Wacky Day for Child Care

Carrie's out of town for the weekend, so I had to get a little fancy with child care.

I could have asked my parents to take Shane today. I did not want to. They already agreed to take Shane for 3 days this week (the normal Monday & Wednesday plus a bonus Friday). If I asked for four days of child care, I would've felt like I was pushing it too far. Nana and Pa have been very generous with their time, but I don't want to overload them or burn them out on my boy.

Thus, creative.

The first half of the day was covered by my tutor family. Have I mentioned I love them? The mother quit her job and is in the process of looking for another one. That may come quick, it may not, but it meant that she was at home during the day and she would probably be interested in saving money. I asked her if she would like to trade tutoring for child care.

She was thrilled. I heard her excitedly telling her oldest daughter "Guess who's coming by tomorrow!?" She's a kid person and Shane's a cute kid. There was no crib at my tutor family's house, so I only asked them to cover from 9-12.

When I dropped by to pick Shane up, there must have been six neighborhood kids all sitting in the entrance hall with Shane, the mother, and two of her kids. I was greeted with cell phone pictures of Shane riding their dog like a horse, staring into the camera, and a very happy (but tired) boy. Apparently, whenever the daughter babysits, she likes to bring her wards to her house. There's already a playground next door, and when kids show up, more neighborhood kids show up and "they start to all entertain each other!" I had to smile. It reminded me of how my own home could be a fun-house as more and more kids gravitated to it.

Shane was snookered and fell asleep minutes after we pulled away.

Now, my original plan was to take off the second half of the work day. Did you read the post about my family emails? Megan sent me a text in the morning saying "Hey! I'm off work at 11:30. Do you need babysitting?"

Yes, yes I did. Talk about good timing, Megan!

Megan arrived a little after 12:30, we talked, and then I got to go back to work for my Department meeting. I would've gone home soon thereafter, but there was another meeting with the grade level collaborative teams right afterwards and then there was a big group picture after that! It's funny how much errata gets packed in to the first week of school that's not room preparation or planning. If Megan hadn't texted, I would've had to use up hours of leave I would rather save for when I'm tired or in a pinch. Thanks, Meg!

It was nice coming home and catching up with my sister, too. Since Carrie's gone, the conversation is appreciated. Dan got home and it was a regular party for a while. I seem to always have more energy when people are around nowadays (witnesses!) and that energy translates into more giggles from Shane.

After Megan left, I got a call from Kathleen. She wanted to know if I wanted any child care on Saturday!

Yes, yes I do. I guess I will make Muay Thai this week. Plus, I want to catch up with Ka and show her my house.

It's funny how I was crossing my fingers and praying for things to work out yesterday, and now I'm up to my neck in childcare. I texted Carrie "Thanks for all your birthday presents! I cashed in on the child care, ha ha!"

I'll have to return the favors later. The twins' birthday is right around the corner!