To Sleep perchance to... Sleep

I need sleep.

Like yesterday.

This move has taken every sleep "skill" that J had (and lets face it... he didn't have many) and thrown them into a fiery pit of despair. He wakes up every hour. Sometimes twice an hour. And lest you tell me to Sleep Train, or Sleep Shuffle, or Cry it Out... let me assure you that everything that can be done HAS been done. Twice. And the fact of the matter is, I am tired of trying. I am getting used to not sleeping. It's easier to not sleep than to shuffle and train and all that other nuttiness.

The problem, though, is that lack of sleep makes me... dangerous. Not in a loaded fire arm kind of way, but in a total lack of understanding of basic human truths kind of way. For example, as mentioned yesterday, I am in Atlanta. This is not exactly interesting news but what was interesting was the moment at precisely 1:02 pm, when Husband popped the trunk in the parking lot of my office. That was the moment I looked through my bag for a hair brush and some powder to make myself presentable for the office. That was also the moment that it occurred to me that my hair brush, hair dryer, make up, tooth brush, tooth paste, and yeah, deodorant, were all stacked neatly on the bathroom counter. In Savannah.

So in my sleep-deprived state I decided that I should buy new make up and toiletries. That's not a bad decision, trust me. I don't pull off the "No make up" look very well. I look like Marla Hooch after a three-day bender. And I have to brush my teeth. I can't even imagine what people at the firm would think if I showed up all fuzzy-toothed and smelling of baby piss. No, purchasing new items was not a bad decision. What WAS a bad decision was deciding to purchase them at... Lenox Mall. And in particular... at Sephora.

Oh Sephora. How I loathe and love thee. I spent so much money there that my wallet shriveled up and pickled itself. I justified it all with a very intelligent "I have a new job and need nice things." Um... no. I have a mortgage and a rent to pay. I have an almost one year old son. I have... a real problem. I can't take the stuff back. I tried. I tried to convince myself to take back everything but the basics but I just couldn't do it. My feet would not walk back in that store. Ultimately, this is probably a good thing if it continues, but for now? I just put more charges on my credit card. For stupid Laura Mercier make up. Who does that B think she is, anyway?? What makes her so much pricier than Maybelline? At least Maybelline has a song about her.

I'm worried about my sanity. I'm worried about my bank statement. If I don't get sleep soon I'm probably going to hit up Nordstrom. And maybe some fancy shoe store. Oh God shoes. I haven't bought a pair of shoes anywhere other than Target since... Clinton was president. And someone else was paying.

Here's hoping I either get some sleep tonight or that the lotto fairy arrives while I'm rocking J and leaves me a cool million to satisfy my purchase frenzy.

If YOU feel like getting your Spend on, think about this... just $5.00 spent today could net you one awesome prize! It could also be the $5.00 that actually makes a difference in the lives of Drew and Trent Grady. How's that for retail therapy?

On the Road Again...

Well, I'm back on the road. 

Husband, J and I are heading up to Atlanta so I can spend the next few days working out of our Atlanta office and getting to know the rest of the attorneys. I should be more excited, but really? I just want to go to Atlanta and get this over with. 

I'm tired, y'all. This supermom thing is hard work. My kid ONLY wants me. All the time. And I'm working long hours and trying move and trying to get all the little things taken care of... like renters insurance and changing addresses on credit cards. And oh yeah, day care. And unpacking. 

My cape is looking a bit ragged these days. 

And I'm so scared that I'm going to take all this stress out on J and end up yelling at him or forgetting to do something important for him... like change his diaper or feed him or something. Ultimately, we're doing all of this for him but at this moment? It feels like he's the one getting the shaft.

We've got him locked into a daycare but he has to spend the first month in a class of kids who are all older. They're all walking. They're like half a year older than him! It scares me, but scares me less than putting him in another facility then switching him in one month. At least this is the same place, or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

But there are good things going on, too. Like the fact that I stumbled onto the greatest little cookie bakery just a few short blocks from my office... and I'm totally shipping some yummy cookies up to my dear friend who has graciously forgiven me for bailing on her baby shower... that I was involved in throwing. (Bad friend. Party of me.) These cookies are to. die. for. I bought 12 today and have eaten half of them. I'm going to be O Beast when I'm through with this mess! (Sidebar: I thought "Obese" was actually people saying "A Beast" when I was younger. As in "Oh. Poor thing. She's a BEAST" rather than "Oh. Poor thing. She's obese.") 

