Eye-opening Babysitting

I, Lani, babysit a 2 year old girl in my ward a few days a week for 6-8 hours. Although it has been fun to have a friend for Lily to play with, Katie (the girl I babysit) is a toddler and is very different from Lily. I share the following true stories also known as humor at my expense:

Bathroom Drama- things I've told Katie...
Don't flush crackers
Don't waste water
Don't waste soap
Don't flush toilet paper that is still connected to the roll
Don't play with my lipstick
Don't lick my chapstick
Don't put your hands in the poopy toilet water
Don't make a mess
And today- "What are you guys doing?"
Lily(sitting on the pot having finished pooping): "Dipping things in the toilet."
Me (holding back my disgusted shock): "Is that okay?"
Katie and Lily (Katie holding a wadded up dish towel): "YES!"
Me: "NO! You do not put clean towels into the poop in the toilet."
Katie (disappointed): "Okay."
Me: "Did you dip anything else in the toilet already?"
Lily (smiling and laughing): "Yes. We put my sandals in there."
Sure enough, her sandals were sopping wet. Oh gosh! After throwing them away, I fetched them from the trash 5 minutes later realizing that we can't afford to buy new sandals at the end of sandal season. So I washed them twice with extra soap. and sent them through the washer.

Katie spills every day she's here. She even manages to spill water from her no-drip sippy cup that I require her to drink from. Her biggest spill was an entire pitcher of water from the table onto the Kitchen floor and all over herself.

Every half hour I'm asked for a snack. Although I provide a morning snack at 10, lunch at noon, and an afternoon snack at 3, she still asks for more and more. Maybe I'm a bit stingy, but I don't believe she's starving. Plus, her mother doesn't make any effort to bring any food for her. So, if it's on my shoulders to feed her, she will be fed as if she were my child.

Ahh, it feels good to vent a little of my eye-opening babysitting experiences.

Lily's 1st person (drawing)!

A Weekend with Steve's Parents

Make a Smilebox photobook

We had an enjoyable weekend with Steve's parents. They celebrated their 40th anniversary while here! Congratulations!

Our Visitors!

Thanks to my dad and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Lauret for coming to visit us! We cherished every moment together on Saturday. Although the visit was short (5 hours-ish), we sure appreciated you guys sacrificing your time and money to come visit us!

The Prayer of a Child

The other night, Lily prayed, "Bless us to grow up... taller... like a dinosaur." I'm really not sure what brought that to her mind, but I sure love her prayers!

Just Kiddin Around

It was a good afternoon last week when I was eating pie with my girls and just kidding around. It was an added joy to have Amara join in our laughter and follow up with her cute "oooo" face that she does so well. Steve calls her little pucker "her blue steel." It's adorable!

Twilight

I was convinced by Elinn (Steve's sister) and Mandy (My sister-in-law) to read the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I purchased the book and read it together with Steve. I'd have to agree with Steve that the book can get really ooey-gooey when describing the undying beauty of the vampires (Edward especially). But, that didn't stop me from wanting to read on with the following books (It stopped him, but he went and read a synopsis online for the rest of the books so he knows what happens). I read the 2nd book (New Moon) this past weekend. I haven't read a book by myself that quickly since Harry Potter 1-3. I've got to admit that I'm going through withdrawals while the library is currently out of their 5 copies of the 3rd book (Eclipse). I can't wait to see the movie, but even more, I can't wait to read the rest of the books. Steve tells me that there's a rumor that Stephenie Meyer is writing a sister series of Twilight but with Edward as the narrator. I hope that's true!

Wishing and Hoping,
Lani