What do we do without daycare?

Why, we go to the cemetary. Of course. Isn't that what all the stay at home moms do?

My new schedule has begun - the new schedule being that I'm working 6pm-12 am Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. A pretty nice schedule for a working mom, (although admittedly not a great one if you want any sort of social life) and although the job is a bit on the boring side, it's compensated well enough and can be done from home. How can you argue with that? for the first time in 2 years none of the money I earn will be going to daycare, which is pretty fantastic. And the kids and I will now have plenty of quality time together which is....well, we'll see. Right now we're going with that's fantastic too. In case of emergency, I still have our daycare provider on speed dial.

Anyway, back to the cemetary. I was thinking that the kids and I should do something fun today, and figured there'll be plenty of time for me to yell at them to go find something to do while I watch soap operas. So I came up with a few ideas: there are 3 things Owen loves more than anything - games that involve balls, making a mess, and animals. I figured we could play baseball for awhile, cook something, and do something involving wildlife.

We had a bag of stale bread Andy was throwing away and I realized that we could take it to a duck pond and feed the ducks with it. But the only duck pond I know of is at Newton Cemetary. So, this afternoon, (after playing baseball in the backyard and making banana bread) that's where we went. FYI: those ducks are a toddler dream. They are the tamest creatures on the planet, and will come up within inches of a bread-proffering toddler. (they are, however, smart enough to shake a tailfeather when they sense the toddler is going to try and touch them). Owen had an awesome time feeding the ducks our stale brioche. And, really, turns out a graveyard is an excellent place to spend an afternoon. There's very little car traffic (and what there is is slow moving), there's plenty of open space to run around and explore, and, well, you're really not bothering anyone. I mean, really. The inhabitants of Newton Cemetary are probably the most toddler-tolerant folks out there, if you know what I'm saying.

Anyway, a good time was had by all, but I'm kind of out of ideas. I feel like I went and outdid myself and now have to figure out what I'm going to fill up all the time between now and preschool with. When do ducks head south for the winter, Octoberish? I'll need to figure it out by then.....