Thursday, June 23, 2011

Rainy day surprise

Yesterday was our first "free" summer day. We always had Monday and Tuesday mornings open but yesterday we would have normally been at gymnastics. We've been playing outside a lot lately, especially with our neighbor and her nanny.  They are moving away today (sniff, sniff) but it's been fun having a playmate right outside our door every morning.  Anyway, we joined them on a walk downtown to meet up with a bunch of other kids and their nannies.  I felt a bit out of place, almost like a spy, being the only mom but no one seemed to mind. 

The kids had loads of fun even when it started raining.  We all gathered under an enormous tree and stayed relatively dry.  The walk home was another story.  The twins were in the jogging stroller which has excellent rain coverage.  Matteo was in the Ergo which has a head cover.  And me, I was just getting soaked.  Its about a 20 minute walk (uphill...) so by the end, I looked pretty awful.  We were just a couple blocks from our house when we passed a few high schoolers, just hanging out on a bench.  On of the girls said, jokingly, "she looks like she needs a babysitter!" to which I immediately answered, "yes, I do!"  She was surprised that I answered but excitedly so.  She jumped off and asked me if I was serious.  Yes, I most definitely was serious!  She talked about some other babysitting jobs she has had (or still has, not sure).  In my head I was thinking, why is she telling me this??  Then I realized, oh ya - she probably thinks I want someone with experience.  I'm so desperate, I forgot to consider that!  Not that I would just leave my kids with her.  I would have her come and "watch" them while I was home, let her get her feet wet.  But for me, anyone who sees my brood and still wants the job, chances are they have experience.  Caring for 3 under 3 is not usually how people want to get their start in the babysitting world, I would imagine.

I took down her number and asked her where she lived and how old she was.  She lives about 5 blocks from me (score!) and will be a junior in the fall (double score!).  That means I get two years before she is off to college, if she works out.  And since she is young, she will come a bit cheaper which is OK with me since she will mostly be a mother's helper to start - I'm looking for one afternoon per week as a set schedule, plus nighttime sitting as needed for me to go to meetings or out with Billy.

Are you all proud of me?  I'm totally going out of my comfort zone here.  Sad, though, that this is out of my comfort zone...

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I see summer!

I'm just going to skip over the fact that I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks, that I turned 30, celebrated 5 years of marriage and that I went to Montreal to celebrate during my blog hiatus.  I'll get back to it when I feel like gathering my thoughts.  In the meantime, let's talk about summer!

Yes, summer is almost here (or already here depending on how you define summer for you and your family) and I am surprised to be excited about it.  Surprised because last summer was awful - the kids were in a rough patch (18-24 months, you were not my friend), we had record heat for the last two months of my 42-week pregnancy and my A/C was broken for most of that time.  Last July pretty much turned me off to summer forever.  Or so I thought.

This year, with Matteo and all the classes for Sebastian and Collette, I feel so rushed and busy.  Getting Matteo down for a nap and on time so I can wake him up in time to get out of the house and into the car and to whatever overpriced activity I signed us up for has been exhausting!  Not that I wouldn't do it again, I'm just tired of it now.  I'm ready to take a leisurely pace that compliments summertime so well.  With the twins starting school in September (albeit just 2 mornings a week...), I am excited to just go with the flow and live schedule-free.  Sure, they will still have a nap schedule - I haven't completely lost it!  But I won't feel the need to have each day planned weeks in advance.  I'm already relaxed just thinking about it!

So, as of Saturday, if you wanna hang out with some super cool toddlers, a very cute baby and me, we are officially free :)  And we have a kiddie pool - all are welcome.