babysitter extraordinaire
Here I sit at Ben and Julie's house, with the sound of the dishwasher and four snoring children in the background.
This morning, I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing, which was odd because I had set my phone alarm to go off later in the morning. I looked and saw an unfamiliar number and let it ring, only to be followed by a text message alert and a voicemail message. I checked the messages to find that Julie had a doctor's appointment today and they needed me to come over and watch the kids Julie keeps. At this point in my life, my day consists of GIlmore Girls marathons, going to the gym, and making a pathetic attempt at playing tennis.. so this was a refreshing choice to add to my things to do today.
In addition to my baby niece, I've got 3 other kids whose ages I don't know.. I'm thinking they're mostly 2 or 3, one of them might be 4. When I got here Julie informed me that they have all eaten lunch, all diapers have already been changed (Julie knows me too well), and they're all set to go down for their naps around 12:30. Then she had to leave. I was a little nervous at the prospect of making sure 4 kids got naps at the SAME TIME during the day, even when one of them was already asleep. As soon as Julie pulled out of the driveway, though, this child woke up and looked at me, clearly confused as to who I was and what on earth happened to "Sissy".
After watching the Backyardigans, I told the oldest to go to sleep so she can play in the kiddie pool when Julie gets back, so she immediately threw herself onto a pillow and has been trying to force herself to fall asleep ever since. She reminds me of me when I was in kindergarten. I could never fall asleep during nap time, but I sure was going to try my best, even if that meant just laying there with my eyes closed, praying that God would just make me fall asleep. The girl who woke up never really did much more than stare at me, so I guess eventually she just fell asleep. The boy in the play pen started screaming when I told him it was time for his nap. Julie warned me of this and she said to just ignore him and he'd fall asleep after a few minutes. It's true. He cried himself to sleep and now his face is smushed up against the screen part of the pack-and-play. That's going to look pretty hilarious when he wakes up.
Lee was a little harder to get to sleep. Usually she's fine if you pick her up and get her all calm and peaceful and you can put her in her crib. Today, I got her binkies to hold and one to put in her mouth, then set her down, only to have her immediately reach up and start whimpering. Preciouuuuussss! So I picked her back up and rocked her for about 10 minutes (my arms were about to fall off, that girl has gotten big!), then finally when her whole body went limp and she started to drool on me (great), I was able to take her to her crib.
I've always called Julie the "baby whisperer" because I'm always amazed at her ability to do this very thing, usually with like 7 or 8 kids. I really expected to have all these children screaming because she was gone, but gladly, she snuck out while they were glued to the TV. So maybe I don't have much of a gift at all, they just think she's doing something in the kitchen where they can't see her.
Better go check on the babies and make sure they're still functioning. Then I'll turn on some Jack Johnson to keep them in their comatose mode. Maybe I'll take a nap, too!
This morning, I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing, which was odd because I had set my phone alarm to go off later in the morning. I looked and saw an unfamiliar number and let it ring, only to be followed by a text message alert and a voicemail message. I checked the messages to find that Julie had a doctor's appointment today and they needed me to come over and watch the kids Julie keeps. At this point in my life, my day consists of GIlmore Girls marathons, going to the gym, and making a pathetic attempt at playing tennis.. so this was a refreshing choice to add to my things to do today.
In addition to my baby niece, I've got 3 other kids whose ages I don't know.. I'm thinking they're mostly 2 or 3, one of them might be 4. When I got here Julie informed me that they have all eaten lunch, all diapers have already been changed (Julie knows me too well), and they're all set to go down for their naps around 12:30. Then she had to leave. I was a little nervous at the prospect of making sure 4 kids got naps at the SAME TIME during the day, even when one of them was already asleep. As soon as Julie pulled out of the driveway, though, this child woke up and looked at me, clearly confused as to who I was and what on earth happened to "Sissy".
After watching the Backyardigans, I told the oldest to go to sleep so she can play in the kiddie pool when Julie gets back, so she immediately threw herself onto a pillow and has been trying to force herself to fall asleep ever since. She reminds me of me when I was in kindergarten. I could never fall asleep during nap time, but I sure was going to try my best, even if that meant just laying there with my eyes closed, praying that God would just make me fall asleep. The girl who woke up never really did much more than stare at me, so I guess eventually she just fell asleep. The boy in the play pen started screaming when I told him it was time for his nap. Julie warned me of this and she said to just ignore him and he'd fall asleep after a few minutes. It's true. He cried himself to sleep and now his face is smushed up against the screen part of the pack-and-play. That's going to look pretty hilarious when he wakes up.
Lee was a little harder to get to sleep. Usually she's fine if you pick her up and get her all calm and peaceful and you can put her in her crib. Today, I got her binkies to hold and one to put in her mouth, then set her down, only to have her immediately reach up and start whimpering. Preciouuuuussss! So I picked her back up and rocked her for about 10 minutes (my arms were about to fall off, that girl has gotten big!), then finally when her whole body went limp and she started to drool on me (great), I was able to take her to her crib.
I've always called Julie the "baby whisperer" because I'm always amazed at her ability to do this very thing, usually with like 7 or 8 kids. I really expected to have all these children screaming because she was gone, but gladly, she snuck out while they were glued to the TV. So maybe I don't have much of a gift at all, they just think she's doing something in the kitchen where they can't see her.
Better go check on the babies and make sure they're still functioning. Then I'll turn on some Jack Johnson to keep them in their comatose mode. Maybe I'll take a nap, too!