Burbank, Day Two, Part Two

So! When we last saw our beloved bloggess and her family, they had visited some Burbank houses and the Warner Bros. Lot.

Still, not a lot of pictures. Many of the places we went, no pictures allowed.

After we chatted with the brave pioneering souls of Evan's company, we went over to the Warner Ranch, a smaller facility a couple blocks away. We had an appointment to visit the Warner Bros. Daycare there. I can't give you a link or even show you pictures -- I scoured the web, they have no web presence and there are no pictures allowed, even though the building have won major architecture awards, rightfully so.
This is pretty much the only thing I've found, and sadly, Pax and Shiloh are long gone.

We've heard nothing but amazing things, and we weren't disappointed. The facility has a couple of building scattered around with a fabulous centered courtyard, with sand areas, playground equipment, trikes, and all covered by awnings to shield the spawn of the Masters of the Entertainment Universe's delicate skin from the harsh Burbank sun. We toured through the three preschool rooms, which looked a lot like Playhouse (except with a computer and maybe a wee bit more learning), lots of "stations" and pictures of the kids and their artwork everywhere. 18 kids in each preschool class (two late 3s, one 4s about to start K, 3 teachers per class.) They are open 7am to 6:30 and serve 3 snacks and a hot lunch served family style, which is a heck of a lot more than my poor kids get.

A couple of interesting things. At the foyer of the rooms, where the cubbies were, each class had a digital picture frame. Every day at the end of school, it is filled with pictures of what the kids did that day for the parents to peruse. Each kid has a journal that the teachers add to every day, and the parents take home every weekend and write in to send back on Monday. The teachers' entries were long, informed, and included pictures. What a great keepsake of a year, right? But my favorite was this: outside each classroom is a small whiteboard that has that day's "car tip" -- something they talked about in class that day that the parent can use to spark a conversation in the car on the way home. They also had a basket at the front door filled with baggies of Goldfish, apples, and raisins for a snack for the car ride home. They've REALLY thought this place out.

Honestly? We didn't think we had any chance of getting in. It's 91 kids for all the thousands and thousands of LA WB folks. But the director was very frank -- this summer was out of the question (their year starts in the summer). But next year looks very good! Although the list is still long, many people who've had their kid on the list for five years aren't going to drag their kid out of the place they've been for four years for one last year. And, depressingly, people who leave WB on their own or not, must take their kids out a month later. So! Expect me to go around the lot with a bead on those people that have 3yos.

It also means that our life plan is looking better. If The Goose is in an awesome preschool/daycare in 2012, that means I can go back to work full-time sooner than we thought. Two, three years in a rental apartment, and we can rebuild our down-payment fund and buy a great place by 2014, should we decide to stay here.

And the cost of this awesome daycare, which every single human being out here has widened their eyes with awe and whispered "You can get into there?" when told we are on the list? $1150 a month. (Those of you without kids: that's about $400-500 less than a merely okay place in NJ, and about $800 less than NYC or LA proper.)

Stunned, we went back to our hotel and vegged out n front of the TV a bit. Evan and Oscar went to a quick trip to the House of Secrets comic shop and returned with Boom! comics and impressed. The little guys and I watched TV and wrassled (them) and tried valiantly to nap (me, failing miserably).

We took off for West Hollywood, through Griffith Park and past Sunset Blvd and all of the tourists in Hollywood. (We were thinking about doing something touristy the next day, but why fight through the swarms of tourists when we can go any random Tuesday in a couple of months?)

My dearest Sister from another Mister has relocated back to LA, and her parents are there, ready and willing to be our kids' Local Jewish Grandparents. Let me tell you, every kid needs a Local Jewish Grandparent. They have our beloved Grandma Shelia Kaplan in NJ, I grew up with my sorely-missed Eva Mol. We had a lovely sedar, complete with The Ten Plagues of Egypt Finger Puppets. Lucy chose the sleeping furrowed-brow baby, which of course was the Death of the Firstborn. For the rest of the dinner she tucked him under her plate and shushed everybody, saying "Mah baby is sleepin!" We ate lots of matzo ball soup, drank plenty of wine, and had a grand time. Took them back to the hotel and plopped them in bed -- everyone under the age of 40 was conked out in fifteen minutes. Evan read his book and I drank wine (too much, in retrospect...ow!) and listened to the Carter Family and wrote the previous blog entry.

Tomorrow: Some Pictures! Really!