The Dream Team

Declan’s school technically ends next Wednesday, but we will be in Maryland ’til Tuesday and Wednesday is this weird half day, with no afterschool care. So, really, tomorrow is his last day with his afterschool teachers. Who. are. the. bomb.

Declan has been in daycare since he was 2, and we have always been lucky to have good people taking care of him (even if we had trouble communicating with them now and again). But Stacy, Erica and Desmond from his current afterschool program are like the team you always dreamed of taking care of your kids.

Desmond grabs Declan up and they roughhouse and laugh and run around like nuts. Erica sits quietly with Declan in her lap, reading books or drawing. And Stacy has this infectious, booming laugh that makes everyone want to have fun, yet she has a firm enough hand to keep the kids from getting a little too Lord of the Flies late in the day.

There was even a petition circulating among the parents to make sure they were assigned back to our school next year. I hope to God they are!

I was misty-eyed leaving today, knowing tomorrow was Declan’s last day with these three great people.

It’s not often you have this level of trust and faith in other people who are caring for your kids.