New Babysitter

Since both of our babysitters recently went away to colleges to stun the world with their talents, we have been looking for fresh meat, per se. After trying out a couple of my Japanese students (who asked -- as we were about to leave the house -- "Do we need to stay?"), we were left with the feeling that perhaps speaking extremely fluent English should be a criteria. You know, in case of emergency. So, we got a recommendation from our other babysitter's mother, a long-time family friend of the Beckers. And we tried out the fresh meat yesterday afternoon.

She brought a friend because she's 12.5 and it's a little scary being in a big ole isolated house in a park. I know, I know ... 12.5 seems young. But when I think back to when I was that age, I was babysitting three kids under the age of 5 (at the same time). That in itself is amazing considering the fact that I have trouble with just one child under the age of 5 NOW (and I'm nearly 30). So they came over post-nap and we went out for a few hours and when we came back here is what I found:

1. A spotless playroom -- blocks neatly stacked, toys in the toybox, and blankets folded. Teddybears, who were once spread eagle on the floor, were sitting nicely in chairs as if waiting for their tea to be served.
2. A note on the table (see picture above) with a detailed list about the goings on of the evening.
3. The Girls and The Goose upstairs preparing for bed by changing into clean clothes and beginning story time.

My heart soared. I couldn't help but use my red teacher pen to give them an A+. We've already booked them again for early October.

Prayers have been answered, people.

ION ...

Nana has already sent a CD of her own pictures from the birthday weekend (all 339 of them) and I have uploaded some of them to my Flickr account. In case y'all missed it: he's 2 now and proud of it. He tells everybody: "I two."

And indeed he is two.

This morning while I was brushing my teeth I glanced over and just happened to notice that what was keeping him so quiet was a HUGE pile of toilet paper in the toilet -- still connected to the roll so that when he flushed the potty it would continue to roll out and go down with the water.

I think his newfound interest in toilet flushing can be related back to his fascination with a recent library book: Going to the Potty, by Fred Rogers. It's not a potty training book; rather, it documents how babies move developmentally from helpless to helpful by learning to use the potty. There's a page in the book with a picture of a little girl flushing the potty and the quote says, " Toilets are meant to flush away ONLY things that we don't need." Maybe I'm just a more obvious writer, but I think I may have put a for example in there just for kicks. Especially if I, like Mr. Rogers, felt the need to send shout outs (via acknowledgements in the preface) to two people who hold Ph.D.s in some field which makes them qualified to serve as references in a potty training manual for toddlers. Anyway ... I'm guessing that an ENTIRE roll of Angel Soft does not count as "things we don't need."

Now I've gotta get back to the grind, but I do want to say a very sincere thank you to everyone who attended the party and brought gifts, food, friends, etc. It was a really, really special day and I just hope there are many, many more (of course!).