Rylan and I are loving are (mostly) jobless life. I did go in for a shift last Monday and am on the schedule for next Monday. We have met a wonderful lady named Kristi who has a totally cute baby named Aubrey. Kristi is also a stay-at-home mom (except for real, not the kinda SAHM like me). Her little munchkin is 3 months and some change. Kristi and I are working out a kid swap. I keep her kiddo one day a week for 5 or 6 hours while she has a day to run errands, clean or, most importantly, SLEEP. Every other week I'll go to work for this day. I am working extra hard with Rylan about the word "gentle." It started with the Christmas tree and decorations. "gentle, gentle, gentle" It was a change from the word "no" and I want him to not live in a glass case of "no." I'd rather teach him to be careful. Its going alright. Only alright.

Rylan and I have also joined not one, but TWO mommy and me groups. One is called East End MOPS. East End is the town closest to our neighborhood that we pretend we live in (since if you say you are from Hensley people raise their eyebrows, cause the ACTUAL town of Hensley is a little bit, um, backwoods). Our neighborhood is five miles away, but uses the same postal address. MOPS is Mothers of Preschoolers. I had read about this group but thought I couldn't join because Ry wasn't a preschooler. Well, my pre-mentioned friend Kristi, told me that that is not the case. Everyone with a little kiddo is welcome. And, oh, they are so nice. They have playdates with the kids once a month and another day where they get babysitters and the moms get a playdate, like Bunco, or cookie-making. I went for the cookie-making (of course) and it was so fun. And the sweet Grandma-like lady that took care of Rylan called him a precious angel. Of course we like her. And I'm glad that he still gets to be amongst some kids.

We joined another group called Little Ones, Big Fun. We showed up for a Storytime at Barnes and Noble last Monday and Barnes and Noble decided they didn't want to have Storytime. We did discover that Barnes and Noble has a Thomas the Train table that kids can play with for FREE while their moms sip coffee. Oh, yeah, we are going back. Plus, I met a totally nice lady and we are going to hang out. The mommy and me group headed to Jason's Deli instead of Storytime, but they were all in a heap about the canceled storytime, and my new friend seemed really cool and our kids were loving the train table, so I kinda skimped out on our mommy and me group before I even got to know them. OOOOPS. Will make up for it next time. On the plus side, Rylan has a new friend that kept saying "mommy look! A baby!" Even though Rylan was the same height as him. My little giant baby.