A looooong babysitting adventure.

When I say this is a long adventure, I mean these blog entries are extremely long.
The adventure has been fun!

Also, I've developed a new appreciation for moms--especially good moms (Read below on my account of Wednesday if you'd like to know why. I think that's an explanation in and of itself.). Thursday has been quite entertaining so far. It's not over yet though...

So, since I have nothing better to do with my time, and since every week is like Spring Break for me, I decided to do something good and productive with myself this week instead of taking a spring break vacation with the rest of the college students in this town. I'm babysitting from Tuesday until Friday for my Institute teacher. He and his wife are celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary this week, so they decided to make a vacation out of it.

Their kids are great! The 14-year-old, Jacob, is a freshman in high school and plays soccer, so we get along well. The nine-year-old, Angelica, is in third grade, and she shies away from being the center of attention, but you get her by herself and she'll just babble on for hours. And then the three-year-old, Gabby, is a riot! She seems so mature for her age. You can carry on a full conversation with her, she knows exactly what she wants and she speaks so clearly that you can't mistake it usually. And she knows her routines (nap time, night time, bath time, dinner time...) which makes life even simpler.

Tuesday. I drove down here with Monica (my newly discovered friend from last week) since she was flying home the next day. Tracy, the mom of all these kids, had only briefly met me once. She told me over the phone that she just didn't trust any members from her ward here enough to leave with her kids for three days straight. Really, she didn't remember who I was until I arrived at her house. And yet, she trusts me indefinitely, even though she hardly knows me? That's flattering I suppose. It was a little weird for me here at first, since I didn't know these kids at all and there were two babysitters (both Monica and myself) for a night. It went well. I made ravioli for dinner, we read the scriptures and had family prayer right before bed. Then both Monica and I went to bed because we were so tired and had an early start the next morning.

Wednesday.

• 4:30am. Woke up. Monica was up showering. Since Jacob is old enough to take care of his siblings for at least a little while and he had to be up at 5:30, I left all the kids sleeping.
  
• 5:15am. Left to take Monica to the airport. I only had time to drop her and go. As I was getting back on the interstate to rush back to the house, Monica called and asked if I could turn around. She had planned on just paying a bit extra for a third suitcase, but they were going to charge her $125 for it. Ridiculous! I told her I couldn't turn back around now, but that I'd just pick it up later that morning if they'd hang on to it.
  
• 6:15am. I made it back just as Jacob was getting into his friend's car to go to seminary. I waved goodbye and went inside to escape the cold that had settled in over night.
  
• 6:30am. Gabby woke up. I got her and made her breakfast then let her watch some of her favorite TV shows (Kipper--which I'm not a fan of--and Caillou--not too bad, actually)
  
• 7:00am. Angelica got up and got breakfast. I helped her fix her hair and went over the questions that would be on her social studies test that day.
• 7:55am. Angelica's bus arrived after we waited outside in the cold for ten minutes.
• 9:30am. After getting myself changed and just pulling my hair up and out of my way, I got Gabby changed and we took off on an adventure to the airport. Tracy was letting me use her car since it already had Gabby's car seat, toys, and DVD player in it. I got Monsters Inc playing and we drove off. Then I realized the gas tank was almost on empty. It took me forever to find a gas station. Seriously! I thought gas stations were on most street corners! Wrong, not around here.
  
• 10:30am. I finally made it to the airport for the second time that day, with Gabby saying, "We're lost!" followed by, "I wanna go home!" or "I want my mommy and daddy!" every fifteen minutes of the drive there (though, she wasn't crying; she was simply stating facts). I gave up on the main level for parking and went to the upper one. I got Gabby out and carried her because not only was it cold and windy, but I didn't wanna let her out of my sight or even chance that happening. We went down an escalator (which Gabby found thrilling) just to go back up one because I didn't know where I was going. By the time we got inside, Gabby was walking and I was holding her hand. She started trying to get into everything! She saw a luggage cart that she took off toward and tried to ride on. Then she kept insisting that she needed to use the phone on one of the self-check-in computers in the line in front of the United check-in counter. Then as I began talking to one of the employees about the bag I was picking up, Gabby took off to sit on those shiny silver bench-seats that was behind us along the wall. I got Gabby and the suitcase and we headed out to the car. It was cold, so Gabby wanted me to hold her. Then when she saw the puddles left over on the parking lot on she had to jump in all of them.
• 11:30am. We got home and I gave Gabby a bath then we had lunch.
  
• 12:30pm. I attempted to get Gabby to take a nap--an hour and a half late. It didn't work so well. She just played and made a racket in her room for a while.
  
• 1:30pm. Went upstairs and told Gabby she needed to sleep. She responded by telling me she wasn't tired. I told her she at least needed to at least try and take a nap. She very obediently got in her playpen, laid down, pulled her blanket up to her chest, and closed her eyes. I was impressed, but I knew it was past time for her nap and it probably wouldn't do any good anyway. She did get quiet up there for a little while though.
• 2:00pm. I finally felt like I had some time to do something. I had intended on taking a shower, but I was too tired to expend the necessary energy to do that. Instead I wrapped up in a cozy blanket on the couch and read a book. Every time I'd close my eyes and think about taking a nap myself I'd always remember something else I needed to get done, so i didn't even get to try to catch up on any of my missed sleep.
• 4:00pm. I began making dinner. Angelica came home. She wanted me to sign school stuff and help her with homework. I got chicken baking then started making the cookies Jake needed to bring to Mutual that night.
  
• 5:15pm. Loaded everyone up in the car to pick up Jake from soccer practice.
• 5:40pm. Home in time to snatch the chicken out of the oven before it got too crispy. Steamed the broccoli, sliced up apples, the kids set the table; we had dinner.
• 6:15pm. Loaded back up in the car, dropped the two older ones off at church for Mutual and Activity Days as Gabby kept complaining about not getting one of the cookies Jake had brought for the young men. I promised her we'd make some when we got back.
  
• 7:00pm. Returned home. I kept my promise to Gabby and we baked cookies. (And I ate WAY too many of them!) She only had two and they were very small ones.
  
• 8:00pm. Thirty minutes late for Gabby's bedtime. Put her pajamas on, brushed her teeth, read her stories, tucked her into bed.
• 9:00pm. Angelica and Jacob returned home (they'd gotten a ride--thank heavens!) and finished homework and made lunches for the next day.
• 9:45pm. Read the scriptures and had family prayer. (You know, I'm really surprised by Jacob's understanding of the Book of Mormon and New Testament. It's impressive, but I suppose that's what I should expect from the son of my Institute teacher.)
• 10:30pm. Got into bed after changing, washing my face and brushing my teeth. I read my scriptures until I called Bob around 11:00 (that's my usual routine). I don't remember what time I fell asleep.