Adventures in Babysitting

On Wednesday I was in charge of a 15 month old and an 18 month old for five hours. Thankfully, we all survived! I watched Lucy’s friend, Greta, while her mom was working. Obviously, I took plenty of photos to document the day. Before we get to the photos, though, there are a few things I’d like to note:

1. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous at all. Greta is a sweetheart, and I knew we’d have a fun day.

2. Wednesday morning before Matty left for work, I told him I was looking forward to getting both babies down for naps around 1:00 and that I would feel like Super Mama when that happened. 

3. When Lisa dropped Greta off, she came prepared with a blanket, two lovies, a monitor, and a sound machine. She said to tell Greta that it’s time to take a nap, put her in the pack n play, and she should be fine. (Can you see the foreshadowing going on here in points 2 and 3?!)

4. When Matty looked at these pictures, he said that Greta looked like a sweet little baby in a dress and that Lucy looked like a bruiser in too tight clothing! hahaha I’m sure he meant that lovingly. To be fair, Lucy may be bursting out of her summer sizes, but it seems silly to buy new summer clothes when Fall is right around the corner. 

Lucy killed some time waiting for Greta to arrive by taking her dolly for a walk. 

Lucy immediately took Greta over to meet the dogs. There was a lot of pointing and “dog!” exclamations by both babies. 

Then Lucy decided that she wanted her dolly back . . . 

 . . . so sweet Greta gave it to her!

Greta found the penguin instead. Lucy decided she wanted that too. Are you seeing the theme here??

I feel like Greta is thinking, “Is this girl for real?”

Wrangling two babies!

This is when I thought they were playing nicely so I wanted to photograph it . . . and then Lucy threw the ball at Greta right as I took the picture. Sorry, Lisa!!

Trying out Greta’s booster seat. Notice that Greta is NOT crying and wanting it for herself! 😉

Lunchtime! The girls had a blast at lunchtime, but I was so busy feeding them I only snapped this one pic. They ate, pointed, and jibber jabbered a TON!

Lucy finished first, and then Greta asked for a turn in the big high chair. 

After lunch was nap time. Holy Moses!  Since Greta was supposed to go down without a fight, I gave Lucy some books to read in her room and went to put Greta down in the playroom. She started crying for her mama before I even shut the door. I gave her a few minutes to calm down while I read to Lucy and put her in her crib. Not to be outdone by Greta, Lucy stood up and started wailing. I stood in between the two rooms for a minute wondering when my Super Mama moment would begin! 

I gave them about 15 minutes and neither one had calmed down a single bit. My next strategy was to move Greta and the pack n play out to the family room where Lucy couldn’t hear her as well. I gave Greta some books to look at and thought that, if I could keep Greta quiet long enough to rock Lucy for a few minutes and get her to sleep, that I could then go out and rock Greta. 

I rocked Lucy for about ten minutes and it was obvious that she had fallen asleep on my shoulder. I also hadn’t heard a peep out of Greta, so I was convinced she had fallen asleep as well. I stood up and put Lucy in her crib . . . and she woke up and started screaming. I left her for a few minutes to go check on Greta . . .who was sitting up in the pack n play reading her books like a little sweetheart! 

So I kind of went back and forth like that until it became crystal clear that Lucy was not going to calm down and that Greta was going to whimper every time I left the room. So I brought Lucy out, put her in the pack n play with Greta, put on the Disney channel, and made myself some lunch!

I bet Greta was wondering if Lucy was going to want this book from her. 

Thankfully, they kept their distance and watched Goldie and the Bear for about ten minutes while I grabbed myself some food. 

After I ate, I went and sat by them and talked for a bit. Greta was happy as a clam despite her lack of a nap. Lucy, on the other hand, looked like a zombie!

I feel like Greta was trying to warn me to stop taking pictures . . .

  . . . because this happened next! That’s Greta’s “I told you so” face.

After a round of poopy diaper changes, Lucy was ready to kiss and make up with Greta. 

Next, we headed outside to enjoy the beautiful afternoon. 

Two identical chairs = nothing for Lucy to cry about! #win

Two girls relaxing after a hard day of playing. 

Despite the lack of naps, I still had a fun day with the girls. Greta was a doll and Lucy was fairly grumpy, but we made it through the day with zero injuries or incidents. 

Lucy was so tired at dinner that she couldn’t even eat. She just sat there and yawned, rubbed her eyes, and moved her food around on her plate. She was bathed and sound asleep in her crib at 6:30!!