Monday, November 3, 2008

Collin's First REAL babysitters

So, Dada is away...again. Not big news on our front actually. But, he's actually been around a lot lately, so I won't complain. This made for a BUSY day for us. We had a zillion errands to do today, plus a doctor's appointment to check for "silent ear infections." What the heck does that mean?

Apparently, the doctor claims that because my child is such an amazing angel who never complains, he's concerned that he might have been having secret, stealthy ear infections all this time when he has had colds in the past and he wants to be certain that he hasn't been slipping them by under the radar, causing damage to his ears and thus surreptitiously causing his speech delay, or helping it along anyway. So, he made me promise to bring him in about five days after the next time he had a cold. Well, remember Daddy brought us one, oh about a week ago? Alas, to add to the errands, a doctor's appointment smack dab in the middle of the day...at nap time. So, kiddo didn't get a nap!

A good preparation for his first real babysitters. I did it. I broke down and called real babysitters, the kind you have to pay because they don't have any DNA in common with you, except that they are also homosapiens. Because it was last minute, owing to the fact that my dear hubby decided to spring this TDY on me last minute (not that it is his fault or anything of course), I had to run down the list of babysitters in the back of the handy-dandy spouses club phone book pretty quickly.

No one wanted the job at first. It's a school night, and I was planning on being out past nine. Gasp! All the kids are about 12 or 13, which FREAKED ME THE HECK OUT at first. Bryon convinced me that was old enough, especially since they are all certified through the Red Cross Training Course and that I babysat at that age. Finally, I landed on a pair of sisters who like to come together and I figured two for the price of one and a tag-team couldn't be half bad.

And, they are home schooled, so they can stay out as late as they want because they catch up on their lessons whenever. Normally, I am kind of weirded out by home schooled kids or the idea of it. Shoot me if you disagree, but whatever. That's my opinion and I'm going to stick with it. But, these kids were GREAT! I love them. I want them back! They came in with a zillion questions about how I wanted things done. They knew how to care for kids and it showed. Experience dripped out of their pores. And they carried themselves like they were twenty, not twelve and thirteen and it wasn't just their overdeveloped, too-much-hormones-in-their milk-bodies-saying that. They were actually mature, well-spoken girls.

I felt totally confident leaving them with my kid, who by the way screamed for Mama at the door. Does that ever get easier? Will he scream at the door of his college dorm room? I hope so. Or wait, that will just be me with the car window down hanging out and wailing, humiliating him as I screech his name and that he'd better write...EVERY DAY!!!...oh yeah, and CALL!...EVERY NIGHT!!!...and that I LOVE HIM!!!!!

2 comments:

Karen Parke said...

Collin probably had a great time playing with his new friends.....I am glad it went well and you liked the sisters. You will be able to do this again and it will get much easier for everyone.

Jen R said...

Spouses Club phone book??? I didn't get one of these!! I am glad you found some good ones. I hope his ears turned out okay, Austin had problems like that, it is funny how much you don't catch when they cannot tell you.