Day care trade secrets- December 11

I know it's been a long time coming, but I'm sure a few of you have pondered the nagging question, "How does this guy juggle meeting the needs of three infants and keep them smiling all day long?"

Without divulging all of my trade secrets, let's just suffice to say that the task is not unlike a game of chess. Sure the playing field is not exactly level when the game begins, but the principle is one and the same. Lets just say that Amelia, Fred, and Zach are several of the stronger pieces, such as queens, or they could be compared with a special type of rook which can make all the moves that a queen makes, but are masculine...very masculine. Now imagine that Mr. Steve is a pawn. A powerless, small, and limited in mobility pawn. You might say that this would be impossible to thwart an onslaught of this magnitude, however pawns can be very useful in protecting just one single space that would otherwise result in a check mate. We will liken the check mate in this instance to "the great meltdown" where all three babies are simultaneously crying so loud that it startles them and makes them cry even louder, ad infinitum.

The move Mr. Pawn makes can be something as simple as a well timed bottle of milk or a "Hot Kid" brand honey cracker, but the key is making sure that I arrive at that space before they do. If perchance Mr. Pawn is ever caught slipping and does not see the check mate before it happens, well, pawns can also transmogrify into something greater if all else fails by moving into the last space at the opposite end of the board. In this case metamorphosing into a tech genius who is able to load a Baby Einstein DVD into the player and press play. Just five minutes of Baby Einstein in emergency situations magically restarts the entire game, much like the mulligan in the game of golf...but we'll reserve that metaphor for another day. Fortunately I've only had two days where the DVD was necessary, so right now I will knock on wood and give thanks to me lucky charms.

. . .

Zach is finally getting used to all the attention he's getting from Amelia (Fred has since diverted his sights to other things like our new glass fireplace screen we installed over the weekend. What can I say, he appreciates quality craftsmanship.). Whereas any other day Amelia would get a wide eyed look of horror from Zach as she clings to the side of the excersaucer and dances, instead, today she got a big smile. It looked like the start of a beautiful friendship.

When Fred and Zach wake up from their morning nap (Amelia was the short napper today, she will not win the longest morning nap prize today) we are going to try to get outside for a walk. Sure it's raining out there right now, but it is supposed to get up to a sweltering 57 degrees (F) and I don't want to miss out on that. I'll try to post some pics if we are successful.