In general, our two have proven to be amazingly quick to adapt to our new surroundings. There is, however, one issue we have yet to conquer.
Early mornings.
At home, they tend to wake for the day between 7:30 and 8. They will often wake up earlier than that, but usually roll around jabbering away and fall back asleep quickly. When they do wake up for the day, they are typically content to sit and chat with each other for a short while. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day- listening to them giggle and babble away at each other.
That’s all at home.
When we’re away, and all staying in one room, the very split second the daylight hits their eyes, they notice that Mom and Dad are RIGHT THERE!
Forget dozing off.
Forget giggling.
Forget chatting.
Forget content.
MAAAAAAAAAAAA! DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
(in Stereo, of course.)
Sigh.
Early mornings on vacation have become a standard. This morning was no exception. We all cuddled in the great big king bed provided in our one-bedroom condo. Sadly, that didn’t last long, and moments later, we were up, eating breakfast. Our full kitchen got quite a bit of use during our short stay.
We enjoyed our little breakfast, and debated the next step. Ultimately, we decided it made the most sense to get the kids out the door, and deposited at Treasures before attempting to get ourselves ready for the day.
I stand by this being the best strategy. I also stand by the fact that we had no idea how to get our kids ready for a child care facility. We did our best, and called the shuttle to bring us to Treasures. The child care building was right on the side of the slopes, and was, in fact, really close to us.
We showed up with their diapers, wipes, coats, boots, sneakers, hat and gloves. Sounds good, right?
I mean, they provided sippy cups, and snacks/meals, so we were totally covered, right?
Right?
Did I mention that because they stay at home with me… NOTHING is labeled. Oops.
After filling out paperwork, and then a quick labeling frenzy, we were ready to say goodbye.
Well, three of us were ready to say goodbye. I’ll bet you can guess who was the odd (wo)man out. I was thrilled (but secretly slightly disappointed) that they walked in so happily. They were ushered into their classroom, which was meant for early walkers. They were the youngest in the room, but held their own. They didn’t even look back. Distracted by the ball pit, the fish tank, and the plethora of books to read, I’m pretty sure they never noticed that we didn’t enter the room with them.
I did. I sat at the two-way mirror, for just a few moments (I stand by that, too!) and watched them as they made themselves at home. It wasn’t long before they were both running in different directions.
Amazingly, I was ready to go enjoy the day sans kids.
When I say that we were impressed by our experience with Treasures, I’m lying. It goes way beyond impressed.
From the very first moment that we loaded the website to see if Smuggs was worth looking at, I was convinced Treasures was special. Reading that their staff is specially trained in ‘Non-Recurrent Child Care’ put them into a class by themselves, in my book- especially for kids who have zero experience with child care. This kind of day care is different than your standard part-time or full-time day care. These types of places have to find a way to get the kids settled in quickly. By the time a child would be comfortable in your typical day care setting, most of the kids are headed home already.
I’m not quite sure how they accomplished it, but they did. One of the other requirements I had for a ski resort child care facility was the open door policy. We were allowed to come in, and spy on our kids at any point in the day. In addition to coming in the building to peek through the two-way mirror at lunchtime (they were asking for seconds on their tortellini!), the outdoor play area (which includes a magic carpet for pre-school age kids to start working on their skills) was located on a green circle run, and was easily viewed not only from the slope, but from the ski lift as well.
Treasures has a number of programs for tots, from your infants, who are rocked, and cuddled, and tummy-timed, to your older kids who may not be quite able to handle the full day of camp activities.
Perhaps our favorite feature was hiring one of their teachers to babysit that evening. We put the kids to bed, and then went out for a nice dinner. We felt comfortable with one of their teachers coming, so just in case they woke up, they would be familiar with her. Major twin bonus points- their hourly rate structure has a base rate, and then it’s an additional dollar per hour for each additional kid. Most places charge double for two kids, so this was a no-brainer. Date night!
We were so enchanted by our time at Treasures that we decided to bring the kids back in the morning, and try to catch a few more runs, or at least pack up the condo in peace.
They RAN into the room. Didn’t even look back.
Just in case we weren’t enthralled enough with our time at Treasures, they really went above and beyond on Sunday at pick up. Z had not had a wet diaper since we had dropped her off a few hours prior. The staff at Treasures was so concerned that she may be dehydrated; they gave us a sippy cup of water to take on the road with us. This wasn’t a take and toss cup, either. It was a pretty solid sippy cup. Just handed it over. I offered to send it back once we got home, but they said we could keep it.
I simply can not rave about Treasures enough. There is no doubt that we will be back. Hopefully soon!