Adventures in Babysitting!!

Okay, Nicole, don't kill me for telling the whole world about my exciting night babysitting your kids Friday night....please?!

Oh, the Milne kids... they can only be of Nicole as I know her from work. They are smart, funny, independent, get themselves into strange situations they need help out of, and they both definitely have a mind of their own!

So after working a princess shift in the ER (that was actually pretty busy and had me on the move the whole time I was there...all 6 hours), I hurried home as fast as rush hour traffic N.bound I-15 would let me, to pick up my Mia from daycare and then hurry home before Nicole brought over Sophie and Ty. I was nervous and excited to take care of them for the evening b/c I LOVE Nicole and want to do whatever I can for her.

So I get home and immediately start picking up and sweeping (my cats shed double in the summer, it's driving me nuts). I cleaned until Nicole and Tony dropped off the 2 kiddos and then realized I needed to change out of my scrubs (yucko!). Sophie saw the crayons and coloring books and wanted to color which I thought was perfect b/c then I could sneak away for a few minutes and change clothes. It was so cute watching the 3 of them color together at the dining room table and for a few minutes I was sure the night was going to be smooth as butter.

After I changed I came out to find Mia sitting on the table eating crayons (such a proud moment as mom) and Ty and Sophie arguing over a certain color crayon. But Ty's not that old, only about 20 months so it was more grunting and pulling and Sophie yelling at him and pulling and it was kind of comical. Ahh, siblings, I thought. I suggested we go ahead and go to the park right behind my condo and Sophie promptly told me, "I'm not ready yet, I'm still coloring." Okay, no biggie, so I got some sippie cups and gave them all refreshing ice water (which is what Sophie requested) and concentrated on keeping Mia off the table and crayons out of her mouth. Then Sophie asked when they could have pizza and I told her I planned to order pizza after we went to the park. Okay, we're ready for the park now (don't you just love pizza?).

So what is normally a 5 minute walk for me turned into a 20 minute walk b/c Ty and Sophie saw my neighbor's Golden Retriever, Tucker, outside and promptly ran to him. Tucker is not very well trained yet, and still very much a puppy though he's full grown, so I had to tell them to watch out and wait for Steve to get a handle on Tucker. Steve got Tucker under control and while Sophie tried to pet Tucker, Ty started screaming out excitedly but was too afraid to touch the dog. Well, Ty's loud screams (although they were happy screams) and Sophie's hesitant reaching out to touch him, and of course Mia yelling, "dag, dag, dag," and laughing hysterically proved to be too much for poor Tucker and he started jumping to get away from all of them. I had to grab Tucker to keep him from jumping on one of the kids and calm him down while Sophie was able to pet him, but he did remain gentle the whole time. Then Steve and Tucker left and we continued on our way. But Ty spotted a chair in the driveway of one of my neighbors (an elderly Armenian man who doesn't speak English) and ran to it and started climbing into it. My elderly Armenian neighbor was standing there the whole time and trying to tell him to get out of the chair and go back to me, but Ty just stared at him and basically ignored my pleas to come back to me. I was afraid to let go of Mia and Sophie to get Ty so I just kept calling for him hoping he would eventually listen. Finally Ty got bored or he figured out the hand gestures the neighbor was giving (not obscene, I promise) and came running back to me. We then continued SLOWLY on our way only to pause right before the park.

Some hispanic men were playing soccer and some of them had their shirts off. This perked Sophie's interest and wanted to know "why doesn't he have a shirt on?" when I told her he was probably hot, she said, "why?" when I told her it was almost a hundred degrees outside she said, "why?" when I told her it was summer and it's hot in the summer she said, "why?" and this continued, me struggling to form answers to the ever increasing in difficulty question of "why?" until suddenly she said, "okay" and continued on. Hmm... I'm not used to this phase of toddlerhood, something I need to start thinking about, I guess.

Then Ty and Sophie ran to the playground while I walked behind with Mia. When we got there, Ty had already gotten himself stuck on some climbing bars and I was racking my brain trying to figure out how he got there as I helped him down. My favorite though was when Sophie promptly announced, as soon as she got on the jungle gym, "I have to pee now!" There were no bathrooms so I told Sophie we would have to walk back to the condo, go potty, then come back. Sophie pondered that for a few seconds then said, "I can wait". Eeeek, I'm not used to potty trained tikes, can she really hold it I wondered?

