Okay, now I’m even more…

Okay, now I'm even more confused. Met with Katarina, a 29-year-old Serbian woman, with a 2.5-yr-old son. She hasn't done much direct babysitting, but she's experienced in elder care (which frankly sounds like much more work), and she's done some graduate school in social work and worked for a Youth-in-Need/Headstart program. She was also great! Happy to play with Ellie, willing to take her on walks, very sweet and enthusiastic and talks fast. And she charges less -- $12.50/hr, as opposed to Melissa's $15. Which would definitely help the budget.

I just don't know how to weight all the different factors. It's very confusing!!!

One more interview on Monday, and both Katarina and Melissa are going to come by and do some actual babysitting next week, so we can see how they do with Kavi over a longer stretch (hopefully with one of Kavi's super-cranky periods, to see how they deal with it). She was driving me crazy this morning with her no-reason howling, and Kevin picked her up on his way out to campus and said, "Now, Kavi, I do like you, so you should be a little quieter, so mommy doesn't kill you before I get home." I think she was just tired; she went down early for her nap fifteen minutes after he left. But those were some miserable minutes for both of us. Hopefully, it'll help to see how these folk deal with demon-Kavi.

4 thoughts on “Okay, now I’m even more…”

  1. Mary Anne,

    A quick baby-related question–do you still wear Kavi in a carrier? I think i remember a pic of the both of you using a Moby wrap (mobywrap dot com). I’m not too fond of the two carriers we presently use and was thinking of acquiring a Moby…

  2. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    We don’t use the Moby much now, to be honest. It was great when she was tiny, but it’s just so much faster to put her in the Bjorn or the Peanut now, that’s what we do. If I were going to commit to wearing her for at least an hour on a cold day, I might pull out the Moby, because it’s warm and gives good back support.

  3. Oh! The Peanut is nice–thanks!

    We have a Bjorn, but I feel like i push and prod the baby too much in getting her into and out of it.(It could be that that’s because our Bjorn is a hand-me-down that came without instructions and i’m improvising wrongly.)

  4. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    Hmm…it should be really smooth — at this point, I can, while carrying her in my arms, put the Bjorn on and then get her into it without much trouble. It’s a bit easier if you can put her down or get someone to help, of course. We usually leave one of the bottom clicks locked in, so it’s:

    – find Bjorn logo on back to orient, then sling arm through and settle on one shoulder
    – fish for other one and settle on other shoulder
    – click second click
    – pick up baby if you’re not already holding her and settle her against you
    – slide in red and blue sliders, first one side, then the other, snuggling baby against you the whole time
    – leisurely (because now she’s basically locked in) position baby’s arms and click top two clicks

    Dunno if that helps!

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