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Friday, March 24, 2017

How Come There's No Such Thing as Sitting in Babysitting?

There's nothing that makes you feel your age more than looking after a 2 year old, unless of course it's the bathroom mirror first thing in the morning. This particular 2 year old, though he still pees in his pants, can go on his mother's iPad and play jigsaw games with great skill ... the only things he would rather do than that, is anything that causes his old granny to run screaming towards him shouting NO!
Well, it's not all bad. He's full of hugs and kisses, and has the cutest habit (which I'm trying to break him off) of running up and hugging you from the back. Which is an unfortunate position for him, seeing as how he's pretty short.
Today was a babysitting day, for him and his brother and sister who are home on spring break. I have no idea how I kept my own little boys happy, as we had no electronics or Netflix in the ancient days. I guess this is why they did fun things like copying ice pans and zooming down hills on their bikes, things that their mother swore they would never do because they were such good boys. They still are.
Babysitting entails much more than sitting with a baby, in case you've never had the pleasure. You have to sit them on the potty, and listen to them scream for approximately 14 seconds, then whap a dry Pamper on their butt. While they're supposedly watching Paw Patrol, you have to take a few minutes to wash dishes, knowing you'll only have about 2 of these minutes to speed wash as much as you can before a chair comes zooming towards the sink with an enthusiastic 'helper' behind it. Which would be fine if it were a bigger sibling with the ability to do a half decent job, and not a toddler who loves to grab onto the hot water tap with one hand and grab the sharpest knife in the drain tray with his left. This ambidextrous stuff isn't always to one's advantage.
You have to make lunch. One will eat lots (the 10 year old on a growth spurt, for example), one will nibble like a hamster (the 9 year old who thinks everything is yucky), and one will grab a bite here and there between his travels between the living room, the patio, and the table (the 2 year old who thinks all food comes on a Grab and Go basis.) He's not allowed on the patio, but he can travel pretty fast, and he's real sneaky about opening that glass door and zooming off as fast as he can.
And of course there's his bae. No, not what the Hollywood girlies have - his bae has two wheels, a seat, and no pedals.. His grandfather bought him a balance bike, and by the way he careens around the house on that, he would have no problem travelling 20 km with Breehy and me.
One good thing, no matter how tired or sleepy you are, having a front wheel ram into the back of your legs at 10 miles per hour sure wakes you up.
So now it's time for Nanny to go sleepy-bye. I do believe baby's still going strong upstairs - he was playing drums for Steve and Richard's jam session last time I went upstairs.



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