Names, nurseries ...

"Nina, what do you think we should name your little brother, if it's a brother?"

"ummm... hee hee ... ummm ... HINK!  HINK! HINK!" (breaks out in giggles)

"You mean Henk, or Hinke?" (both Dutch names)

"Ummm, I want HINK!" (giggles)

"Can you think of any other good names?" 

"umm.... Boo! I want .. Boo! "

"You want a baby brother called Boo?"

(hysterical giggling) ... "how 'bout, Poo?"

"Nina, we can't name your baby brother 'Poo' ... "

"Poo! Poo!" (giggles)

(.. more giggles)... "how about: HINK?"

In other news, I had a *bad* day yesterday.    First I fiddled all the final details of my grant application, which I wanted to submit a month ago but which got delayed for various reasons. Then, on the point of submission, I realised that while I had thought the minimum font size was 10pt, it is in fact 11pt. I was sure I had looked, months ago. Perhaps they changed it. In any case, the point was, I had to make about a 15% cut to the whole thing. And of course the government here is probably going to cut science funding so massively that no new grants will be funded and perhaps even those that have already been awarded will be cut back, so the entire font-related fine-tuning exercise is almost certainly completely pointless. But naturally, having prepared this entire proposal, I'm hardly going to drop it because of this, so of course I had to cut it back, attempting to preserve its coherence and content blah blah blah blah. After that soul-sucking exercise it is now done, out of my hands, and awaiting its final rejection.

Then I came home, thinking, thank goodness for Nina, we'll spend some time together, it'll be all fun, and relaxing; we'll do some puzzles, take a bath. And H-, our childminder, gave me a little card as she left. And in the card she explained that she's been offered a job running her own horse yard and won't be a childminder and that this is her 1 months' notice. And that she'll miss us, especially Nina, and wants to keep contact etc etc. 

Still: the panic hit. No childcare, no H-. Huh. We have been extremely lucky with H-, as she picks Nina up and drops her off (so nice!) and in between, they go to tons of places and have lots of outside time and stimulating fun things to do. A- was in London at the time, and not back till after 10. After the whole grant thing, and I guess what with the pregnancy hormones, I was just so upset. Nina's known H- since she was 4 months old. Will she think that A- or I could just suddenly not be there one day, not be putting her to sleep at nap or bedtime, not be cuddling her? Was that why she was so difficult when H- was gone for two weeks? I could barely keep from tears. A few days after H- stops, I have to be in Amsterdam for a meeting. Shortly after that A- will be away for 10 days. Total disruption.

We knew she wouldn't have the same childminder forever. We knew, actually, that the situation was going to change some time in the next few months, though I thought maybe H- would just be based somewhere else, or something. I know Nina will adapt, we'll explain it to her carefully and repeatedly, we'll keep in touch, we'll try to go visit, and have H- over here as much as we can at first.

So I called A- in London. Unlike me he is not the least hesistant to call strangers on the phone and ask them loads of questions. Within an hour he had identified a few other options, including a nursery (no, not plants, it's a daycare) that we have heard of through friends. It is nearby; they have an Outstanding Ofsted rating (the best), they seemed to charge reasonable rates (this was outdated; like everything else in this godforsaken place they are exorbitantly expensive, at least 50% more than we'd be paying in Canada from what I can tell, though they are still on the lower end of what it's possible to pay), and they appear to have vacancies. We visited today. Apart from some possible issue about which of their two locations Nina would be in, it seemed great. So maybe we'll just do that. 

Does anyone have opinions about childminder (ie home care) vs nursery (ie daycare)? Good/bad memories or experiences? Will Nina get a million colds, even more than usual? I guess I think she's ready for a nursery now, with all those other kids and more things to concentrate on and manipulate and try, in a setting that includes a preschool for when she's 3 ... I'm certainly ready for a setting that never cancels at the last minute and is open from 8 to 6 and is flexible after 6 and can even take care of Nina until A- comes home really really late, like if I'm at a conference... any thoughts?