Babysitting (life in Cali continues)

I'm not sure what purpose it serves to have single men watch little kids. At one moment, it gives you a yearning to get married and have one or 5 of your own. The next moment you are reminded how out of shape you are and how you are struggling to keep up. This of course is followed by the moment where the kids starts screaming and you have absolutely no idea how to get her to shut up.

Yesterday, Sis did a daring thing and left O to the care of Father and I (Papa & Uncle Sean, respectively) . Let's first state that Papa is a very old man (Nearly 60) and so he has a tendency to leave Uncle Sean to tend to O. This would be a little more scary if it wasn't for the fact that Sis took Uncle Sean and Papa & O on a few activities on Wednesday as kind of preppers to Thursday's trial by fire in babysitting.

I haven't babysat in about 15 years. I wasn't a girl, so no one called me up to babysit alot as a kid and add to that I was sick a lot. So yesterday was quite the experience for me.

O, Papa & I went to the park first. Lake Elizabeth is a huge park in Central Fremont where there is a big lake, a bunch of over plump geese, ducks, and pigeons and of course a few sand lots with metal & plastic play ground equipment.
For some reason, I got the joy of playing with O on all the equipment. (Papa went and sat, then layed, then napped on the grass in the shade.) Smethimes, O will ask you to go down the slide before after or with her.
Lesson #1: Lose weight before you have kids. I had a hard time getting my big butt down those enclosed slides. Often times I'd get stuck half way down and need to quickly lose 15 pounds to get down the chute.
O loves playing on the swings. Lesson #2: Don't stand in front of a 2 year old when she is on a swing. I wanted to watch her facial expressions. Instead I got kicked n the mouth by a flayling 2 year old.

We did a few other things at the park like run, talk to water fowl, talk to strange men, kids and other people, Hop, waddle like a duck, etc.

Next we came home for snack. Too many options can be a bad thing. I layed out her snack/dinner items and asked her to choose. In a true momnt of eyes bigger than the stomach, she chose them all and then chose none of them. So I took them all away and chose oranges and cheese sticks to be chased down her throat with yogurt. This satisfied her.
Lesson # 3: Know how to peel an orange. O kept saying "More Orange Uncle Sean" while I was over at the counter trying to figure out how to peel it and then how to cut it. We'll add that one to another adventure in food.

Then came the time to entertain O for about 2 hours until the "get ready for bed" time appeared. With out the internet, I have the hardest time entertaining myself, let alone a 2 year old. In addition, Papa's condo was not made fo a two year old. So we listened to music (Papa kept trying to get O to listen to soft rock, but at home O listens to alternative. Needless to say, O wasn't as entertained.)

At about 7pm John & Uncle Sean took O on a walk (while Papa once again neglected his duties and went to the toilet instead for some personal time).
Lesson #4: Know where you are going ahead of time. We accidently ended up at an elementary school with play ground equipment. This was supposed to be a leiury walk to prepare us for bed time but O got a little excited to be at the "park".

We got back at about 7:30. On our way back, O needed to hold on to Uncle John's and Uncle Sean's hands. To help get her across the street in a hurry, we did a thing where we said "1, 2, 3, jump!" and John an I would pull O into the air by her arms. (I'm praying at this point that childrens' arm sockets are really strong by age two or we might have done some serious harm to O.
Lesson # 4: Don't start what you aren't willing to continue. O really enjoyed having her arms almost pulled out of their sockets. So she would call from below "1, 2, 3, jum!" and expect us to fly her through the air. This got tiring after a while.

We got home and it was time to get ready for bed. I told O to go find Papa and get a diaper change and get her pajamas on. While Papa took care of that, John and I went out side to show him the stuff in my truck going toward a yard sale John is having (Sort of). We come back to the Condo to hear Papa asking for scotch tape. Papa hasn't changed a diaper in an awfully long time and so needed scotch tape to tape up the sides of O's new diaper.

Next are Pajamas. This is follwed by the DVD. O purposely does not have a lot of TV in her life. But she is allowed to watch a little bit before bed. (Also, Uncle Sean made O a DVD that O can watch in the mornings, some times). On her night time DVD is a Disney show called "Charlie and Lola." This is British cartoon played on the disney channel. O came and sat on my lap and watched, totally transfixed on the TV. After two episodes it was time for crib. O gave Uncle John a kiss and then Papa a kiss and it was off to crib.

Lesson #5: Don't look in. John and I were going to go see a friend so Papa was going to stay home while O slept. 15 minutes after putting her down, I went in to see how she was. She's laying in her crib and looks up to see me. She was all settled in and now was wide awake again. Doh!.

I'm very proud to announce, I didn't kill the kid. But at times it was very nerve wracking being a parent for a day.