“see how bad this dude looks?”
josiah flexes that unstoppable carothers charm. The Force is strong in this one.
i pounded half a jar of these before i realized how awesome the label was…
“Buffalo Nuts: We put a KICK in the nuts!”
the carothers fam has been wrestling with a big, big question lately… concerning the most appropriate way for us to keep tabs on this adorable baby during regular business hours (and, given my schedule, certain irregular ones as well). right now our complicated weekly schedule calls for mommy to be on duty every monday and tuesday, and for our awesome nanny waleska to take over on wednesdays, thursdays, and every other friday when andrea leaves home to deal drugs (er, represent the interests of Novartis pharmaceuticals and their patients). daddy chips in during the brief periods between call binges. the status quo has worked very well for over a year, but new dynamics have emerged with tovia’s development and the evolution of our family.
for one, tovs is making huge strides in her language and social skills, and we really want to keep her challenged and stimulated from an intellectual standpoint. is her one-on-one time with waleska accomplishing that goal? for the most part, we think so… she’s learned a half-dozen body parts and a handful of spanish words from her honduran best buddy. but the time may be coming soon when a licensed professional will be of significantly more benefit.
another issue to consider is the extent to which we, as her parents, should be involved in her care and supervision on a daily basis for the sake of continuity. it is of critical importance to both andrea and myself that we be tovia’s primary role models, examples, and influences in learning how to navigate this increasingly booby-trapped world. we want her to learn discipline, consequence, patience, politeness, and kindness. we want her to learn how to learn. and above all, we want her to learn about Jesus and his central role in her life. to achieve those ambitious plans, does tovia need to be around one of us for the better part of every day? does andrea need to step back or away from work entirely?
a third important concern, which shouldn’t entirely dictate our decision but which we would be foolish to ignore, is the financial implication of our preferred strategy. waleska’s focused attention (like reyna’s before her) has been invaluable to us in assuring tovia’s safety and security, not to mention our own peace of mind; but her private services have not come cheaply, and in fact we could rather quickly start saving ourselves quite a bit of money by transitioning to a group daycare or pre-school. for that matter, with such a substantial chunk of andrea’s part-time salary being earmarked for childcare anyway, does it even make sense for her to stay in the field at all?
complicating this decision even more is our emotional attachment to waleska, who is gentle, reliable, and loves the Lil’ Pooks almost as much as we do. obviously she won’t be tovia’s nanny forever, but it will be a very sad and difficult task for us to dismiss her when the time comes.
sheesh, parenting gets much, much harder than just changing dirty diapers! any direction we take here - switching to daycare, andrea leaving the workforce, or not changing a thing - can be both soundly justified and fairly critiqued. there is no single, tidy resolution. it’s messy. it’s gray.
i hate messy and gray. they keep me awake at night.
but in the end (and probably within the next few days), i know we’ll make the right choice by communicating honestly, praying hard, and keeping the entire family’s best interests in mind. and even in the discomfort of this temporary indecision, i am relieved by the knowledge that this choice between several diverse and uniquely valid courses of action for the early education of tovia carothers - vexing though it may be - exists only because God has been faithful in blessing us with an inspiring child whose company and affection are so deeply valued by every friend, family member, and perfect stranger who has ever had the pleasure of making her acquaintance.
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
encouraging: she pronounces her own name more accurately than 90% of adult north carolinians (and 100% of peruvians).
