General Update

Aaron is moving right along. His physical therapy is going well and he is becoming a master at going from a sit to a stand and crawling over obstacles. He is still working on those canine teeth and has some bad days, but overall he is doing OK.


My niece Larissa is babysitting this week while Madison is on vacation. I've been interviewing for a new nanny the last two weeks. Madison informed me before leaving on vacation that she is probably going up to her new college town mid-July, two weeks before I expected her to leave. But fortunately I had a couple of good candidates.


There was an 18 year old named Kadie about to start college that I really like. She is friendly and upbeat. Last summer she helped rebuild houses destroyed by Hurrican Katrina. She loves kids and wants to join the Peace Corps after college. I was about ready to hire her, but on Monday, I interviewed Kim, a woman who lives about a mile from us. She is the first mom I've interviewed. She has two kids - an 18 year old daughter in college and a 16 year old son. We talked for an hour and the time went by quickly. She was easy to talk to and has a child rearing philosophy seems compatible with ours. She worked for 9 years with special needs kids and was getting burnt out after budget cuts. She loves babies and started out as a mother's helper when she was 9. She is over-qualified and I can't really afford her, but since I can be flexible with her schedule and I'm so close, she's willing to start out at a lower hourly rate.


I decided to hire Kim. She said we can start off with no committment and we lined up 3 days next week. I'm hoping Kadie will be interested in being a backup babysitter, but she'll probably need to find another part-time job. I'm hoping that since Kim is not a student she'll be more reliable. At least I won't have to worry about her schedule changing every semester.


Thom's back is mostly better. He still has to take it easy, but he went back to work on Monday and has been able to pick up Aaron since Saturday, which makes a big difference to me.