Babysitters

Well, as of today, we officially have three babysitters in our house.  A cute friend in our neighborhood texted me this afternoon asking for Flowering Buttercup, but since there is a church dance tonight, I had to text back and tell her that FB was not available.  She must have had something fun planned because her next text said, "Are the other girls home tonight?"  (the OTHER girls!!! you mean my little toddlers???)  They don't typically get asked to babysit because...well...they have an older, capable sister who has been the first one to jump at any and all babysitting jobs since she turned 11.  I think this is the first time she hasn't been available and someone realized that we have two other capable babysitters in our house.  (nice mom, huh?  I probably should have realized that on my own.)   My cute friend said that she would take either Spell Girl or June OR they could come together.  I asked them if they were interested and BOTH girls started jumping up and down.  (Who knew??)  So, at 4:30pm this afternoon, I watched my two YOUNGER daughters walk out the door to go to their babysitting job.  (I'm telling you...all this new stuff is making my head spin...FB driving me around to run my errands, and now SG and June babysitting!)

This little family is adorable and probably the BEST possible first babysitting experience the girls could have.  They have a really sweet, super polite 3 year old little boy and the most adorable 10 month old baby anyone has ever seen...really!  They are perfect kids and they go to sleep at 7pm so it was a relatively easy job.  AND...they are exactly three houses away from us, so I knew if the girls needed anything, they would be close enough to rescue.  

This is the text I got from June at 7:00 tonight...

I forgot that they've never actually changed a diaper before.   I popped over five minutes after I got the text and saved that cute baby from two girls who had tangled her up in her jammies, put her diaper on backwards, and couldn't get her to drink her bottle.   The girls and I fixed her up, snuggled her with a fluffy pink blankie and slipped her into her crib.  She went right to sleep.  I'm quite convinced that babies can smell insecurity a mile away, and Spell Girl and June were dripping with it when they walked into that bedroom.  Other than that, though, they did a fantastic job.  They had figured out how to make a bottle.  They cleaned up all the toys.  And the door was locked when I got there.  All good things...those other things (like diapers) will come in time.   I made sure not to linger after the baby was quiet.  The girls managed just fine after I left and when they got home, they were thrilled to have successfully completed their first PAID babysitting job.  

The moral of this story is...I need to realize that ALL of my kids are becoming more willing, more responsible, and very capable of a lot more that I give them credit for.   I'm so proud of those girls tonight.  And I'm so happy that someone else's mom gave them an opportunity for a confidence building experience that I might have missed.