to now. Keep in mind however, that your comments won't show up immediately, because I have to OK any comments that appear.

I think this new arrangement will be more satisfactory to me.

Happy reading...

*This post also does not count towards my "post every other day" promise...still not cheating.

Holiday Confusion

So, I was a bad mommy. Ok, a distracted one. And when we moved from Long Island I packed Russell's Halloween costume on the truck.

The truck came on November 4th. Oooops.

So, Halloween had no costume for the baby. In fact, Russell spent his first Halloween lying around on the living room floor with his parents because we still had no furniture. We had lots of Trick or Treaters though, and gave out a ton of candy.

As an aside, I think the highlight of my night was early on. I gave out some candy to a cute little witch (the costume, not the child) and as I closed the door, I heard her say, "Daddy, those people have no furniture." I nearly cried I was laughing so hard. More children commented on it, but that first one was so sweet and cute. It was hilarious.

But, at least he had cute Halloween slippers his great grammie sent to him. (Thanks Nana!) Don't even get me started on how hard they are to photo on baby feet.



Russell loved them, they made rattling noises when he moved his feet. I think they contributed to his first "finding of his feet". He's playing with them here.



However cute, kitten booties do not a 'first Halloween' costume make. So, we did the next best thing for dressing him up for Halloween. We dressed him up for Election night! Yes, we had a big Election night party to go to with coworkers and friends from Justin's new job, so Russell wore his Halloween costume.



Besides, they were all anatomists, so they appreciated it.

Don't worry, next year he'll dress up for Halloween, not election night. We'd hate for him to get confused.

6 months old!

Russell turned 6 months old on Saturday.



When he was born, I never thought I could ever love him more than that first moment in my arms. Boy was I wrong. I easily love him more than the day before each and every day.

In six short months, he has learned so much. I look forward to what comes next.

Daycare Evaluations.

I have waxed poetic before about how much I adored my day care for Russell on Long Island. Turns out, it was a blessing and a curse.

Now I can't find one here I like.

Russell has been going to daycare here, three days a week, for three weeks now. And every day I walk out of there feeling not quite right when I drop him off. At first I thought it might just be that I was used to to ladies on Long Island, and after a week or two I would learn to love this center too.

Not. So. Much.

It's not that he isn't getting perfectly adequate care, he gets changed, and fed and he's safe there. It's just that, beyond that, I don't feel that he's getting anything at all.

So it's time to trust my gut. Yesterday, I went and found a new daycare.

First, I spent about an hour at the daycare I am currently using just to get an idea of a) whether I was just imagining that it wasn't what I wanted and b) what it was (if anything) that bothered me. Up until that visit, it had just been a 'something doesn't feel right' experience.

I highly recommend this tactic for ANY parent who has a kid in daycare. After a couple of weeks, go in and spend an hour. It's very telling. (And if they don't want you to - get your child out of there ASAP) Every daycare has a different personality. Every set of caregivers interacts differently with your child. An hour with them helps you see what your child's day is like. And, truth be told, I expect them to behave slightly better with a parent in the room. (It's like having your boss in the room - don't tell me you've never behaved better with the boss in the room.) You can evaluate the things that are important to you, not just what their literature and their 'tour guide/director' tells you are important.

After an hour at our current daycare, I went to a daycare I had contacted earlier about a space and just spent about 15 minutes sitting in their infant room and talking to the ladies there. I had Russell with me. I could see how they interacted with him (and me) and the other kids.

Now that I've had a daycare I love, and one I am uncomfortable with, I know what I am looking for. OK, at least I know better what I am looking for.

For me, a good daycare:

*Has to be clean. Now my house isn't gonna make the cover of Ladies Home Journal, and kids are messy (often all the way to disgusting) so I won't be all hypocritical and require it's so clean I can eat off the floor. But it has to smell good, or at least not smell bad. There can't be bits and pieces on the floors in the infant rooms. That sort of thing.

*Has to be safe. Duh. Not just babyproofing, but visitor flow control, no one in or out without reason, that sort of thing. It has been my experience that the chains have books worth of literature about how safe your kid is there. Do they have emergency plans? Do they have a nurse on site? Most of the time, this is all required by state law. Check that your state certifies the place.

