Looking for Childcare

Care Needed for my Crazy Monkey Boy-- Nanny, Babysitter, Someone!

We are a fun-loving family with a special needs child. He has mild cerebral palsy ataxia (he walks like he's drunk, but he does walk, run, hop, skip, jump and climb). He is also on the Autism Spectrum (but hey, isn't everyone these days?) He is healthy, and strong...with an emphasis on strong. At just 5 1/2 he's already 3'11" and 59 pounds of pure muscle.

Our kid has a lot of energy, loves to eat and run around the park or play in our backyard. He is just begining to talk, so he is a bit frustrated trying to communicate, but it is pretty easy to figure out what he wants once you get to know him. He is actually a very easy kid to watch as long as you don't ever let go of his hand in a parking lot.

So basically I need a bit of help. I am about to have a baby...any day now, and our boy's current caretaker needs to have surgery, and can't take care of the physical needs of children anymore (What a great suprise for me!). I am also still doing some consulting work, so we would like to find someone who wants to stay with us for awhile.

So we are looking for: - A part time nanny (babysitter, caretaker, second mom, child care provider, girlfriend whatever you want to call it...)

- Approximatley 20 hours a week

- Fairly set schedule (say Tues, Wed, Thurs 1:00-6 pm and a date night? we can work it out).

- Occasional additional hours possible if desired.

- Our last three caretakers have been $10.00 an hour. This is somewhat negotiable. I know it's not a million bucks a year, but the pay will be consistent and the checks won't ever bounce. We also provide money for ice cream, zoo, gas money for trips and such..of course.

- Pick Monkey Boy up from the bus (in front of the house) during summer school and into the fall so timeliness is VERY IMPORTANT.

- Prepare healthy snacks (or not so healthy trips to the ice cream parlor).

- Light cooking (for the kiddo, not for me...but you can unload the dishwasher for me if you want to).

- Take Tiny Man to the park, or zoo or something so you two don't die of boredom.

- Get him ready for bed with bath, jammies etc if necessary.

- Provide consistency with kiddo's school and life goals (potty training, eating with a fork, walking and holding hands etc.)

- Change diapers, wipe his nose when he catches a cold this winter, and all of those other things that I would do if I were watching him (like save him from a burning building, etc.)

Requirements: Male or female candidates only, excellent driving record, English speaking, experience with children and love of them, patience, valid Cal driver lic., your own safe and insured car (although we do have a car which could be used..we can talk about this one), and references. Joie de vivre. Physical strength and energy is a must. Please be willing to make at least a bit of a commitment. May not bring your own children. No smokers (or at least you can't do it with the kid, or smell like smoke). We have two golden retrievers who can stay in another area of the house while you are here, but the kid loves the dogs, so probably being comfortable with dogs would be helpful. Oh, and you must be able to tolerate a dark sense of humor and a very frank family.

Please email me and we can figure out if we are right for each other.
Thank you for considering our family.

Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character

Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character

Another Reason to love the Bay Area

  

Laura Schreibman

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Science -- Sorting autism fact, fallacy

Absent Element :: Merchandise

Absent Element :: Merchandise

If you want to buy a CD with Chris Daughtry on it.... were you as disappointed as we were? Man, we really wanted him to win.

"that's uncle roger drunk" - Google Search

"that's uncle roger drunk" - Google Search

My Name is Earl just produced a great line... "That's not just drunk...that's Uncle Roger drunk."

Another Moment of Great Love

This passage is from Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
In the final momentsof his life, Juvenal Urbino (who fell while trying to capture his parrot from a tree.) looks into the eyes of Fermina Daza his true love of so many years.

He recognized her despite the uproar, through his tears of unrepeatable sorrow at dying without her, and he looked at her for the last and final time with eyes more luminous, more grief-stricken, more grateful than she had ever seen them in half a century of a shared life, and he managed to say to her with his last breath:

“Only God knows how much I loved you.”

A Moment of Great Love

Memorable Quotes from "Grey's Anatomy" As We Know It (2006)
"Grey's Anatomy"
As We Know It (2006)

In my opinion this is one of the greatest love scenes I have ever watched...or read for that matter. Love is in the detail of things, the minutia. At the end of the day, at the end of our life, we remember moments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Meredith Grey: Hey.
Dr. Derek Shepherd: Hey. You almost died today.
Dr. Meredith Grey: Yeah, I almost died today.

[Derek is at a loss for words and starts heading to the door]

Dr. Meredith Grey: I can't, I can't remember our last kiss. All I could think about was, "I'm going to die today and I can't remember our last kiss," which is pathetic. But the last time we were together and happy, I... want to be able remember that, and I can't Derek. I can't remember.
Dr. Derek Shepherd: I'm glad you didn't die today.

[Starts to leave but stops]

Dr. Derek Shepherd: It was a Thursday morning, you were wearing that ratty little 'Dartmouth' T-shirt you look so good in, the one with the hole at the back of the neck. You'd just washed your hair and you smelled like some kind of... flower. I was running late for surgery. You said you were going to see me later, and you leaned to me, put your hand on my chest and you kissed me. Soft. It was quick. Kind of like a habit. You know, like we'd do it everyday for the rest of our lives. And you went back to reading the newspaper and I went to work. That was the last time we kissed.

[Derek starts to leave]

Dr. Meredith Grey: Lavender. My hair smelled like lavender... from my conditioner.
Dr. Derek Shepherd: Lavender. Huh.

[Smiles then leaves]

Pieces of April

A scene from the side of the road on our trip home from Tahoe on Easter Sunday. Most of the rest of my family was in Southern California

Waiting

My entire house is in disarray. Not that it is in order most of the time. With a 5 1/2 year old autistic kid, it would be hard to have anything stay in one place for too long.
The problem is.. I have begun nesting. At least I think it's nesting. It started earlier this pregnancy. I have been baking and sewing and generally not leaving the house, and I want everything put away and neat and nice... and well, that doesn't happen in my house.

While shuffling our stuff about the house we have unearthed an entire box of cassette tapes. Most of them are mine circa 1990, when my best girlfriends made me mixed tapes to take off to college. Most other people stayed pretty close to home for school. I headed north from the sandy beaches of Surf City and went to Berkeley, and honestly I have never been back "home" for longer than 3 weeks in a row. ANywhooooo my girlfriends made me all of these great tapes with songs like Total Eclipse of the Heart Great tapes with songs that are on the verge of coming back into style just like those nasty 'pumps' with the criss-cross front that were so unattractive the first time.