Losing Lisa

Since she was 10 1/2 months old, every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon Isabelle goes to a place where she knows familiar faces, has the same routine and plays with the same friends but this past Tuesday....it all changed.

Michael playing with a new application on his iPhone As some of you may have read on my Facebook page, we are going to be transitioning to a new daycare sooner than we had planned. On Tuesday when I went to pick up Isabelle from daycare, Lisa opened the door her normal, happy, cheerful self (I swear she never has a bad day-I am jealous!) but as I walked into the kitchen I see Mark, little Riley's Dad, sitting on the couch and then Lisa proceeded to say, "I have something to tell you guys. We have some news...". Now the statement "we have some news" to me over the past 3 years, and especially knowing that Lisa is married and has been trying to get pregnant for a year, means "Hey, guess what...we have a bun in the oven!". And even looking at Lisa's Mom, Barbie, who said, "I am not going to cry" made me get butterflies in my stomach from the sheer excitement for them . Well, that was not the case this time around. Lisa then proceeds to tell Mark and I that Jeff (her hubby) got a new job and there is going to be a commute. So still thinking, OK a little adjustment but nothing big... it will still work. She continues to say, "We are moving to Florida on February 2oth for Jeff's new job". As I am standing their trying to process what she just said, Lisa then proceeds to tell us about what happened that past weekend; how they were in Ft. Lauderdale for the interview, Jeff was offered the job right then and there and that she won't have to work. At first I didn't know whether to jump up and down with excitement for them since she won't have to work, can concentrate on starting their own family and the fact that Jeff has been looking for a job for months now and finally has one, or to cry because Isabelle is losing her "Yeesah". One look at Barbie and I lost it. So now the search begins. All we know is that no one is going to replace Lisa.

Being a "diva" at the theatre
Earlier this week, we have taken tours of several local "in home day cares" and actual preschools and have pretty much narrowed it down to Tutor Time in Stevenson Ranch. We felt so welcome and comfortable there...unlike one preschool we visited who's director left a child in the office (who was brought in as a punishment while we were there) while she took us for a tour of the school...RED FLAGS thrown right then and there! And their teachers who would have Isabelle within a few months, as Michael so eloquently put it, look and talk like they frequent an old SCV dive bar called Doc's Inn, every night. At Tutor Time, although licensed for a 1 to 12 teacher to child ratio, have a maximum of 1 to 8 with an aide. When we stopped in, besides the room being HUGE, there were 2 teachers and an aide and 15 kids...we really liked that. We have one more preschool to visit that is 2 streets down from my work (and is $40 a week cheaper than Tutor Time) and then its decision making time since February 20th is going to come sooner than we think!