In the meantime, don't go forgetting about how you can enter to win some goodies just by sparing $5 for the Grady Family. Just because I love you guys, I'm going to throw in some cookies from this amazing cookie place. A taste of Savannah for you all for the low, low price of $5 to help bring a smile to a mom's face. 

Childcare Blues

Finding a daycare is hard work.

We were lucky with our Macon day care. They were... amazing. When J "graduated" to the next class, his teacher got as teary-eyed as I did. When we left to move to Savannah, his new teacher made him a book full of pictures of his time there and of his friends. (cue more tears). And we really just stumbled onto that daycare. We had gone to the church several times and Husband sang in the choir. I knew they had a facility and we just put it on our list of places to tour. We only toured two day cares because, as we've covered, I'm impatient and I wanted to check "daycare" off my list. Two daycare. Seriously. That's nuts.

So when I started this whole moving process, I thought finding a day care would be fairly easy. You ask around. You check the government website for violations. You visit. You fall in love. The end.

Only it is NOT that easy.

I didn't know anyone with children in Savannah except the partner at the Savannah office and his wife was a SAHM. I did ask my friends, but no one actually IN Savannah had any suggestions. Finally, a law school friend asked a family member who provided a list of places. It just so happened that four of the places on her list matched up with a list I got from a pre-K facility in Savannah. I figured it was as good a place as any to start.

And so began my quest for the perfect daycare.

First, I tried to look up the facilities on the Georgia website.

Epic. Failure.

I am not a moron, I swear. But that website was beyond me. I could locate the facilities and I could read the reports, but I just didn't really understand them. They don't actually grade the facilities, unfortunately. Instead, they just link up the PDF files with a rundown of the most recent compliance inspections.

Seriously? I don't want to read a compliance inspection. I want a grade. Give it a number. We grade restaurants, why can't we grade daycare? How hard would it be to post a letter and number grade in each facility? I could look up the compliance report to see what caused the 99 rather than 100 and that would be SO much easier. Instead, I have to pour through a report that says "Not inspected. Not inspected. Satisfactory. Not inspected" etc. What is satisfactory? No rats? No mildew? I DON'T KNOW. It was a disaster.

All the facilities had violations but they were things like "diaper on counter" which I considered less of a "violation" and more of a "petty nit pick because inspector had a bad day."

So I marked "check government website" off my list as being sincerely UNhelpful, and moved on to my final "step": visiting the facilities.

Um. How do you critique a day care?? You can't exactly poll the children to see how they like the place. You can't pull aside a teacher, slip her a $20 and ask for the Gospel truth. All you can do is meet with the director and let her take you on a tour of a pre-arranged location that could have been spruced up just for your arrival. You just don't know. And all the day cares I called requested I set a time to visit to ensure the director would be available.

I don't like setting times. I like to drop in. Dropping in means no prep time. Dropping in means you can't move the mess before I see it. But I was a good girl and I scheduled my visits. Well, my first visits anyway. Of the four original daycare on my list, I whittled it down to two because one had a wait list of 18 months (um... unhelpful much?) and another had a woman answer the phone who seemed REALLY annoyed that I was asking her any questions at all. That left me with two daycare to visit. Two. Just like in Macon. Fate? We'll see.

I pretty much liked both facilities, but one more than the other. We visited both facilities on a schedule and then I went back later and dropped in for additional questions. Nothing stood out as epically wrong at either place but nothing felt as sincerely right as Macon, either. J would be put in a room without a crib. He would nap on the floor at both places. On the floor. That just seems so... big kid. He's a baby!! He needs a crib!!!

You'd think with all the emphasis being placed on the care of our children that someone somewhere would streamline this whole daycare process. I'm not insisting on a letter grade, but consider it a suggestion. Think of how much faster it would be if you could scroll through and knock out 75% of all daycare as failing at life?! Or how much nicer places would be if they had to post their scores on the front door.

So Government officials? Particularly in Georgia... think about an overhaul. That DECAL site is a useless joke. And I say that with all due respect. (ha.)

And don't forget about Trent and Drew Grady... just $5.00 enters you to win one of many amazing prizes including a handmade wine stopper from my dear friend Mandy!