|
|
<h4 class="posttitle">Bad Day, Nice Day</h4><div class="posttext"><p><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="4"> Recently I've begun babysitting on a regular basis for my two nephews, Tristan and Aiden. My sister was having some babysitter problems, and she asked me to look after the kids two days a week. I knew it was going to be a challenge, babysitting for just one kid is work, but two! Especially when you are dealing with an infant and a two year old (hello, does the term "terrible twos" mean anything to you). Everyday is differentt, and new challenges arise every five minutes.</font></strong></p><p><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="4"> Yeterday when I walked into my sister's house, I was greeted by a very crabby Tristan who pointed at me and said sternly "No, Jen, go away", and then ran over to his mother. "Don't mind him, he says that to everybody" said my sister, who was trying to throw her lunch together with a whining two year old clutching her legs saying "No Mommy, stay home". Luckily Aiden, who is five and a half months old is happily bouncing in his jumpy (its a great invention, you attatch it to the molding in a doorway and the child bounces up and down with his feet). I can see this is going to be a difficult day as far as Tristan is concerned. Finally Amy suceeds in disentangling herself from Tristan's grip and flees the house, worries of being late for work again outweighing the wails of a two year old, who will not allow himself to be comforted. There I am, eight and half hours of child care looming ahead of me, wondering what the day has in store for me.</font></strong></p><p><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="4"> Tristan cries for his mother and I pick him up, and sit on the couch with him. "Miss Mommy, miss Mommy" he sobs as I pat his back and try to comfort him. but now Aiden is wailing, hes bored of the jumpy, so I have to leave Tristan on the couch, with Sesame Street to hopefully distract him. I pick up Aiden, and go warm up his bottle. When I come back, Tristan is pointing at the TV screen "No! Go home Ernie! Go Away"! Ahha, apparently he also gets angry at his favorite characters on Sesame Street when he's being crabby. I don't take it so personally after that. "Wanna watch something else"? I change the channel a few times, but Tristan tells every show to go away, go home. It's almost funny. Finally he wanders over to his train set and starts to play with that for a while. I can give Aiden his bottle without worrying about Tristan for the time being.</font></strong></p><p><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="4"> The day does not get much better as time moves on. Tristan is crabby and sullen all day, refusing to eat his breakfast ("Ewwwww, no"!) or his lunch ("No! Go Away"!) Instead he demands "choka ba" (chocolate milk bottle) a vile concoction of soymilk and ovaltine which he loves. He hates having his diaper changed, and runs away from me yelling "Bad Day, bad day"! When I finally catch him, he kicks his feet, and wiggles around like crazy. Now Aiden is crying, and I have to pick him up, so Tristan is running around gleefully naked from the waist down, for an hour, while I feed Aiden and coax him to sleep. Meanwhile I am fervently hoping he does not pee all over the couch. Now I like to have the house neat and clean, and the kids in fresh diapers and clean clothes when my sister gets home from work, so around 2:30 I start picking up toys, doing the dishes, etc. Of course after I clean up all the toys, Tristan runs over and dumps a big bin of blocks all over the floor. I sigh to myself, but no better than to give him a reaction, as that always leads to further mischief. Thankfully my sister arrives home, and Tristan runs screaming happily "Mommy Mommy"! She picks him up and kisses him, and asks him how he is. "Bad day, Mommy". He tells her solemnly. I'm exhausted, and get ready to leave. "Say bye to Jen" my sister tells him. "Go home Jen"! he says sternly. "Ok honey, I'm leaving now", I say laughing. My days is over, and I'm relieved to be going. A half hour later I'm relaxing at home with a cup of coffee, and the phone rings. It's my sister. "I just had to call you so you could hear this" She says. She holds the phone so I can hear Tristan, hes sobbing, " Miss Jen, miss Jen, come back soon"? I can't help but laugh.</font></strong></p><p><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="4"> Now I can't very well end the blog with just this one bad day. That would cause anyone who is reading this blog to say, "God, what a brat"! But really he's not, Trisatn is a typical two year old. I'll relate to you today's babysitting experience now. When I arrive today, Tristan is not any less upset about his Mommy leaving him. But he does not tell me to go home, he wants me to hold him and watch Sesame Street with him while he gets over his mother leaving. After the show ends, he jumps up and yells "Chase me, chase me"! and I run after him. Oooh I'm gonna get you"! I yell as he runs shrieking with delight. Aiden screams and laughs, he can't get enough of his big brother, he loves to watch Tristan play. The day goes smoothly, Tristan eats his breakfast and lunch, enthusiastically saying "Big guy help"! It makes him feel important when I let him put the frozen pizza bagels on the baking sheet, or put the waffles into the toaster (unplugged of course) He is still difficult about his diapers, but he screams with delight as I try to wrestle him into his diaper. We have a great time playing with play dough, and at the end of the day, he helps me clean up all the toys from the floor. Too bad when I was on the floor digging under the sofa for a stray pacifier he decided to jump on my back and scream "horsey ride"! I good naturedly gave him some horsey rides, because he's been so good, but alas, now my back is killing me as I sit hunched over this pc. Oh well. The door bangs open, and he is off my back in a flash, rushing to greet his Mommy. When she kisses him and asks him how his day was he says smiling "Nice day". I am laughing, thinking of yesterday. And this time when I tell him I am leaving, I get a hug and a kiss, and Tristan asks me "Come back soon Jen"?</font></strong></p><p><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="4"> Kids are unpredictable. They can be screaming terrors one minute, and sweet angels the next. In one breath they miss you, and the next they are telling you to go home. It's terribly cliche to say this, but it reminds me of that Forrest Gump saying "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get" Well, children are like that in a way. You never know what you're going to get with them, a Nice Day, or a Bad Day. As long as the Nice Day's outweigh the bad, I think that's ok.</font></strong></p></div>
[此贴子已经被作者于2006-7-21 15:13:06编辑过]
|
|
|小黑屋|手机版|模具论坛
( 浙ICP备15037217号 )
发表于 2006-7-21 15:10:00
楼主
发表于 2006-7-21 19:09:00
/5 
