Drive-Bys and Day Care

I'm in the process of looking for after-school care for the boys.  Thanks to Josh's schedule I only need to find it for two days a week for an hour and a half.  Sounds simple enough.  Except that I'm kind of neurotic.  The boys have never been in daycare.  I have always been able to find a family member or very close friend that could cover any time before I arrived home from school/work.  This is a big step for me.

First I called and asked for a list of daycares in the area, on the bus route, that had quality ratings.  The next logical step would be for me to call and schedule an interview.  But I'm not very logical.  Instead I showered and asked Josh if he would go do some "drive-bys" with me.

Don't laugh at me, like he did.  Seriously, I wanted to drive by each address I had and "judge a book by it's cover" and decide whether or not they were even worth calling.  We laughed as we drove around, pulled some illegal U-turns, and rated each home/building with a five-star rating system.  One daycare got an extra half-a-star because Josh spotted a dog, and Brian loves dogs.  Another got zero stars for having what looked like a junkyard of broken, rusting toys piled up in an unkempt yard.

We narrowed it down and I made all the calls today.  I kept it really simple- told them the days I needed, the ages of my children, snow day/vacation questions, etc.  I may have left out the word "autism".   Important detail, right?  In my illogical brain, I thought I would save that for tomorrow when I go do the interviews.  I didn't want them to prejudge him (how many people have you met who immediately think "a biter", "aggressive", "mean") and when I do say the big "A word", I'd like to be face-to-face, so I can see their expression.  Tells a lot about a person.