"Time for bed honey pie!" I called to Leif.
"Why did you call me that?" he asked.
"I always call you that, I like it," I said.
"Well I think you should call me 'samblich pie' instead, okay!" he tells me.
....
Leif lived in his cape the entire weekend. Seriously I am not sure it was off of him for more than an hour for a bike ride. On Saturday Leif went to answer the door as one of his friends was visiting. We opened the door to see the other little boy standing there... also wearing a cape. The caped crusaders played hard.
It was a busy weekend. Skadi and I went to swimming, then we all hit some Parade Homes. We went home for nap and I cooked dinner in preparation for guests.
Sunday our doorbell rang at 9am while we were finishing up breakfast (pumpkin waffles) and it was our babysitter. Only three hours early for her babysitting stint.
"NOON, not NINE!"
AB pointed her towards home and asked her to be back in a few hours.
AB and I had nine homes to finish up on the Parade of Homes route and we decided to tackle that last day sans children. They would rather stay home and play anyways.
Our sitter came back at noon and we chit chatted while AB finished showering. I asked how her trip to the cabin was and she told me she confused the weekends and she is going next weekend.
"Next weekend?" I asked her.
"Mmm hmmm!" she nodded with a mouthful of macaroni and cheese.
"So you aren't going to be able to housesit for me then?" I asked her.
She had that characterizeable blank look on her face for about 20 seconds. Then the bell dinged and she stammered trying to figure it out.
I made her promise that she get back to me asap. In the meantime AB has put plans in motion to just bring Winny along to the condo, which is probably a better option anyways.
I think she has the ding dong, ditzy teenager thing going on. It has been something with every single of the last three scheduled sitting jobs. Her mom is super and I am trying to be uber understanding. But this flightiness has me concerned and unimpressed.
Not to mention the fact that when we got home four hours later she was on the couch with Leif (while Skadi played on the floor) and he exclaimed, "we watched Tarzan, Mulan 2 [which I had put aside unopened in reserve as a reward] AND the Spiderman movie?"
"Spiderman movie?" I inquired with my eyebrow raised.
"Yeah," he wanted to watch it she said.
"It's rated PG I think," I told her.
She looked at me.
"He's four," I reminded her.
Ok, so I remember a babysitter letting my sister and I watch Friday the 13th all the while we declared, "it won't scare me". (HA HA HA HA HA.)
Yeah... our neighbor girl has been put on hold for babysitting pending a little growing up, or something.
So anyways... Parade of Homes. Mediocre. It's a Parade. I want to be wow'd. I wasn't wow'd very often. Only a few houses wow'd me. One we want to buy. Though there are enough little things I would change that I have trouble pulling the trigger. AB a little less so. I am thinking building the same house with a few modifications is more likely.
There were too many homes that were seriously just "open houses" with no decor. That's just a waste of my time.
So anyways. Weekend was good. Busy, but good. I cleaned out my dresser and threw away clothes, made another stack for keep (but not here) and a bigger stack for Goodwill. It was my effort to at least *try* and get started on my September goal before the end of the month. AB rolled his eyes at me when I mentioned the word "paint" this afternoon.
SO maybe my kitchen will be in November...
Showing posts with label babysitters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label babysitters. Show all posts
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Monday, November 05, 2007
Long weekend wrap up
I walked into work this morning on time. This is a noteworthy achievement. One that may be repeated tomorrow morning and maybe even Wednesday morning. However, by week's end, I fully expect the kids to be settled into the time change and we will resume the 5-30 minutes late "normal" schedule. Time change? Loathe it. My kids are happily ingrained in a schedule and I have yet to see why we must go about fiddling with the time. Pick a time and stick with it already.
Ok, now that I have that off my chest.
We had a lot going on this weekend. A long weekend for us all. My FIL and his girlfriend arrived Thursday night. Leif, despite our insistence that "grandpa from Alaska" was coming to visit us and not Bompa from Colorado, was hugely disappointed when our expected visitors weren't who he was expecting. He took me into the kitchen and asked that I tell them to leave. Now.
That didn't happen obviously. Instead Leif grew to appreciate their presence after realizing that grandpa came with pool access. And Friday morning at the Holiday Inn Express afforded us the luxury of an entire pool and hot tub just for us. We had lunch at a local winery/bistro where Leif was able to eat cracker straws and salami and run around scuffling in the leaves while we enjoyed the fall air and a nice Gewurztraminer.
