It's not a daycare, it's a learning center

Today Brad and I took off from work and went daycare shopping. I wasn't sure what to expect from this experience, but I think it can be best compared to sorority rush. Everyone puts on their prettiest, happiest faces and tells you all the wonderful things about their center and what sets them apart from the rest. I didn't know much about sororities when I was going through rush and I don't know much about childcare as we go through this process. As everyone said during rush, go to the place where you feel the most comfortable. We are hoping to apply that same principle to this process as well. Even some of the awkwardness that you experienced at some houses was felt today during our meetings (at least by me). I felt a tad uncomfortable when they asked us what other centers we were looking at; I guess I'm weird, but I felt like this equated to asking a girl during rush exactly where in Birmingham she lived. Fortunately, Brad was kind enough to jump in and answer this question for me.

Some things I learned today at the centers we visited:

-It's not called a daycare, it's called a learning center.

-Babies can learn sign language by 9 months.

-Babies are now taught spanish when they are 2-3 years old. A two year old classroom we went into had the english and spanish words taped up around the room on the door, light, chair, desks, etc. My baby will tell me to turn off the light in Spanish and I won't know what it is saying!

-Babies take computer classes when they are 2 1/2-3 years old. I know that the baby will be able to use Brad's universal remote by the age of 3; at that point, I'll probably still be learning how to work it!

-Babies now have curriculum, even at the age of 6 weeks.

-Learning centers are expensive!

-Brad could tell the difference in the cheaper centers; he first claimed that we would go with the lowest priced option regardless of any other factors.

We still have one more place to visit, but we were very happy with three of the ones that we visited today. Of course Brad and I would rank the centers in different orders on "serious night," but we did agree on the three "houses" we would be going to during the last nigh of rush.

We'll see where we end up!

Picture taken at 17 weeks, 1 day