Child Care

The stress of finding a regular sitter or nanny to watch the kids either for occasional outings or longer term, regularly scheduled work days can be stressful. There's always the balance of experience vs. cost, and of course the #1 issue is do you trust that this person will take care, or take better care of my child than I would?

While the kids may watch TV and play computer games when Babydaddy's home, the expectations is that paid help would watch, care, entertain and not be juggling their email, phone calls, etc. like most dual role parents.

I found this article interesting, of course all things about life in NYC is fascinating and expensive, but when the nanny is well compensated and getting paid more than most doctors, it really becomes an interesting read.

It also makes you wonder as a parent if resources and money was not a barrier, what is excessive and how much is too much? Obviously for some families, they have found that magical Mary Poppins like professional who will do more than just make medicines go down, and teach you how to sing songs.


In our new home, babydaddy has seen the stay at home woman that loves homeschool and juggling the household, to families that have regular hired help, and then there's people like babydaddy that calls on people associated with the university to help out on semi regularly scheduled days.

Where's the balance, what is optimal, what's best for little Jack and Jill, hopefuly mommy and daddy know best and are making good informed decisions about their children and family, no judgements from this Babydaddy- parenting and life ain't easy(and it's hardly ever black or white).

Word-a-palooza

Babyboy is still a baby, but slowly approaching toddlerhood as he's now 21months! The most exciting milestone is the verbalization of words, and it's been coming in bunches. Here's just a list that babydaddy could come up with on the fly.

higha- which is is way of saying "push me harder" on the swing, cuz I like to go "higher"

cand- somehow he knows where all the "candy" is, sometimes he asks for it 1st thing in the AM

bahy- "bye" one of his fav words to say when leaving or seeing others leave

truck- he's a boy, he loves his trucks of all kinds

agua- water in espanol, it's just easier to say than water

pease- "please" usually combined with candy, or some other treat

nana- "banana" may eat 2 a day, every day if he could

choo choo- "trains" living in the 'nooga, there's plenty of them to see

Thomas- as in Thomas the Tank Engine or Thomas and Friends

bow wow- "dog"

quack- it's what ducks "say"

up- when he wants to be picked up

down- likes to get "down" from high chair or swing

mama- babymama of course

dada- babydaddy

Chuck- ask in "Chuck the Truck," Tonka's new way of appealing to kids

barn- "Barney" the purple dino

cross-as in "Red Cross" apparently I have a lot of shirts with crosses from year of donating platelettes

ta- as in "Tawsha" his fav lady at the gym child care room

choc- "chocolate" definitely has a sweet tooth

poop- is "poop"

wow- is "wow" when something is new, big, grand, etc.

uh oh- typically when he drops/breaks something

clock- "clock"


responds to more than single word commands/requests- babydaddy once asked him to go put his socks by the laundry room, he knew what to do, pretty impressive.

recognize letters- just started showing an interest in letters, unfortunately he thinks everything is the letter "H"


If you made it this far, wow, sorry for the boring post that's more for babydaddy than for anyone else, but kuddos if you found it all very interesting. On that note, all children develop at their own pace, here's what babygirl was saying/doing at 18months.