This Morning

You know when an old person is talking at you and they take ages to get to their point and when they do they just start repeating themselves? And you want to be polite so you smile and nod while really planning your escape route in your head? If you do know what this is like, then you know what it was like listening to Captain Awesome this morning.

Rough Day

The last few weeks have gone really smoothly in our little world of babysittingness. We've fallen into a comfortable yet loose routine and started to grow easy with each other. Most days are quiet and relatively uneventful (hence the lack of posting). But Thursday-Thursday was a toughy.
It didn't help that I woke up tired and not so thrilled to spend my day stranded at someone else's house watching their kids and all I wanted to do was clean my own house and sleep. It didn't help that when I got there the Captain was screaming at Mom that he didn't want me there, it didn't help but so it began.
Little sister slept in, which isn't completely unusual and she woke up fairly happy despite her eye being half glued shut by the eye-boogie bug she caught from her older brother and The Captain did calm down once Mom left for work. I put Baby down for a nap and we had a pretty quiet morning. Soon, though, LS started to get grumpy. Since it was her normal nap time I carried her down to her bed. Five minutes later she was climbing back up the stairs, still grumpy. I put her in her bed again, the words of the experts from my parenting magazine repeating in my head ("don't talk to them, don't make a big deal out of it, just repeat the routine and put them back in their bed, soon they'll realize they're not getting the attention they want and go to sleep" or something like that). I think she just settled down when Captain Awesome's movie got over and when I said it wasn't quite time for lunch but almost because his movie was short, he gave me that you-are-my-worst-enemy look and started in on the I-don't-like-you tantrum so I said "go to your room until you calm down and we can talk". Yes. I said this. I was quite proud of my self for not screaming, yelling, or demanding this. So down he goes to the room he and his little sister share, yelling, banging the door, crying, etc. Baby woke up. Little sister climbed back up the stairs.
When he finally decided to calm down he also came upstairs and we (they) had some lunch. It was pretty apparent Little sister wasn't going to have a nap and wasn't feeling well. I called Mom to see if I could give her something so she would at least feel well enough to relax and take a nap. Meanwhile Clyde came over and him and Captain were playing Wii. An hour later I was trying to feed Baby, get Little Sister to at least watch a movie (STILL no nap), my niece was over and I was trying to get her down for a nap without distracting Little Sister (they are besties) and feed Baby. I got two out of three. LS wouldn't even settle down to watch a movie and was complaining that her ear was hurting.
Finally I decided it was bad enough to interrupt Mom's work. I called her again and she came to take her to the doctor. Soon she leaves all of a sudden Captain is DONE putting up with Clyde. Again I send him to his room... more I-don't-like-you's more door slamming more waking up of sleeping children.
Well, to wrap up a very long post after a short time the Captain came up from his room and asked if he could go to Clyde's house to apologize. How sweet is that? Mom and LS came home from the doctor with a reported DOUBLE ear infection (explaining the screaming and crying) and I got to go home a blissful half hour early. Mercifully Baby went to sleep soon after we got home and I also took a MUCH needed nap.

Winter Blues

Little Sister has been a whiney-face terror ALL WEEK (monday through wednesday). I could hardly stand her. I think one in every 10 sentences she didn't use a whiney voice. I thought she'd be fine after a nap. Each day she had a long nap and she'd get up from her bed and just whine all they way upstairs. Hungry? She seemed better a few minutes after I fed her, but not much longer than that. What was I supposed to do with this girl?
Today there was no change in the morning and I'd about had enough. Well in the middle of the day we got to drop Captain Awesome off at preschool at the college. Troy needed the car but didn't get out of class until a half hour after we needed to be there, so we decided to take a walk (I was trying to catch Troy in his class across campus-no luck) I didn't bring the stroller and it was a pretty nice day, so I carried Baby and Little Sister "walked". More like she jumped in the snow, ran ahead, ran back to me, climbed loads of stairs, rolled on the linoleum, and got many googley looks from all the college girls. She was really quite well behaved.
The really amazing thing happened when we got home. She was not back to her usual self.... she was better! She was bopping around, playing, laughing, and doing anything to make me and Rockwell laugh. She was such a ham! It never occurred to me that all she needed some good old fashioned fresh air. Well, now I know.

A Discussion of Olefactory

Its no secret hat I dread changing Little Sister's stinky diapers. It's the worst part of the day and it occurs up to three times in one 8-hour day. One big reason I loathe this opportunity is because of the perfumed wipes in the unmarked containers I have the privilege of using. I always wondered why Mom bought such foul smelling wipes then today I saw the package they came in and there was the answer: Shea butter.
I remember when Shea butter started hitting the shelves. You could hardly buy lotion with it. They pasted the name all over their lotion bottles, even mixing it with other scents like coconut. Everyone oohed and aawed over it while I eewed and gagged and wondered what the big deal was ( note: I don't know maybe it just doesn't mix with my skin?)
Anyways for you oohers and aahers now picture your beloved scent mingled with baby poop scent (honestly, are scented wipes supposed to mask the scent? Because it just mixes) in one horrific combination. Not exactly coconuty is it? That is whT I put up with every day becaus the only thing worse than the smells of baby poop or Shea butter is the two combined. Why, Mom? Why?

Winter fun

(read to the primary tune:)Oh what do you do in the wintertime when all the world is bleak? ( end singing) I have a confession... I let them so something I'm not sure their parents do. Yes , the terrible babysitter that I am, I let them play with he couch cushions. Forts, cushion fights, beds, towers, jumping on and off. And I will tell you, it's a fantastic form of exercise for the little guys to lug these large pillows around. It entertains them for hours. To tell the truth I'm quite short on creative ideas for exercise ( ACSM recommends 60 minutes a day for children) and at this point in the winter the snow is all crusty and dirty, the magic has worn off, and it's too cold for them to be outside very long (I'm not as defensive as I sound. I'm all for playing outside most days, but I can hardly force them outside like I do when it's warm) So they play and at the end of the day the happy, healthy children put the cushions neatly back on the couch (Emphasis on happy)

Tidbits

- I asked Little Sister what she was going to wear today. She said "my jammies"

-Mom was coming to pick up Captain Awesome for a doctors appointment. He was all ready with shoes and everything all he had to do was put on his coat. I told him to go put on his coat and wait outside because his mom was coming up the street. Next thing I know Mom is there and the Captain is putting on ALL his snow gear-he didn't even have his shoes on any longer.

-After I said he was crazy, Captain informed me that he is handsome, not crazy.

One of those days

After one clogged toilet, two broken Christmas decorations, three time-outs, four dirty diapers, five DVD changes, six fights over toys, seven demands for more milk and eight longh hours of babysitting, I am one tired babysitter and mother and I am SO ready for the weekend.