Makeup & Beauty Monday: Vitamin C Suspension

Folks who are responsible for daycare drop-off in the mornings, especially with a baby, what does your morning look like? I’ve been back to work for a couple of weeks but my husband has been finishing out his paternity leave. LO starts daycare next week and I’ll be doing drop-off every morning. I’m a little apprehensive about getting both of us ready, her fed (just nursing right now but we’ll be introducing solids soon), and out the door.

Relatedly: any tips for transitioning both into daycare in the first place, and then from one provider to another? My husband’s work offers a subsidized daycare program that is a huge cost savings, but we can only use it for about three months. Then we’ll be putting her into a different daycare for the long term. I always hear “drop her and just leave” but did anyone start with a partial day or two? And does the same philosophy apply when transitioning from one daycare to another?

Many thanks!

This week is my youngest daughter’s last week at my company’s onsite daycare. She’s been there since 8 weeks, and has been in the same room for the last two years. I’m trying to think of a goodbye gift that is properly meaningful but anything I think of seems inadequate. So far we’re planning to buy a few favorite books for the classroom, my kid will make cards for the teachers and my husband and I will write a thank you note. Is that good? Maybe add in an Amazon gift card as well?

I have pictures of her with all of the teachers and was trying to think of a creative way to use those but …I’m not creative. :) What do you all think? I don’t usually overthink teacher gifts but this one is bigger than most.

Hi everyone – My 3 year old still has what I assume is “cradle cap” on her scalp. Her hair generally hides it, and it doesn’t seem to bother her, but I’d like to see it gone…. Anyone else go through this with toddler & if so, advise for getting rid of it?

Any suggestions for resources on countering perfectionism in a preschooler? As someone with perfectionism that was probably inadvertently reinforced by my parents, I’d like to find some positive ways to approach my child’s self-criticism while not just praising everything. (Like he’ll be drawing and get upset that it doesn’t look right. I want to acknowledge that he’s unhappy with the result while encouraging him to try again. Repeat for sock donning, lego building, etc.) Maybe this is a situation for a resilience/grit/growth mindset type approach?

I’m having such a hard time making a decision about a family vacation. I have a 2 yo and a 8 week old and would love to take advantage of the little ones portability and go on a fancy vacation this summer before returning to work. The problem is that due to the different sleep schedules, we’d really need a place to ourselves so we could be close by swimming, relaxing, etc. While one or both sleep. We found an amazing villa but it’s $$$$. We’d have to use a lot of our emergency fund. I know it’s irresponsible, but I also know this is kind of a once in a lifetime chance to take this kind of trip. Ughhh!

Hi ladies, I’m the OP from Friday with a recently early-to-wake 4 yo and doing both pickup and dropoffs while DH works long hours 45 min away. I just want to thank you for the great questions and suggestions. Over the weekend I voiced my concerns to DH (mainly that we NEED my job and I’m underperforming because of this new kid schedule, but also that I’m seriously burnt out from last week’s crazy tempo) and it was a surprisingly mature conversation. Turns out he’s been having issues with our schedule too. The fact that kid is going to bed at 9pm and we really need to be in bed at 10 was stressing him out as he only had an hour to unwind at the end of the day (same for me, but I also have a real lunch and an hour at the gym each day whereas his office has team lunch and he has a commute at each end). Apparently he’d also been thinking about an earlier drop off for kid so he could see her in the morning (and then would feel less bad seeing her less at night if we move to earlier bedtime) but didn’t think it would work with my schedule. So, today he dropped kiddo off! I had my coffee and email in the morning! I did take the dog and still packed breakfast & lunch but this worked much better so far. We’ll see what happens at bedtime. The kid was cooperative at the promise of a stake in dad’s smoothie, and the suggestion to have her sleep in school clothes worked perfectly. I’m not sure how long the cooperation will last but hopefully long enough to establish a new routine. Thanks again!