*Has to have pleasant staff. This one is KEY for me. Easily the most important step, and what was missing at our current daycare. They have to interact with the kids in a pleasant way, talk to the adults...care. I want them to do more than tend to my child, I want them to care about him. The ladies on Long Island did. I need to be able to communicate and relate to the ladies taking care of my child.

Those are the basics. Without those three, my kid ain't going.

The place Russell is in now, is missing the third one. The ladies are nice enough, but they don't interact well with me, and they are so busy tending to diapers and bottles and putting out fires that they never really interact with the kids. That was what was missing.

And the new place has it. At least, it sure seems that way from my visit. I loved the way they engaged Russell when we went in. I loved the way that they had time to interact with the kids in the room. More than anything else, I loved the way they interacted with me. I was asked questions, and they were interested in Russell's development. (How old was he, was he sitting up on his own yet, etc.)

We will be putting in our two weeks notice at our current daycare on Monday. Russell will be starting at the new place in January after the holidays.

I feel so much better now.

Things may be out of sequence for a while.

Just a heads up.

So, I've promised you a post every other day until Xmas. (This one doesn't count...don't worry, I'm not cheating.) Which includes a bunch of back-logged stuff and some current events.

I've decided that current events will go into the lineup as they happen, bumping back-logged stuff further back. So tomorrow you get a lovely post about my day-care dilemma (which is current) but it means that posts about Halloween and Thanksgiving get bumped further into December. Eventually I'll catch up with myself.

Until then, have fun watching my chronologically challenged brain at work.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, with a gratuitous pic of the dog (who will be the first to tell you that she doesn't get enough love anymore.)

Ode to Monkey

Russell was born with monkey toes. Big, long, prehensile, he-still-grabs-us-with-them monkey toes.

Add to that a long-standing joke in our household about the "Birthday Hug Monkey" and we have ourselves a guaranteed baby nickname.

Russell is our Hug Monkey.

Which, of course, means that many of the toys we have gotten him have had monkeys on them. Like jungle mat:



A better pic of Monkey.



Even early on, monkey was a favorite (this one is from August)



and then there is the classic photo which will probably get shown to his prom dates: "When Monkeys Attack"



We have hundreds of photos of our Hug Monkey with his monkey



I suspect monkey will be loved for a while.

I know our Hug Monkey is.

Is it December already?

So much to do, so little time.

I have spoken to at least three of you in the last week. You know who you are, you faithfully check my blog...which, of course, makes me feel terribly guilty for having a piddling 1 post in the last month.

Without further ado (or unfulfilled promises) I have a post every other day until Christmas, all set and ready to go. This is my gift for you, the people who make the blog worthwhile. Happy Holidays.

...

About a month ago (gasp! time flies!) Russell started thinking about mobility. He started rolling over just before Halloween, which, is hard to get on camera. But, he did start picking himself up and looking darn cute whilst doing so.



Of course, we are lucky that saliva is clear, since our carpets are white.



That same day, I was playing with the camera and got a pretty good picture of mommy and baby.



Thursday: Monkeys!

But you'll forgive me if I post a cute baby pic, right?

I have been WAY too busy to actually get any blogging done. In fact, I haven't even been running like I had planned. I promise to make up for it in the next few days.

Since my last post:

Working on this dissertation - of course.
Halloween (sort of)
The ELECTION!
We bought a new dining set.
Jus' family came down for a visit/mini vacation.
Unpacking.

You know, life.

I'll start to catch up with posting tomorrow, but it may be a few days before I get it all in.

In the meantime, a cute baby pic to make up for it.

Run by blogging.

I'll have much more to talk about later, this week and a half has been crazy but rewarding.

Right now, I just wanted to note that I am starting up running again, and I finally got to go out this morning! And...I have decided to keep track on the blog of my progress. (Plus it will keep me posting more often)

Yay!

So, this mornings stats:

Start time: 7:05 AM MST
Run time: 23 minutes
Distance: 1.34 miles
Notes: Chilly desert morning, it was probably only 55 degrees out there, but sunrise is pretty out here. I didn't push myself, since it's been almost a year and half since I was really running, so lots of walking and slow jogging. But it felt good to get out there.

More moving and baby related stuff later. Now, back to work on my dissertation.