Adventures in Babysitting

I love going up to Gainesville, Virginia to visit my sister and her family. So when she asked if I would come up and watch her kids while she and Peter went to Las Vegas for a few days, I thought it would be great. I'd get to be in a big, gorgeous house, sleep in a king sized bed, and soak in a whirlpool tub. Little did I know that I'd be in for it. A 7 year old, a 5 year old, and TWO 1 1/2 year olds! Oh my! It's been a madhouse all week!

Lauren goes to school for most of the day so I don't have much stress caused by her.

Natalie is a combination of bored and excited to have "Aunt Heidi" there so there is no down time because it's full of constant requests to play this game or that. At first I was fine with a game here or there, like Connect Four or I'd let her try her doctor playset on my "pretend" wounds. But I am getting burned out and I wish she could just understand that sometimes, "Aunt Heidi" just needs a little rest. I do hate to hurt her feelings.

At night, I do have a hard time getting the girls to go to bed. They run back and forth from each room. I can't get too mad because I remember doing the same thing when Robyn and I were kids. I hate it when they fight though, that's when I get upset at them for being awake late at night.

Now comes the stress. The babies. William and Ryan are definitely partners in crime, and getting into the pantry, and climbing up on the table, and getting into the cupboard, and the list goes on and on. If I'm not pulling one baby out of one predicament, I'm getting the other out of another. I swear they plan it! When one is in the high chair, the other will pull a chair up and climb up to "share" whatever is left on the tray. They are fascinated with the fireplace screens and will help each other pull them down if I'm not keeping my eye on them. The worst mess was when they got into the pantry when I was upstairs. I came down to find all of the packages of crackers, Capri Suns, and applesauces scattered everywhere. That was no big deal, because they are easily put back on the shelves. They had also gotten into the flour and had been scattering handfuls here and there. Ahhhhh! It took a while to clean that one up.

I don't know how people with big families do it! Especially people with twins. Twin toddlers is just too much to handle on my own. I hope I never have twins. I used to think it would be cute, but I know better now. I have one more day of babysitting. Wish me luck!