**Moesten**

AllieSchmallie

Hey, I just typed out a long PM about our sitter (who said she's interested in meeting with you to talk further about your childcare needs) but for some reason the bump ate my message, with the exception of her e-mail address. If you want to PM me your e-mail address, I can e-mail you with more details. If you have any specific questions, let me know! Hope this helps!

Moesten

Thanks man! I need to sit down with DH and take a good look at our calendars to figure out what day(s) we would need. And it's still a little ways off, probably March/April or so. But I would like to talk to your provider once I get some of the details squared away. 

AllieSchmallie

Sounds good! Honestly if you're interested in possibly using her, I'd interview her soon (even if you don't need her for a couple months), because she's been doing more interviews lately, and she's willing to hold a spot (or two, in your case) if she feels like it would be a good match with the kids she currently watches. Just a couple good and bad points to consider:

Good:

1) She was a nurse before she stayed home full-time and started the childcare business so she's trained in all the basics and she's more than willing to accomodate any special medication/dietary needs.

2) She does "schooling" with the kids that are 2 and up. She's not a certified teacher, but she does lessons with them to get them ready for pre-school

3) She's not strict about picking up the kids at a set time. If you normally pick up the kids at 5:00 but you need to come at 5:30 one day, she doesn't charge extra (this might change if it's a difference of a couple hours, but I haven't been in this situation so I'm not sure).

4) She's easygoing and honest.

Bad:

1) Her house is a little chaotic. She has five kids of her own (ranging from age 4 to 22), four of which live in the home, in addition to the kids that she watches.

2) She charges for unplanned days off (i.e. if I have a snow day from school, I still need to pay her whether I take Jonah over there or not because this wasn't a planned vacation day that I told her about from the beginning). I think it might be like this at daycare centers, too, but I don't know since we didn't look into them very thoroughly.

Just a couple things to consider!