Kid Swapping

About a month ago, our family got together with The O. Family for dinner at the park. Justin and Shawn are good friends from high school, and we have always tried to continue to nourish the friendship. They had Kent a few weeks before Caden was born and we were determined to make them be friends. :) Every time we would get together we would plop them next to each other and take photos. The Boys always seem to have fun together, but we wondered if they actually remembered each other between our visits. Over the years, the Olson's have moved around. They were gone for a while to Virginia, but they recently moved into a house close by.

As Karyn and I were chatting away at the park we some how got on the subject about how hard it is do get anything done while we have the kids. I joked around about how nice it would be to have a robot that I could have around when I wanted to make a quick errand without the kids. That is when she offerred to do a kid swap. She would watch my kids for 3 hours at a time, and then I would watch hers. She had been trying to do the same thing with her sister, but it wasn't quite working out. So she said to call her if I was interested, and we would go from there.

I went home and looked at my calendar...lo and behold I had an appointment that I needed to go to the following week. So I called up Karyn and took her up on it! Let me tell you it was wonderful! I was able to go to my doctors appointment and then do some shopping --- ALL BY MYSELF!! It was very refreshing! When I was all done it was so nice to go and see our children playing together. Karyn also has Mallory (2) and Eldon (will be 1 in August).

When we got back from our vacation I was able to return the favor for her...and we have agreed this is the best thing ever!!! After a few tweeks we have decided to take a plunge. Only instead of watching each others kids once a week(which equates to 2 times together--once for each of us) for 3 hours at time we will switch back and forth on Mondays and watch them for 6 hours! I know it sounds crazy, but Karyn did it on Monday for me! (THANK YOU!) It was fabulous! There is alot that you can get done in 3 hours, but 6 was even better.

Our theory was this...sometimes it takes a little bit to get going. With having 6 hours you really can get alot done, and the kids only are going 1 place a week. We really hope that it will work out. I have to tell you it has been great to have this opportunity. It has been something that I have always wanted, but hadn't found someone that it would work out so well with. If you can find someone...do it! It is such a blessing!

The great thing about it is that Caden and Kent are really starting to develop a deeper friendship than the "plop me down and take a photo" induced friendship of their parents. Hopefully when they get older they can look at all the photos from when they were babies, and see that they truly have been friends for life! We hope that Syd and Mallory will be able to say the same. Here is a slide show of all the fun that these kids have had together through the years!