Back to work...
Yo all!
Just realized how long its been since I posted - and not for lack of drama in my little world!
To start, I've made a most wonderful discovery at my local wine shop - Hardy's, bless their big-time agri-capitalist heart, have put together two of my favorite white grapes into one fine bottle of $10 wine. Riesling Gewurtztraminer! Bring on summer!!
And work! Yep, I'm back at my job at the Centre for Disease Control and my only major f***-up was in a $100 million proposal letter of support misspelling 'Diseases' into 'Diseased' in the subject line. Those letters are a little too close on the keyboard, but not to sidetrack on this rant...
Yep, my main rant is DAYCARE! When I was pregnant, someone told me to get on the university daycare wait list... so at 3 months preggo, I did. I got a call last week saying that when Rian is 1 year and 1 month old, they think there *might* be space.
Other waitlists for good daycares are about 1-2 years long!
The reason our illustrious (minority) Prime Minister is featured here is because he decided that throwing $1,200 at families would help them find daycare - when waitlists are prenatal! I don't really need the money - I need good care for my son so I can do my job!
See, we opted for home-based care for Rian as I went back to work this week but that has been a pretty near disaster with one mom pulling out (after we let go of our precious daycare space) and the other pulling a muscle. So my first full day back turned out to be 1.5 hours in for a meeting, then up till 1 am working from home to try to make up for the hours I needed to look after the little guy. Day 2 wasn't much of an improvement.
Anyway, maybe next week will get better. I spent my afternoon buying Wonderbucks-art (like Ikea art only cheaper) for my little sauna, I mean, office.
And y'all know I'm a big fan of pictures and I've
got some great ones:
Rian and the Sams!
I swear Anne-Marie's Sam is saying, "I don't know these guys - our moms hang out, sure - but look at them! Dopey and Angry. We're not like 'friends'!"
Nova, my previously black dog, getting stuck to a newly painted white kitchen cabinet.
NB: those handsome legs belong to my little bro who is still single, even after all my great advice on picking up chicks! He's 20, good at home renovation, a little snarky, likes to cook, awesome at Halo 2... let me know if there are any groovy grrrrls out there I can hook him up with...
And Rian - Canada's Next Top Model doing the 'catalog smile' with a shower curtain clip!
Just realized how long its been since I posted - and not for lack of drama in my little world!
To start, I've made a most wonderful discovery at my local wine shop - Hardy's, bless their big-time agri-capitalist heart, have put together two of my favorite white grapes into one fine bottle of $10 wine. Riesling Gewurtztraminer! Bring on summer!!
And work! Yep, I'm back at my job at the Centre for Disease Control and my only major f***-up was in a $100 million proposal letter of support misspelling 'Diseases' into 'Diseased' in the subject line. Those letters are a little too close on the keyboard, but not to sidetrack on this rant...
Yep, my main rant is DAYCARE! When I was pregnant, someone told me to get on the university daycare wait list... so at 3 months preggo, I did. I got a call last week saying that when Rian is 1 year and 1 month old, they think there *might* be space.
Other waitlists for good daycares are about 1-2 years long!
The reason our illustrious (minority) Prime Minister is featured here is because he decided that throwing $1,200 at families would help them find daycare - when waitlists are prenatal! I don't really need the money - I need good care for my son so I can do my job!
See, we opted for home-based care for Rian as I went back to work this week but that has been a pretty near disaster with one mom pulling out (after we let go of our precious daycare space) and the other pulling a muscle. So my first full day back turned out to be 1.5 hours in for a meeting, then up till 1 am working from home to try to make up for the hours I needed to look after the little guy. Day 2 wasn't much of an improvement.
Anyway, maybe next week will get better. I spent my afternoon buying Wonderbucks-art (like Ikea art only cheaper) for my little sauna, I mean, office.
And y'all know I'm a big fan of pictures and I've
got some great ones:Rian and the Sams!
I swear Anne-Marie's Sam is saying, "I don't know these guys - our moms hang out, sure - but look at them! Dopey and Angry. We're not like 'friends'!"
