I'm staying at my sister's apartment for a couple days, helping babysit her two little girls, Rose and Annie. Rose is 6, Annie is 3. Yesterday, we had fun together making and decorating cookies shaped like butterflies, Easter eggs, bunnies, etc. We also played outside for a while and the girls made things out of modeling clay while I fixed lunch. Nothing super eventful happened, so I woke up today planning for another basically easy day of hanging out with my two favorite children.
Well, I woke up around the same time as the girls. We got ready and walked to McDonalds, just a block away, for breakfast and then playtime. That wasn't so bad. Other than mild frustration at my attempts to maneuver a double wide stroller, I felt confident in my ability as a nurturing, patient Aunt. When we arrived back at the apartment, I got Rose started on schoolwork and settled Annie with a Tweetie bird DVD in the other room. About 30 seconds into our phonics lesson, Annie yelled, "Come see what happened" I went in the room and saw that her DVD had locked up. I re-started it, left and resumed teaching. But very soon Annie announced it had happened again. Apparently, Tweetie was not meant to be.
Plan B. I grabbed a stack of kids' books, handed them to Annie and told her to sit on the couch and look at them till Rose and I were done with school.
That worked for about two minutes. Soon, phonics with Rose had become phonics with Rose and Annie, which really wasn't too bad actually. One wrote words and sentences on a marker board while the other drew picture in a notebook and cheerfully shared her artwork with the class.
After phonics, we moved on to math and history. That went pretty well, thankfully.
Then we went to the library. Picking books and movies out went pretty well, but then came The Checkout. For those who have never attempted to use a self checkout at a library with two small children, let me describe it:
The childcare provider (aka, the slightly nervous adult), maneuvers herself, an armload and a half of library materials and two excited, outgoing kids to the counter. There is a scanner and a computer monitor. As the adult scans each item, she also corrals one child who is continually trying to push her favorite letter, "A", on the computer keyboard and avoids eye contact with the biker dude wearing a bandana on his head after same child loudly comments that "He is wearing a pirate hat".
Then, the self checkout screen proclaims that the limit has been reached and no more items can be checked out. This is unthinkable to two children who both desperately want to keep ALL their carefully selected books and DVDs, including Angelina Ballerina, Care Bear and a very exciting story about a bear who snores. The adult asks for assistance from the friendly librarian, and children, books, adult and library materials all slide to the left to allow friendly librarian to complete the checkout and alleviate this near disaster.
Meantime, one child is trying to snatch her favorite DVD off the counter before it is checked out and the other is attempting to stealthily steal a rubber band from the friendly librarian's desk.
At last, everything: children, adult, library books and DVDs, are safely stowed in the car and the checkout adventure is over.
The rest of the afternoon held more excitement to be sure: We ate lunch then the girls watched a "Wishbone" movie while I washed dishes (during which I broke a cup..oops), we colored Easter eggs, somehow avoiding any major dye stains or anything and finally their mom came home and I collapsed on the couch, tired and happy and wondering HOW moms do this every single day.
Here's to all you moms! You are AMAZing!
Well, I woke up around the same time as the girls. We got ready and walked to McDonalds, just a block away, for breakfast and then playtime. That wasn't so bad. Other than mild frustration at my attempts to maneuver a double wide stroller, I felt confident in my ability as a nurturing, patient Aunt. When we arrived back at the apartment, I got Rose started on schoolwork and settled Annie with a Tweetie bird DVD in the other room. About 30 seconds into our phonics lesson, Annie yelled, "Come see what happened" I went in the room and saw that her DVD had locked up. I re-started it, left and resumed teaching. But very soon Annie announced it had happened again. Apparently, Tweetie was not meant to be.
Plan B. I grabbed a stack of kids' books, handed them to Annie and told her to sit on the couch and look at them till Rose and I were done with school.
That worked for about two minutes. Soon, phonics with Rose had become phonics with Rose and Annie, which really wasn't too bad actually. One wrote words and sentences on a marker board while the other drew picture in a notebook and cheerfully shared her artwork with the class.
After phonics, we moved on to math and history. That went pretty well, thankfully.
Then we went to the library. Picking books and movies out went pretty well, but then came The Checkout. For those who have never attempted to use a self checkout at a library with two small children, let me describe it:
The childcare provider (aka, the slightly nervous adult), maneuvers herself, an armload and a half of library materials and two excited, outgoing kids to the counter. There is a scanner and a computer monitor. As the adult scans each item, she also corrals one child who is continually trying to push her favorite letter, "A", on the computer keyboard and avoids eye contact with the biker dude wearing a bandana on his head after same child loudly comments that "He is wearing a pirate hat".
Then, the self checkout screen proclaims that the limit has been reached and no more items can be checked out. This is unthinkable to two children who both desperately want to keep ALL their carefully selected books and DVDs, including Angelina Ballerina, Care Bear and a very exciting story about a bear who snores. The adult asks for assistance from the friendly librarian, and children, books, adult and library materials all slide to the left to allow friendly librarian to complete the checkout and alleviate this near disaster.
Meantime, one child is trying to snatch her favorite DVD off the counter before it is checked out and the other is attempting to stealthily steal a rubber band from the friendly librarian's desk.
At last, everything: children, adult, library books and DVDs, are safely stowed in the car and the checkout adventure is over.
The rest of the afternoon held more excitement to be sure: We ate lunch then the girls watched a "Wishbone" movie while I washed dishes (during which I broke a cup..oops), we colored Easter eggs, somehow avoiding any major dye stains or anything and finally their mom came home and I collapsed on the couch, tired and happy and wondering HOW moms do this every single day.
Here's to all you moms! You are AMAZing!
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