Is the sunshine going to return?

Well, today is a sunnier day. We have gotten over the shock and awe campaign that the area child care providers rained down on us and have redoubled our efforts to put our child into a day care that can remain open for more then a few months at a time. We would also like to find a day care that doesn't just take our money, but provides some sort of service for cashing our check. Any service at all would be a step in the right direction. Interestingly enough this task is more difficult then one may think. After pouring over the spreadsheets we have come to the conclusion, again, that Carrie cannot be a stay-at-home mom so we must come to terms with the fact that smiley, I mean Quentin, will have to vacate the premises by 8 am Monday morning. Carrie did weasel some extra time and will be pulling half days her first week back so Quentin will only be making other people smile for no more then four hours at a time next week. This of course, does not cut down on the cost for Dad. Surprise, surprise. Here is the next great idea. We could start a day care to make money while also selling specialty beer. That way, when mom and dad come to pick up junior after a hard day at work we can save them that extra stop and fill two holes the greater Tampa area needs with one fell swoop; beer and child care. I know at first it seems like this might not be the greatest idea. While you are pondering that thought, though, I encourage you to go grab a beer, take a swig and then think about it. See? Now, that is a great idea. All I need now are some VC's to help with the financing.

We think we have two pretty decent options but first let me say thanks and give a shout out to two family members who graciously stepped forward to fill the child care hole by offering to not only get on a plane and fly to Florida but to help out indefinitely until we found a suitable decision. Aunt Jo, previously of Florida fame, worked it out with her generous family to come down and help out. She is also a former in-house child care provider and is considered some what of an expert in these matters. Grandpa semi-retired Steve also offered his services. He was a bit of a snake charmer getting Quentin to sleep on command several times throughout the Iowa visit. We appreciate both their offers. We did want to find something permanent that we both felt comfortable with and due to the recent economic conditions we found several places with vacancies because families were forced to pull their children due to financial constraints. These places cost a fortune, so we feel their pain. We found two day cares. They are essentially total opposites and I leave it up to my fair-minded wife to ultimately make the decision. One place is your Florida down home keeping it real day care that has been in business for 38 years and uses the term y'all a lot. Now, who wouldn't want their kid coming home every night asking how y'all doin' tonight? They have been in business before I was born so I think their track record speaks for itself. The second place was more of a learning center and didn't appreciate the term "day care." This is a school they matter of factly stated. It was a lot fancier and they didn't use y'all once throughout the visit. Both places had nice people and Quentin would be taken care of. We'll let you or y'all know what we decide this week but they both could open their doors as early as Monday. Unbelievable, but we'll take it. We are officially short on kleenixes so if you have extras send them down because a fairly traumatic event of dropping him off has exponentially increased, well, traumatically.

In case anyone needed cheering up throughout this saga I have attached a picture of Yahoo Serious. If you don't remember Yahoo Serious google the name in images. It will be worth it. This is Q after a bath. That hair will be touching the ground before he'll be able to walk at the rate it is going. He is smiling and talking so much now that it's impossible to put him down. We've stopped reading the paper, watching TV and doing anything else personal because you just want to play with him all day. It will be weird to not have him here during the day.