Search for a nursery

It's getting forever closer to the time when mummy has to go back to work (beginning of April) and the reminders are beginning to pop up now and then.

One of them is getting a nursery sorted as part of the weekly routine that we are also trying to organise. The current plan is that George will be with mummy one day, daddy one day, nanna one and a half days, nannie half a day and nursery one day.

Now we don't have to check out nanna's and nannie's houses as we know they're warm, comfy, safe and clean (even though they don't have council certificates on the wall), but when it comes to 'offloading' George somewhere new, you want to be sure they meet or beat the standards you expect. So, after making a few phone calls, we chose three nurseries in the vicinity that could be potentially 'good enough' to care for our little boy.

The first nursery we visited, although very clean, happy and safe was a little on the small side with not much outdoor area and a policy of putting babies outside to sleep in all weathers apart from snow. Minds made up very easily on that one.

It's surprising how much importance you can place on impressions over the phone, and the second nursery we visited was the one that we would have chosen based on a phone call. It's also the one we chose after our visit. This one gave you the choice of whether your baby slept inside or outside. Anyway, we were very impressed by the spaciousness, the outdoor areas, the staff, the activities, the monitoring – both on an educational level and for wellbeing – and decided pretty much on the spot. Just in case you'd like to see where George will be spending some of his time over the next year or three here is a link:

www.wrendaynursery.co.uk

We gave the third nursery a call and cancelled our appointment.

This week George's whizzing round the kitchen has decimated his supply of

babygrows – we have to make sure he wears shoes or slippers now – and one day he gave new meaning to the phrase drag racing when he swept the floor with the help of mummy's cardigan. He has also discovered the joy of swings, but even though he has all this fun at home, we're sure George will have

even more fun at his nursery – shaving foam, shredded paper, poster paints and a profusion of messy things.

Just as our nursery visit was ending, one little boy came up to the nursery manager and said: "I think it's a good idea to hang my coat up." The nursery manager replied: "Yes, that's a good idea, isn't it." The little boy must have thought he was on a roll, because he replied: "And I think it's a good idea to throw sand at the window."

Yep – that'll suit George down to the ground.