I Still Won't Be Catching Up on the News

After much guilt and angsting on my part, I've decided to send the Doodlebug to day care twice a week (although my father says, "Don't think of it as twice a week! Think of it as sixteen hours a week." And really, by the time we get there and as I pick him up a wee bit early, it's really only about fifteen hours a week). Last March, in my second trimester, Adam and I put our name on the waiting list for a local center. We looked at a couple of places, and this one really impressed both of us. On January 1, we got a call that they had a part-time spot (if we had wanted a full-time spot, we'd still be on the waiting list). Adam left the decision up to me, and after a lot of stressing, obsessing, and generally being miserable, I decided to go for it. The Doodlebug seems to love it. He's fascinated by the other babies, he's excited about all the new toys, and he gets lots of cuddling time from the teachers. One disappointment: they couldn't get him to go to sleep in a crib either. The Doodlebug sleeps in the bouncy chair there. Just a few more weeks till Ferberization.... But I digress. He's only been one day so far (but we've been a bunch of times. The director encouraged me to bring in him a bunch before we started so we could hang out there together and get to know the teachers, the other kids, and the surroundings), but what a day it was for me. If anything is going to propel me to get my own work done (both freelance and personal), it's the guilt of knowing the Doodlebug is in day care. I had such a focused work day because there was no way I was just going to Web surf and sit on my butt. I'm torn between how much freelance I'll be doing and how much of my own writing I'll do, but I'm sure I'll find the right balance.