So, last Monday I got a call from some close friends of ours asking if I would be able to babysit their 4 year old daughter named Amerette for the day because they had to get an out patient procedure taken care of. I said no problem since I tend to get along with kids pretty good.
I showed up to their house at 6:30am because they had to be on the road by 6:45 and had about an hour drive. They went over the basics...Phone numbers, food, etc. They also told me she tends to sleep in so I was like " No problem with that!! " So, then 6:45 rolled around and they took off and thus the babysitting BEGAN!!
Needless to say, the first 2 hours were pretty uneventful. I did manage to take a few of my turns on Words with Friends, Watched Wall-E from start to finish, and then had started the first season of Duck Tales ( Yes, I was watching the cartoons without the kid ) before I heard a little voice at the top of the stairs say "Good Morning Todd". Coming down the stairs was Amerette, with blanket in hand and her eyes barely open. She came and plopped down beside me on the couch and snuggled up beside me and started watching Ducktales with me. After about 15 mins, I heard a little voice beside me say " I'm hungry" so I said OK, lets go into the kitchen and get you some breakfast then.
As I started to see what we had to work with, I asked her what she wanted......She told me " I want either Rainbows or Rainbows with marshmallows". So I said OK and started searching for anything that looked like a rainbow. She then told me which cupboard they were usually in and I told her that I didn't see any. She then gave a sigh and said "I bet Tahvo and Elias (her brothers) ate them all. I guess I will have Hay Bales then." Thus began my search for "Hay Bales" which turn out to be Frosted Mini Wheat's. I then went to get a bowl and got told " I use the octopus bowl and the flowers and butterfly cup" OK, 10-4, will do. Just as I was about to pour milk on the "hay bales", she let out a loud NOOOOO. Come to find out, milk just goes in a cup and "hay bales" are better dry. Lesson Learned.
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| Amerette Enjoying her "Hay Bales" |
After breakfast was done and everything got all cleaned up, it was then time for me to learn the correct way to wrap up a baby in a blanket........the correct way being Amerette's way. Then what was a lesson turned into a game of catch with the blanket. After we played some catch, suddenly Amerette felt the need to cook some "food" so she went upstairs to her room and for the next 20 to 30 mins I heard some banging of pots and the occasional " mmmmm, that tastes good". Then after all that time, she comes back down to the main floor with a couple plates full of plastic food and and assortment of other foods in a bowl.......The one creation I thought looked the best was the spaghetti with ice cream, pizza and egg in a bowl..........YUM!!!
After cooking got over, it was around noon and then she told me she was hungry for real food. So off to the kitchen we went again. For lunch, she had a cup of Mandarin oranges, some grapes, and some of her "special" crackers. Then came the part when she asked for some milk to drink......well, we had used up the milk at breakfast so I told her she could either have juice or water since we were out of milk.......She then yelled "JUICE!!!" So I went to the fridge to check out the juice situation and all I found was concentrated prune juice. I may not have the complete parenting skills yet but I knew prune juice was a big NO. I then made an executive decision and she got a 1/4 of a small cup of pop as a "Special Treat".
After lunch, we watched some shows that she picked out on the kids side of Netflix. They shows were actually quite random everything from Super Why to old school Super Mario Brothers to something called Baby First. The last show was more geared towards kids half her age but she was into it so to make the show a little more challenging, I told her that if she wanted to keep watching it, she had to do what they were doing on the TV. So after a short time, she was calling out to the TV the correct answers, clapping when the show said to, and other various things.
We continued to watch these shows for quite awhile and I could tell she was a little tired because she then curled up beside me with her blanket and I could see her every so often have a case of the sleep twitches........the twitches you get as your falling asleep that suddenly wake you up. As we watched TV, her parents then arrived back home and then it was like some had put new batteries in her because then she was up and ready to go again.......especially so after her brothers got home.
After chatting with everyone for awhile, it was time to hit the road. But before I could go, Amerette had to come up to me, give me a great big hug and a kiss and say " Thank You Todd, I had lots of fun today" That part there made my whole day worth while.
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