Lunchtime at the Daycare Cafe

Well after much prodding, I finally listened to my wife. (count me as 1 for infinity in this area). I took my lunch, plus a few extra minutes, and made my way over to the daycare center where my children, Sir M and Lady A, spend the majority of of their waking time each weekday. I was going to spend my lunch with my kids, and with their teachers and friends, eating the things they eat, talking about the things that 2 and 4 year olds talk about.

Let's just start by saying that the food was not quite what I am used to eating for lunch. I spend most lunches driving through the McDonald's or Arby's or KFC/Tacobell or Subway drivethru's, trying to scrape enough money to purchase 1-2 not so quality items from the 1.00 value menu, while listening to a audio book on the minivan sound system. Today's lunch consisted of pasta salad (which was actually pasta, dressing and mixed veggies belended together), pineapple, a cheese chunk, and a cup of milk. My kids are different ages, and in different lunch shifts-so I got this smorgasboard of pleasure twice.

Of course, the food wasn't the point (and it was free-so there was no scraping the car to find enough change to buy a KFC snacker). The point was to get some bonus time with the kids, and that was the most enjoyable part. My kids were generally well behaved. I was shocked. Lady A was first up this morning, and we sat down with my knees 6 inches above the toddler tables, with her dressed in her pink dress and an ear to ear smile while she looked at her friends and said "my daddy." She scooped her own pineapple on her plate, and then proceeded to devour each particle of food and milk given to her. I was amazed. She cried when lunch was over, because she didn't want me to leave her in her class for nap time. Sir M was up to bat next. Sir M has had some difficulties the past few days with getting into trouble at the noon hour/nap time part of the day. My visit had a dual purpose today: spend time with the little bug, but also see if I could help get him on the right track behaviorally. Well, Sir M and T-dad sat down to eat with the other kids , and I kind of felt like a celebrity with all eyes on me. There was quite a bit of squirelling around going on, but I must say again, Sir M was pretty good, and he also ate every bit of food on his plate.

I think this is going to be a regular thing. I think at least every other week or so I will try to make a trip to the daycare cafe for a visit. Maybe the other squirrels in the nest will get used to my visits and we can all sit and talk about the stuff 4 years talk about -the pressures of craft time quotas, not enough time play time, sleeping on those uncomfortable cots, the high price of gas(come on, it affects us all). I'm really looking forward to next time---but I'll definitely pay closer attention to the menu.