My child arrived just the other day, He came to the world in the usual way, But there were planes to catch and bills to pay, He learned to walk while I was away

So Nico started at the FSU childcare center today. Whoa. Has it really been five months? Yeah, I can't believe it.

As it turns out, I am actually pretty bad when it comes to paper work. I showed up this morning with five pages of the nearly 40 I had to sign and fill out and was like, "What?" Apparently, if I had read the instructions more thoroughly, I would have found that rather than having to fill out a bunch of paperwork by hand, had I just did what I was supposed to do (fill it out in Adobe, which would have populated all the other fields, it would have been cake). But since I didnt, I got to sit in an office filling out paperwork for 40 minutes while Dave waited for me to go with him to drop Nico.

And because I didnt have my act together, I had to then spend the rest of the morning running all over town. More paperwork for my job at AHCA, to the pediatrician's office for immunization and physical records, County Health Department for birth certificate then back to FSU to turn those in... note to self: read all the instructions next time.

It was weird. Sad, actually. For the past five months, its been Nico and me- he's like my little buddy, running errands, watching daytime tele (did you know that they are now showing 90210 on the soap channel during the day? Yeah, I didnt either. Turns out that the reason why I never watched it as a kid is that it exceeded the number of tools that my mom would allow us kids to watch in one show.) The worst of it- which was my inability to put the muscle on him and make him nap in his bassinet allowed me to watch all of Season 5 of LOST on abc.com. What- I can't do any work- he's napping. On me!! Man- I loved naptime! Of course, its weird, as a parent, your life gets divided up into small chunks of time... you lay him on the floor or the mats and he's good for 15-20 min, during which I scramble frantically for something productive to do. Then he gets fussy playing by himself. Play with him for a while. Set him in the bumpo for a bit. Diaper change. Then eat. Then sleep. Then do it all over again.

And I did get a little misty when I left him... mostly because I knew I would probably never be a stay at home mother again. And that is kind of sad.

But- its for the better. Dude- have you ever met those kids who only hung out with grown ups? Really- that is the problem with homeschooled kids... its not that they are dumb or rather socially inept. Its actually that they dont relate well to kids their own age, because they spend so much time hanging out with adults (their parents). So its good in the sense that he's gonna be hanging out with kids his own age. Check it- there were two new babies who were awake and chillin with Nico when I came to get him: one is Chinese and one is from Bangladesh. Isn't that awesome? I want Nico to hang out with those kids and their parents. Learn some Chinese. Learn some Bangledeshi(?).

One of my big fears did not come true today (he didnt cry all day). At least that is what his teachers told me (his eyes weren't all red and his face didnt have that tight, tear-stained look). Which is awesome. I was really nervous that he just wouldn't understand and would resort to crying all day. The fact that he didnt makes me feel better about taking him.

Of course it helped that he wasnt there ALL DAY. We dropped him at 930 and I got him at 200 (to go to practice down in Wakulla). So it was pretty good. I really like it there... I think he's gonna like it too.

So the follow-up question: "So Bishop, if Nico started daycare today and you havent started your job yet, what did you do with your day?" There wasn't much of my day left to speak of by the time I got done dropping forms and whatnot (maybe 2 hours). Literally, this was my thought process on the way home: first I am going to have some lunch, then I am going to do some dishes, print my dissertation proposal, print my PAA abstract, then I am going to clean my desk, then I am going to go for a run and take a shower, then I am going to do some laundry and change some lightbulbs, and then... and then..."

But, then I decided I needed to pump. And I had some lunch. And then it was time to get Nico to go to practice.