Nova, my previously black dog, getting stuck to a newly painted white kitchen cabinet.
NB: those handsome legs belong to my little bro who is still single, even after all my great advice on picking up chicks! He's 20, good at home renovation, a little snarky, likes to cook, awesome at Halo 2... let me know if there are any groovy grrrrls out there I can hook him up with...And Rian - Canada's Next Top Model doing the 'catalog smile' with a shower curtain clip!
posted by Cataclysm @ 8:06 PM
7 Comments:
At 8:18 AM,
landismom said…
Oh, the back-to-work woes with daycare--so difficult. We had a two-and-a-half year struggle with various in-home daycares when my daughter was a baby & toddler. We finally got into a good daycare center and have never looked back. I had friends who gave me grief about putting our son into a daycare center (as opposed to an in-home daycare) when he was an infant, but I never regretted it once. I hope that waitlist shortens up soon!
At 7:38 PM,
Melissa said…
kris - i just LOVe this all-encompassing post. it has a little bit of everything. very entertaining. loved the pics too. sorry to hear that your first week back to work was such a drag. hope that next week will be better for you & rian!! i am in the process of interviewing in-home care providers for my high-maintainence little man..it's nerve-racking..good luck!
At 8:10 PM,
Melissa said…
Aw, I love the pictures, especially of all the little guys! Too bad A doesn't live close enough to party with the boyz.
Sorry it was a rough re-entry into the working world.
At 12:06 AM,
Tammy said…
Argh! I hate Harper! I hate his weaselly little eyes and I hate his crappy $1200 childcare stipend that TOTALLY IGNORES THE REAL PROBLEMS OF FINDING CHILDCARE IN THIS COUNTRY!
Hate! Hate! HAAAAAAATE!
Love the picture of the boyz, though. Look at my hands all white-knuckled from the effort of trying to pry Sam (who looks eerily like a baby zombie) away from gnawing on poor Rian's skull. What IS it about Rian's head that's so consistently tempting to Sam... other than the fact that it's so freakin' cute, that is?
Not to make this post all about me, but I thought I'd squeeze in an update from the bowels of Ontario: Sam is CLEANING UP in the birthday gifts department, and with all these doting aunts and uncles and older cousins, he's also really discovering his inner ham. You thought he was a drama queen before? Just you wait...
At 11:52 AM,
Joanne said…
Can I ask a stupid US question about the maternity leave in Canada? Does everybody get a year, and is it part of the deal that you have to be at your job for a certain amount of time, or that you have to go back for a certain amount of time? What would happen if you thought you'd take off one year, but you ended up wanting two?
I have a friend who just had a baby and is deciding between 10 and 12 weeks off before she goes back, whatever she can afford. It's insane.
At 9:31 PM,
Cataclysm said…
Hey Joanne,
I think I know this one...
Mat leave in Canada means that one parent can collect Employment Insurance for 1 year (so either the mom or dad or both spliting the time) - EI is about 1/2 of your regular wage but works out to about 60% of salary given the tax.
You need to work 600 hours in the previous year to collect, so thats like 8 or 9 months. And many jobs try to top-up the leave (so I collected full salary for 17 weeks, then down to EI for the rest of the year).
And SEND GROOVY AMERICANS NORTH!! C'mon ya'll! Emigrate! Love it or Leave it!! The US draft dodgers (my family was one) radically re-shaped Canada in the 1970s when our health and social welfare systems secured its foundations. Ex-pat Americans are still driving the anti-poverty and social justice movements here in Canada.
10-12 weeks off - how awful to have so short with one's own child! Here we are talking about 1 year weaning... ack!
Kris
At 9:49 AM,
Joanne said…
Thanks for the info, I feel dumb asking but I didn't know how it worked. Yes, it is a sad state for maternity leave down here. My husband works for the Fed and they get a ridiculous amount of sick leave, so he was home with me for six weeks but I have left the work force indefinitely.
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