Wednesdays are Jack

I grew up baby sitting as a pretty regular job. Grown adults, with confidence, left me, a mere child, in charge of their own children and then gave me money at the end of it all. I have funny, sad, and scary memories of those years--and not a dime to show for it (in my day, the going rate was about $3.00/an hour and that was more than my sisters got just a few years before). Of course, the money wasn't the reason for doing it; the driving force was being around babies. I took care of kids of all ages, but it was the babies that kept me in the game. As I got older, and a little bit smarter, I realized taking care of other people's kids isn't that much fun. As an equal adult, who's being treated as anything but equal, you start to see the cracks and fissures in the entire gig, and realize you should wrap this up ASAP (which you'd like to be 9pm, when they say they're coming home...but you know it won't actually be til 11pm).

Luckily, for me, a very good friend of mine is giving me the chance to re-invent the world of child-care one day a week. Turns out, it's a totally different situation when the following things are in place:
1. the child's mother is one of your best friends, and she's one of the more easy going people you know
2. you're a wanna-be mom, yourself, and of legal baby-making age
3. the child is Jack, the most beautiful little 4 month old I currently knowI spent all day on Wednesday with him and feel like my life has been changed (not to mention my arm, chest and back muscles which have been worked into a frenzy--i've never been so happily sore!). He's funny and smiley and loves having his diapers changed (i swear!). Every Wednesday,thru the summer, Jack and I will be making our rounds of the Sunset District of San Francisco: Hop on the N Judah, arrive at Arizmendi Bakery, eat a little fresh pizza (well, just me really, Jack is sleeping like a baby against my chest at this point), have a little decaf, and then cruise to the park, where we frolic for awhile in the shade of the big trees and I make up stories about ladybugs and birds and the mini parties they have in the tall blades of grass.
By the time my friend, Jack's mom, gets home, I've shed tears of happiness, I'm exhausted and I thank her over and over again for entrusting me with the magic that is Jack.