Adventures in Babysitting

I have this funny idea that sometimes a theme of sorts enters your life and you have to follow it through to its natural conclusion. Sometimes it is easy to figure out sometimes, not so terribly (ahem...squirrels come to mind). Anyway, the last week or two have been my adventures in babysitting weeks. My Devereaux, as you know was having an extreme amount of trouble in his summer Y-camp situation his first week. So much so that after I had to pick him up on Friday, I was determined that I wouldn't take him back. He complained loudly to me that one of his "friends" was calling him vulgar names, and that all of the kids were calling him "Devereaux Looney Pants" in reference to the troubles he's had controlling his anger lately. When I walked in there was about 50 kids all jammed into the same room and the noise level was astounding. It made me want to crawl under a desk and throw things and I was only there for five minutes and I'm not the extremely sensitive to sound person that my son is. It was more than troubling. So I had already started the process rolling for getting him into Daycare for Exceptional Children and I was under the impression that by Monday we would have a green flag. Monday came and I had to take the afternoon off, because I found out that the day I applied, the county who funds the program had mandated a wait list for such programs. The woman with whom I spoke at the daycare was certain it was a small matter and they'd be able to get him in. But then she called me and said she'd found he was already set up with the county and she could use a "back door" to set him up for daycare. AWESOME, I said, and we agreed he'd start Wednesday. I called Dev's other parent and told him and we all did a little happy dance. Then Tina called me back and said "Uh, gee sorry, the back door thing isn't working, I'm sorry." And so it went for the rest of the week. I won't go into details about how insane it's all been, but it finally was apparent to me that I can't seem to count on Dev getting into this program quickly if ever. In a fit of desperation I called a teenager who has sat with him and asked if she would like to make some summer money. She said yes. What I didn't know is Dev's other parent was making even better arrangements at the same time...a temporary spot in his former preschool classroom right next door to his brother's class. Short term this is awesome. Long term, we'll have to find another solution, but we're working the angles. So I happily dropped him off after his Summer School classes today in the capable hands of his most loved teacher of all times. He was in heaven.

But the funny thing is this theme. Adventures in Babysitting has been going through my head for awhile. I'm on a different side of the coin, but I've certainly had the Babysitting Blues. So last night I left my boys for a moment absorbed in Xio Lin Showdown and I ran my garbage out to the dumpster. As I came back in a pretty gray tabby yowled at me from a ground floor apartment.

"What's the matter mama? Wanting out?" I cooed at her.

"Nah, she just likes to bitch." said a voice from behind me.

I turned around and gazed into the prettiest blue eyes I've seen in a very long time. The package around them had an eerie resemblance to George Newbern, the lovely who played "Cute Frat Boy to the Rescue" in Adventures in Babysitting. I smiled and said "Hi."

"Hi...who are you?" said Cute Frat Boy Look-alike.

Sticking out my hand I said, "Eileen, apartment 12."

"Todd...three."

He smiled warmly and opened the door for me. And I went back to my life, and he went back to his bitchy cat. And I smiled all the way down to my toes for the first time all week.

Don't get me wrong, he's much too young for me, and I wouldn't dream of letting him be anything other than a lively fantasy, but it was a fun exchange. And hey, didn't the Cute Frat Boy come into the picture at the end of the movie? Yeah, I think things are going to start getting better soon.

Either that or I over think things...ya' think?