Sophie then tried the monkey bars only to discover they were too hard and needed help, only she didn't want to come down, she wanted me to hold her as she continued across the monkey bars. I did b/c I wanted them to have fun and I didn't want to stifle their adventerous behaviors, but quickly learned both Sophie and Ty are heavier than Mia and I had not prepared myself for all the lifting and holding I would end up doing that afternoon. I'm really out of shape!

After going between Sophie and Ty repeatedly to help them climb something they probably shouldn't have been climbing, I suddenly remembered my own 17mo old daughter was on the playground and I didn't have a clue what she was doing. Luckily she was just running back and forth across the wobbly bridge which she does a lot and I know is safe for her. This particular school playground has 2 sets of jungle gyms so after a little while Sophie noticed the other one and she took off followed by Ty, who was followed by Mia. Sooooo cute!!!!

The other jungle gym was a bit higher than the first and I had to be extra vigilant (not that I wasn't before) to make sure all 3 stayed safe. I could only imagine what Nicole would do or say if I had to call her and Tony to tell them one of the kids was in the ER b/c they fell off the jungle gym (aghast!!). So between rescuing one Milne kiddo from the monkey bars (and then helping them across) to turning to the plea, "watch me! watch me!" only to have to run over and make sure they made it across safely as well, I again forgot about little Mia. But once again, she was placating herself running back and forth across the wobbly bridge, and I thought, "thank god she's so easily amused right now!" After all three toddlers had bright red flushed cheeks and I noticed Ty's arms and legs were bright red with a rash (again, "oh no, what is Nicole going to do to me if I let her kids get sunburned or they had a reaction to something??"), I finally convinced them it was time to go (bribed them with pizza, more like it).

So we walked back to the condo, again having the same conversation as before when we passed the soccer players, "why does that man have his shirt off?? why? why? why?" We made it back to my place only to have them not want to come inside when they saw some of the scooters and the motorized atv Mia has in the garage. At least the driveway was shaded so I let them play a little while more, wondering how long Sophie could possibly "hold it" since she had been "holding it" for almost an hour now. I could tell they were getting hungry and tired b/c Mia would take something away from Ty and he would hit her on the head and then she would push him (I tried to be stern with both, but they looked SOO funny fighting, I couldn't help but laugh) then Ty ran over to Sophie and tried to push her off the atv which Sophie responded to by biting Ty on the arm. Ouch!!! She left a doozy of a mark too, so then I told them that was enough, it was time to go in, biting's not appropriate, yadda yadda yadda (trying to sound like a responsible adult, but realizing I might have gotten myself in a bit too deep).

So we made it back up the flight of stairs to my condo and I was sure they would all be exhausted and start settling down by now, but I was terribly wrong. While I helped Sophie on the potty (again, I wasn't prepared and didn't have a stool or potty seat for her) Mia and Ty ran around the house pulling toys off her shelves and out of the toy bins and basically throwing them at each other. I wonder if that's how toddlers this age play with each other? Weird.

So then I ordered pizza while I let them continue this mayhem, just happy no one was fighting, and when the pizza was ordered, I turned on the radio to have a dance party while we waited for the pizza delivery. Mia and Ty both immediately started dancing (again SOOOO cute!!!) but Sophie, who is in dance lessons, didn't want to dance b/c she just wanted to color again. When I asked her to show us some of her dance moves she learned in class, she answered, "no, I'm coloring." I love 3 year olds and their bluntness. So the 3 of us continued dancing while Sophie colored, until the pizza came... Yay!!!!

All 3 followed me into the kitchen when I instructed them to go the table and I would bring them their pizza. Ty wouldn't leave my side and kept repeating, "pizza, pizza, pizza!" with his arms outstretched for the pizza as I frantically cut up a slice for him and gave a slice to Sophie, then I cut up Mia's slice and finally sat down to eat one of my own when I realized Ty was way too small for the dining room table and I only had one high chair that Mia was in. So I got Mia's old bumble seat and put it on the chair to use as a booster for him, and it worked really well. And we all ate while Sophie explained quite well how she has little burps and her mommy has big burps, and Ty has little burps while daddy has big burps, and Mia has little burps while I have big burps, and the whole time I was nodding and saying, "is that right?" in absolute amazement at how the thought process of 3 y/o's are so simple and matter-of-fact. So after everyone had their fill of pizza, I was so happy it was bathtime!

