And it's by far the most expensive one on our list

We still haven't visited the two remaining ones, but the one we saw the other day -- and LOVED -- is a full $200 per month more than the remaining two. It wouldn't put us out, we would just be able to contribute less to savings each month. But once he turns 1, the tuition would go down by $60/week.

I saw two on my own, but immediately nixed them. The one DH and I saw together earlier this week is perfect. The owner has been there something like 14 years, the head of the infant department same, there are two infant rooms and they are both sizable, and they get moved up to the second infant room when they start crawling and walking because there's more mat space. If they notice that he's not crawling or walking and he's around that age, they'll take him over to the second room periodically so he can see other kids moving around and maybe pick up on it. They pay a lot of attention to developmental cues, incorporate a lot of education even very early, make it a point to use the baby's name from day 1, etc. And I loved that they keep a portfolio for the kid for all 4 years they're there -- each month in the beginning the parent is contributing to the portfolio but then as they get older it's artwork and exercises and then when they graduate, you get the portfolio as a record of their time there. I thought that was so neat and adorable! Maybe that's common, but I would have never thought of it.

So DH wants to pay the $150 to put our name on the waiting list and then we can look at the other two and if we like either of them better, all we've lost is $150. I'm fine with that -- I was just not going into this visit expecting to like this slightly-over-budget daycare so much! I just wanted to look at all our choices so I knew what I was looking at.

Did you end up going over your initial estimated budget because you just fell in love with a place? I guess it's true you get what you pay for?