Geisha

I recently hosted a Geisha swap and these three were my contribution to it.

• This boy loves this dog. :) I'm so glad she lets him bother her the way he does. We have two other dogs that are not as friendly so she's the sole target. Wherever she rests he goes to her and sits near her or hugs her or sits on her or lies on top of her. She has her limits though and runs off if he gets too bothersome but never growls at him like the other two do. 
• I bathed both my pooches last Sunday so they're both squeaky clean and smell nice.
• There was an open door event at Waldorf's kindergarten yesterday and it was fun to check it out. Baby boy was with us even though it was close to his bedtime and found everything interesting and exciting.

Linking to Paint Party Friday.
Self-study classes: Cotton Candy Girls & Crazy Hair Ladies

Horse & a chubby Unicorn

Since I don't work at the moment we decided to keep baby boy at home until he's a bit older to put him in kindergarten. If both parents work, which is accustomed to in our culture, the baby usually goes to nursery at 11 months old. We're planning for next year when he'll be 2 and a half years old. Right now I'm looking for different options available to us. The thing is, our options are limited since we moved out of the city and even more so since we're vegetarian. 

In our country you kind of have to attend public kindergartens in the municipality you live in. Sometimes you can get one in a different municipality but it's difficult to get in because if there's a waiting list (which for the capital city it's huge) everyone that lives in that municipality has precedence over others that don't.

In this day and age you'd think kindergartens would be more flexible about food but it's almost the opposite. If you want any other food than the one they offer, you need a note from a doctor stating the child needs a special diet because of health reasons. Of course vegetarian and vegan food is considered a diet so you'd need a doctors note for it which of course no doctor is going to give you unless there are health reasons like allergies. Some kindergartens have a vegetarian menu (vegan menu is only a dream) and there are even three units in a certain public kindergarten that are exclusively vegetarian but of course none in our municipality.

The other option is a private kindergarten which costs more. I looked into Montessori which we actually have not far away from us but the vegetarian diet is an issue again. The other I like is a Waldorf's kindergarten which is exclusively vegetarian but it's in the city that is 45 minutes away. 

I find it so frustrating that in this day and age I need to make such decisions to either not give a crap what my child eats and have him in a kindergarten nearby or drive 45 minutes into the city and pay way more for a private kindergarten. I already kind of gave up on the notion of him not eating dairy. Even vegetarian kindergartens need a doctor's note to exclude dairy from the child's menu.

And then there's the other thing. Do I put my child in a public kindergarten where he gets lost in a number of children or I put him in a private one with smaller number of kids per group? If we decide on a private kindergarten, will the one closer to my hubby's work be better or the Waldorf's one since I'm kind of looking into Waldorf's school as well and being in their kindergarten gives you a better starting point when applying?

We have another year to decide but it's already stressing me out.

P.S. Please don't lecture me about letting the child decide whether to eat meat or not. I have my own views on that and they obviously differ from yours.

Linking to Paint Party Friday.
Self-study classes: Cotton Candy Girls & Crazy Hair Ladies

Dragons RR

Linda4atc started the above Round Robin set with the green dragon, I added the yellow dragon lady and Tandy finished it with the baby dragon and background.

Randomness:

• the snow melted, the rain stopped and yesterday was a beautiful mostly sunny day
• baby boy went to the playground for the first time and he enjoyed himself
• apparently all the drugs I give to my pooches don't work and fleas managed to infest my bed, yeah that's fun
• I already ordered a new mattress and a sofa. I was already thinking of getting a new sofa as this one was destroyed by our pets. Luckily we don't have any carpets and I already threw out 2 dog beds.
• can you see a new trend this year in our household, new furniture apparently :)
• this is my 700th published post on this blog

Linking to Paint Party Friday.
Self-study classes: Cotton Candy Girls & Crazy Hair Ladies

Random cards for PAT

I haven't done a PAT (Pick-a-Theme Swap) in a while. These are the latest bunch of ATCs. I anyome makes ATCs and is interested in trading, you can join ATCs for All forum. It's a great site.

Randomness:

• we had a couple of nice sunny days among a lot of rain but now it's snowing again
• baby boy likes climbing on dogs, we have 3 of them but only one lets him. Karma's the one.
• I have a new phone. I'm not really fond of smart phones because I only need a phone to call and nothing else but I succumb this week because I had to change my mobile package and it required me to buy a new phone along with it and I really didn't have much choice since most of them are now smart phones. So here I am now with a fancy phone that I don't use. It makes better photos than my last one so that'll be fun if I forget my camera. :)
• My cat Charlie and my mom's cat Dos had a fight the other day. These two are the only ones of my 7 and mom's 4 that hate each other. There's always a fight when they cross each others path. This time they were on the garage and locked together that I had to put an effort to pry them apart. I used a broom because once I went in with my hands and my own cat bit me to the bone I had to go on antibiotics. I don't have to mention there was fur everywhere but luckily it didn't seem that either of them suffered any injuries.

Linking to Paint Party Friday.
Self-study classes: Cotton Candy Girls & Crazy Hair Ladies