Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Adventures in Babysitting



Well I survived my day of babysitting! Now granted no one was chasing me and the kids through the streets of Chicago. Our car did not break down (I couldn't have even driven one because there would not have been enough room for car seats for everyone!), and no one named THOR was involved. But still we had a day full of our own adventures!
The day started at 7 am with the arrival of two 3 year old boys and a 6 year old
boy. At that time my own girls (7 & 5) woke up. So I made breakfast (Cereal with fresh Strawberries and OJ, I know not very creative, but it worked) after we had eaten and got all cleaned up I had the task of keeping them quiet until my own 3 year old son woke up. So they played Basketball and watched SUPERWHY while I worked on getting my 7 year old ready for school, piano practicing done, 30 minutes of reading in. During this L decided to wake and playing moved into the play area.
Cry #1 came from one of the 3 year olds right before 9. After several minutes of trying to figure out the problem I realized severe constipation was to blame. The poor little guy was in so much pain. SO I Yoga'd him, rubbed his tummy and after about 30 minutes, well lets just say everything came out finally.
Cry #2 There is no use crying over spilled milk. Well in this case if it is an entire glass of chocolate milk spilled all over your clothes I guess it was alright to cry. Lucky I had some of L's clothes which fit and so it was a quick change and a load of wash that fixed this danger!
Cry #3 at 11:30 my regulars showed up (ages 4 and 1) And we had the usual "Where is my mommy" moment. This one was fixed by everyone sticking Cheese Puffs out of our mouths like we were each a walrus. The tears turned to laughter pretty quick.
Cry #4 This one Could have been a lot worse. I was almost crying for her myself. By 12:35 I realized no one was coming to get the 6 year old for school (Don't fret, you know who you are, I forget all the time even if it IS written on my calender) :). Well I put the baby and 1 3 year old in the stroller and off I walked with 7 children 6 and under to school. I had to go in and check him in since we were about 15 minutes late. While holding doors open for the stroller, the 4 year old got her fingers smashed. It was bad. I thought they might be broken it was that bad. SO there I am in the middle of the hall with a scream child, 2 wannabe runaways and 1 kid who "just wants to go to his class". And then children start flowing into the hall like school is done or something (There was a play in the lunchroom) I am in sweats with bleach stains, hair in a not combed ponytail and no makeup whatsoever. Lets just say I felt like a circus performer the way everyone was staring. But we got ice for the fingers and they ended up being Okay. We got the 6 year old checked in, and we made it home by putting the runaways both in the stroller with the baby and carrying the other 3 year old on my back.
Cry#5&6 Actually happened within minutes of each other. The first involved a broken cookie it was fixed by the promise of a drink. The second involved "I want sprite, not milk" it was fixed by my giving up and saying NAPTIME. So then I got L down for a nap while everyone else watched KBYU. Then the 1 year old went down. Then I sent the girls upstairs to grandma's playroom and the twins went down. Finally at 2:30 peace and quiet! But there were kids sleeping in every area but the bathroom and that was the room that had stayed clean. So I ended up going upstairs and reading, until the two 7 year olds got home from school and I had to make snacks and clean up grandma's play room. Finally at 4:30 everyone was gone and L was still asleep and I was able to get my wordcount in for the day.
All in all, I think things went rather well considering 1 had 9 different kids to care for at different times during the day.

9 comments:

Mariah said...

You are my hero! I am really impressed that you were willing to do that & lived to blog about it! Seriously though, you are so kind to volunteer!

kingwritergirl said...

You are amazing, you definantly earned your time on Thursday, but i still feel guilty.

crystal said...

Wow! You are awesome! We love "Super Why" too!st

Hassingers said...

Holy Smokes!! What a day!! I'm glad you survived. :)

Propietor, Aviator's Place said...

holy rugrats batman, i am glad I was at work yesterday...

Juliana said...

You are awesome and I owe you so much! Thanks for helping me to have the funnest vacation of my life!!!

Dianna said...

So, the large bump on my abdomen may be pulsating. I may be contracting and wishing in my heart that today's the day while I'm fully aware that it would make everyone's life a little easier if it were tomorrow or later instead. I may be stressed about miscommunications with my mom resulting in weeks of silence and frustration with my daughter's random meltdown today where she sat on the floor of Sam's Club and loudly cried over the book that I didn't just up and buy her.

But I didn't have a day like the one you just described, so I'll take my little contractions and sigh deep breaths of gratitude. Seriously! That may have been the alternative setup for Satre's "No Exit."

You are a star!

Anonymous said...

Wow very impressive. Oh my goodness how do people have 9 children of their own. Yikes...not me.

Dani said...

I am super impressed! Nap time all at the same time for that many? Did you slip them some Benadryl? :-)