Further Adventures in Babysitting (repost)

While I'm away at camp, please enjoy these selected posts a second time around.

Originally posted on November 30, 2007

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's been a pretty busy week for me. I can't even remember what I did on Monday at this point. I wanted to blog so badly yesterday, but there just wasn't any time.

So... yesterday I found myself in that very professional, responsible, and adult role of ... BABYSITTER. Yes, I got to babysit! And it wasn't even for family this time. My friend is working a lot at her new job, and she needed me to watch her little guy *K*. If you know me, you know how much I enjoy babysitting, but I agreed to help pretty quickly.

*K* just turned 2, so he's the youngest charge I've had in quite a long time. We get along very well, though, because... well... he loves me! Yeah, he is somewhat infatuated with me for some odd reason. My friend thinks it's funny that he picks the one person who is not so "into" kids to gravitate to. He's been known to walk through a large crowd of people only to come directly to me and raise his arms up, asking to be held.

(Here we are at the start of our relationship. You can see he was much younger, and my hair was much shorter.)

Anyway, *K* and I do need to work on our communication skills, though. He told me all sorts of things yesterday. About what? I have no idea. It kinda went like this:

*K*: Assiiiii (pointing out the window)

Me: Outside?

*K*: Assiiiiii!

Me: Outside? What's outside?

After awhile he took me upstairs because he wanted to see the kitty. We found kitty napping on the sectional, and we woke her up. Kitty went to eat, and we went and watched her. Then we decided to watch Nemo. We were somewhat fascinated with Nemo, enough to keep our attention. Finally, *K* climbed up next to me, and we watched it together. Our favorite part was when Dory told Marlin to "just keep swimming...swimming...swimming... just keep swimming". We looked at each other and laughed.
When it was time to go downstairs to get ready for the relief babysitter to pick him up, we almost had a bit of a spill. *K* wanted me to carry him down the stairs. I told him to slide down the stairs like he had just done awhile ago. Nope, he wanted to be carried, so he stood there at the top of the stairs holding his arms out to me. I'm trying to grab him before he takes a flying leap, while holding two cups and something else I can't remember, and as I lean in to brace myself against the steps, I fall to my knees on the step. Ouch!! *K* laughs. I laugh. Oh boy... (sigh) We both managed to get down the stairs in one piece.

Piece of cake!

• Subscribe to my blog by Email or Feed Reader
• Follow me on Twitter or Facebook
• Join my BlogFrog Community discussion

The Zoo

My sister needed a babysitter this afternoon, so I agreed to look after her 7-year-old twins.  The other two kids went to camp today.  I decided it might be fun to go on an outing, rather than me just sitting at her house all day while the kids played with the neighbors.  Or worse yet, invited the neighbor kids over.

So the plan was made.  We would go to the zoo.  I was told that my rating as an Aunt would go through the roof. We shall see how that plays out in weeks to come.

It was a fun afternoon.  We saw some cool animals.      

We were captivated by some very hungry fish!

At the Zoo from Liz on Vimeo.

They begged me to ride the train.

And I think we bonded a little.

You know what?  I'm pooped out.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider subscribing to my feed.

... And They Brought a Friend

I'm in charge of the kiddos this afternoon.  My sister's kiddos, that is.  When I first arrived here, all four of them were gone to friends' houses.  Friends' houses with pools.  I was told that they would probably be there all afternoon, and I most likely wouldn't see them...because who could tear a kid away from a friend's house with a POOL?

Guess what.  Two of the youngest kiddos came home within minutes of their mom leaving me here all alone by myself to supervise...and brought a friend.  Did I mention I'm here all alone and left to supervise?  I'm keeping an eye on them playing in the backyard now. 

First they were working on creating a water slide out of their swing set slide by hosing it down.  That didn't seem like such a good idea to me, so I nixed that one.  Then their game turned to throwing a bubble maker toy up and down the slide about 100 times.  They laughed every single time, which puzzles me.  What is so funny about that?  I was concerned for moments that they were going to stand on a Frisbee and slide down the slide, but I guess I jumped the gun on that one.  They were just going to slide the Frisbee down the slide.  Can you spell P-A-N-I-C? 

Looks like maybe they're going to run through the Blue's Clues sprinkler now.  Nope.  Guess not.  I just saw the hose disappear.  Hmmm.  Wonder what they're up to?

Say a prayer for me.  Having the friend here is stressing me out.

Further Adventures in Babysitting

It's been a pretty busy week for me. I can't even remember what I did on Monday at this point. I wanted to blog so badly yesterday, but there just wasn't any time.

