Pedigree Play?

Last night Peter assumed the lead role in the Babysitter Taskforce. He immediately began entering names and numbers into his palm pilot, ran multiple internet searches to create maps of every childcare facility within twenty miles of our house, made a spreadsheet with costs and hours. I was at first offended that he presumed he would do a better job than I had at tracking down a sitter, that he thought I hadn't talked to EVERY childcare provider in Concord already. Then I relaxed into simple relief. I had failed, maybe he would succeed. Square ped, round hole, time to get a new peg (or hole). Today he dropped Josie off at the sitter and got to work. He sent emails, made phone calls, looked up regulations and statistics. Then, miraculously, serendipidously, when he called The Tech (the ultra-fancy, super expensive, entirely unavailable teaching lab daycare at our local college), they said they had our file on our desk and Josie was off the wait-list. She got in. NO ONE GETS INTO THE TECH. Jasper has been on the list for three years, and has never gotten in. We gave up months ago because we really can't afford it. If she goes there and Jasper is at East Side, my entire paycheck goes towards day care. But that was before we were desperate. Before Josie had already been kicked out of daycare once. Before we had interviewed every in-home provider in the city. Now it seems like there is nothing I would rather pay money for than an excellent place for my Josie to be while I am working on my craft. They have radiant heating in the floors and floor-to-ceiling windows. They go outside every day on their natural playground. They have a 2 - 1 ratio. I remember when I visited three years ago thinking that I would love to spend my days there. It's the best of institutionalized care. But $260 a week? Maybe the Somalian lady would be fine.