Regrets?

I have really been wondering these past few days if we did the right thing by taking the kids back to New Horizons and not looking for another in-home. Don't get me wrong...we LOVE the center...the teachers are awesome...the director and assistant director are great...and "center life" is what Drew and I are most comfortable with. Sounds like a perfect situation, right? Well, it would be...if Lili hadn't immediately gotten sick and remained sick for the entire 4 weeks that she has been back. It started with a cold, then pink eye, then a week-long virus with 103 temps, then an ear infection, then a new cold and cough...and now today, another ear infection. This child truly is the epitome of a walking disease. She hasn't slept through the night in over a month and has been up more than Will these last couple of weeks. Since Saturday she has ended up in our bed by midnight and cried intermittently until morning. I caught the same cold and cough last week as well and my head is ready to explode due to the congestion. It is so hard to be patient with a sick, fussy toddler when you feel so awful yourself. The doctor put her on a new antibiotic today and I am praying that tonight will be at least a little better than last night. I called off work today to get some rest and try to get my own ickiness under control, but I'm already dreading what could be ahead of me tonight. I also can't seem to kick the uneasiness I feel about the daycare situation. There are so many pluses to being at a center, but I feel awful that Lili is so miserable so often. I tell myself that things will get better as we move into spring and summer......and as Lili adjusts to the environment again, but when I look back at 2007, none of those things held true for her. We never had even a 2 week period of time where Lili was 100% healthy until well after her 1st birthday and the changing of seasons didn't seem to have much of an affect on her either. I worry that this is going to continue and that she will never catch a break. Seems cruel to force a toddler to go through all of this unnecessarily. When we were at the in-home, she only had 2 minor colds from October to February. They each lasted 3 or 4 days and did not disturb her sleep. It's amazing to me that changing her environment could have such a huge impact on her health and that she was able to make it through the worst winter months with so little sick time! Now it's getting warmer and the kid is cooped up in the house feeling awful, when she should really be outside enjoying the fresh air! I don't know how people can be so confident about one daycare situation versus another. I have friends who LOVE in-home care and wouldn't even think about sending their kids to a center...........then I have other friends who feel the exact opposite. As for Drew and I? We see the positives and negatives in both and that's why we have such a hard time deciding what to do. Why can't someone just give us the answers?

O.k...I can't hold out any longer... In my last post I mentioned that our friend Jenn, the photographer, sent us a sneak peek from the pics she took at our house this past weekend. Here is the one she chose to make me even more excited to see the rest!