So... yesterday I found myself in that very professional, responsible, and adult role of ... BABYSITTER. Yes, I got to babysit! And it wasn't even for family this time. My friend is working a lot at her new job, and she needed me to watch her little guy *K*. If you know me, you know how much I enjoy babysitting, but I agreed to help pretty quickly.

*K* just turned 2, so he's the youngest charge I've had in quite a long time. We get along very well, though, because... well... he loves me! Yeah, he is somewhat infatuated with me for some odd reason. My friend thinks it's funny that he picks the one person who is not so "into" kids to gravitate to. He's been known to walk through a large crowd of people only to come directly to me and raise his arms up, asking to be held.

(Here we are at the start of our relationship. You can see he was much younger, and my hair was much shorter.)

Anyway, *K* and I do need to work on our communication skills, though. He told me all sorts of things yesterday. About what? I have no idea. It kinda went like this:

*K*: Assiiiii (pointing out the window)

Me: Outside?

*K*: Assiiiiii!

Me: Outside? What's outside?

After awhile he took me upstairs because he wanted to see the kitty. We found kitty napping on the sectional, and we woke her up. Kitty went to eat, and we went and watched her. Then we decided to watch Nemo. We were somewhat fascinated with Nemo, enough to keep our attention. Finally, *K* climbed up next to me, and we watched it together. Our favorite part was when Dory told Marlin to "just keep swimming...swimming...swimming... just keep swimming". We looked at each other and laughed.

When it was time to go downstairs to get ready for the relief babysitter to pick him up, we almost had a bit of a spill. *K* wanted me to carry him down the stairs. I told him to slide down the stairs like he had just done awhile ago. Nope, he wanted to be carried, so he stood there at the top of the stairs holding his arms out to me. I'm trying to grab him before he takes a flying leap, while holding two cups and something else I can't remember, and as I lean in to brace myself against the steps, I fall to my knees on the step. Ouch!! *K* laughs. I laugh. Oh boy... (sigh) We both managed to get down the stairs in one piece.

Piece of cake!

Babysitting

As I type this I am babysitting at my sister's house. She has four kids - Meghan in 4th grade, Daniel in 2nd grade, Katy and Matthew (the twins) in Kindergarten - and yes, she chooses to leave them in my care on occasion. I know what you're thinking right about now... "If you're on the computer, are you actually babysitting?" Yes, I see your point, but the beauty is that they went over to the neighbor girl's house to jump on the trampoline. (Man, am I glad Kath doesn't have neat stuff like that here, or I would be babysitting the neighbors' kids too. Ha!)

I bet you're wondering if I'm a strict babysitter. Not really. I see my role here as basically keeping them from killing one another. I will mete out punishment, though, for lying, talking back and general naughtiness, but we get along pretty well. I feel more like a snack vendor than anything else because that's typically what they're most interested in for the first hour after getting home from school.

I don't do a lot of babysitting. That's how it's been pretty much all my life from high school on. In order to fully understand where I'm coming from, you have to know about my relationship with kids. I don't have any. Any kids, that is, not a relationship. It's not that I don't like kids. It's just that I wasn't blessed with that motherly instinct that 99% of all other women in the world have. Why don't I have this? Is it something you learn? Is it something that's buried deep inside that I just have not nurtured? What? I think babies are sweet and kids are funny to listen to and watch grow up. But when it comes to that baby smell... oh, it makes me want to hurl. (No offense to users of that product. Honest...It's just me.)

People have a wrong perception of me relating to babies. Apparently, people think I don't like them. That's far from true. Granted, I am very nervous to hold newborns, so I often decline this privilege until they get a few months under their belt. The one thing that I don't like at all is having to give bottles or feed anyone under the age of 3. This is entirely due to the choking factor. Babies and toddlers choke - at least they typically do whenever in my care. I hate it! Scares me out of my mind.

So since my nieces and nephews are way beyond toddler stage, they are a pretty safe bet. Yeah, you would think that, wouldn't you? But they have other issues. Like the time one of them, who shall remain nameless, decided to experiment with the phone and dialed 911. Guess who showed up at the house... two very nice policemen, who wanted to come in and take a look around to make sure everything was in order. (Oh boy!)

So I don't do a lot of babysitting. Only under special circumstances. I thought I'd just clear up this little misperception about me and children. I love them...as long as a parent is within the vicinity.

(Somebody just walked in the back door crying. I better go see who fell off the trampoline and broke a body part....)