It was easy getting them into the bathtub, not so easy getting them back out! They discovered the bathtub paints and proceeded to cover the walls with them (which is fine, that's what they're for), but things started getting out of control when they started squirting out all the paints just to empty the bottles and they started to spill the paints onto the bathroom floor. After I threw the bathmat in the tub and cleaned off the floor, I started trying to wash them. Mia was cooperative but she kept putting paint in her hair after I washed it and trying to lick paint off her fingers (I was seriously beginning to wonder if there was something "not quite right" about my daughter) and Ty reluctantly let me wash him off, but Sophie flat out refused saying, "I'm not getting clean yet." I tried to tell her that I wash off Mia and then let her continue playing until she's all finished, but Sophie wasn't having it. By now I was pretty tired and my head was spinning and I was wondering if they would sit still on bed to watch a movie or cartoon after the bath, having serious doubts about it, when suddenly Ty announced, "all done!" and climbed right out of the bathtub. I was able to stop him long enough to dry him off and wrap a towel around him while Mia was trying to climb out, too, wanting to follow Ty. I could see Mia was on the verge of a fit and not in the mood to deal with it, I grabbed her, dried her off and wrapped her in her towel while trying to herd the 2 of them into Mia's room to put their diapers and pj's on. Sophie said she wasn't getting out of the tub, yet, and I figured she would be all right for a few minutes while I settled the other 2.

Well, Ty kept passing gas while I was getting Mia's diaper ready and I panicked picturing a poopy mess on her bedroom floor (it just happened last week with Mia and I was not in the mood to clean that up again!), so I decided I needed to put Ty's diaper on first, but had left his diapers in the living room. Seriously bad move. Ty ran out after me, followed by Mia, both buck naked and I grabbed a diaper and tried to get Ty, but he was too fast for me and I grabbed Mia instead and then tried to grab Ty again, got him, but let go of Mia, then thought, "I need to check on Sophie!" So I checked on Sophie and Ty wriggled out of my grasp, Sophie was okay, so I proceeded to chase Ty again when the doorbell rang. Ooops, it wasn't my intention to have 2 naked babies running around a toy littered house with the third one still in the bathtub when Nicole and Tony came back, but that's the way it happened. I can only imagine what they were thinking of me.

I admiringly listened as Tony told Sophie to start cleaning off the bathtub walls and then get out of the bath while Sophie actually did it. I watched at the grace with which Nicole grabbed Ty and got him into a diaper when I remembered I had to get Mia in a diaper. Then while Tony got Ty in his Pj's, Nicole got Sophie in hers, and I got Mia in hers, and things started to feel like they were going to be alright afterall. I overheard Tony telling Ty to pick up toys which he apparently obeyed (WOW!!) and Nicole and I explained to Sophie why Mia couldn't come home with them.

In the end, Mia passed out from exhaustion before I even turned off her light, and I'm just hoping I at least wore out Ty and Sophie for Tony and Nicole since it really appeared I had no control when they came over, which honestly, I didn't. I also hope Tony and Nicole aren't completely afraid of me as a caretaker, b/c I really did have fun with them and Mia was in complete awe of Sophie and Ty then entire evening and believe it or not, I would be completely willing to do it again. But I definitely learned I have to be more authoritative with toddlers and not be afraid to be firm with them. Sophie had me wrapped around her little finger and she knew it and definitely had her way with me, but next time I know, enough means enough, and I need to be the adult instead of letting them tell me what to do.

I'm just glad Jay will be home when Mia is 20mo old b/c I'm all talk and no action. I've come to the realization that I am a huge pushover, and our only chance that Mia will be well-behaved is for Jay to be the disciplinarian. I'm way too much of a softie. I need to take lessons from Tony and Nicole, if they'll ever talk to me again... hopefully Nicole will still be my friend at work!