Dinner also took Leif by surprise. We had talked for days of Miss K coming over on Friday night. Well, then the strep struck her. (Or flakiness struck her, I never know which.) I had to scramble at the last minute. I made a quick call to Skadi's teacher and we had a new sitter. One who Leif didn't know (despite our insistence that she knows him VERY well) and certainly wasn't going to roll around on the floor with him. I have seen Miss K... I know exactly why Leif wants to roll around the floor with her...
He was apparently quite subdued the whole night. But upon Miss R's arrival to the house, Skadi was thrilled. She bounced and giggled when Miss R walked in the door. Bonded. I know this made Miss R's day.
Dinner that night at the other winery was fantastic. There had been discussions of slow service, but everything that night was on cue if not too fast. I was a little worried we would go home and Leif would still be awake. Believe me, if I am paying a sitter, I want a sleeping child when I get home!
I handed Miss R a wad of cash. I did my calculation. According to my coworkers, if your babysitter is a professional, you never pay less than minimum wage. And what is minimum wage? $9/hour or so. Truth be told, I have no idea. I rounded up given that I have two kids. We were gone 2.5 hours. Wa-la... a reasonable payment for a night out and about what I pay Miss K or A. Miss R took the $5, handed me the $20 back. Insisted. Ok, I KNOW babysitters make more than $2 an hour. I protested. Then she insisted I put my $20 away. Just wait until Christmas.
Saturday morning Leif had swimming lessons, which he excelled at. Then AB and I got our suits on. AB went into the pool and played around with Leif while I went and did parent tot lessons with Skadi. I had been worried about timing with nap - though not the stress level that I did at that age with Leif. Skadi loved it.
After swim lessons it dawned on us that we had already had a full weekend it seemed, yet it was only Saturday morning. We headed to Target for a few things and well, also because I like new stores. Nevermind that the "old" Target is very close to the health club. Leif and Skadi each had $20 gift cards from grandma for Halloween. Leif can count to 20 and so I hoped to use this time as a learning experience for him as well. We need to find out how much something costs and if it is lower than 20, then you can get it.
How naive I am.
It turned into a lesson of, "you can't just have everything you can grab". I truly think to this point he was fairly oblivious to the toy aisles. Though we did have a shot at working on one of the more important lessons, "you can have X or Y but not both" where X was a Spiderman and Y was a Buzz Lightyear. That slowed him down.
Buzz was the verdict after much deliberation.
Saturday afternoon AB wanted a trip back to the apple orchard to pick more apples. Because when you don't have massive quantities of fruit to process, cook or preserve, you just apparently become almost bored. (Eye rolling? Naw, not here.) You know you live in a small town when you get to the orchard. They are closed. But you call them and they come right down to help you with all the supplies. We hurried in our apple picking since we didn't want to completely inconvenience the owners. Though I expect it was probably the easiest $20 they made in a long time. 20 lbs of apples later...
Sunday was grocery morning where we spent loads on food. We spent a fair portion on foods aimed at establishing a more "Meditteranean Diet". I am actually doing pretty good at losing the pregnancy weight (thank you breastfeeding). All of my pre-Skadi pants are fitting me. (Pre-Leif pants will take a little more work.) But AB and I are foodies enough to know that we will never be able to go with a Nutrisystem or prepackaged foods diet without approaching depression. We also know that as we approach our late 30's (only approaching here... I have another 2 months at 35) that we need to change our daily diet even more so that we don't continue to gain weight. Incorporating excercise would be ideal, but aside from our evening walks and weekend madness, we just aren't there yet. Though we will get there. But until then, Meditteranean dieting we will do.
Sunday afternoon Leif, Skadi and I were playing in the backyard. I happened to note that the double wagon had seatbelts. Hmmm. Sure enough I could secure Skadi in the wagon and entice Leif to join her. Since AB was plastered to the TV screen watching either the Seahawks and Browns or the Colts and the Pats, we headed out onto the walking path. A half hour later Leif was crying, "I don't want to go back home", but Skadi was looking a touch chilly, and I was huffing and puffing from hauling them down the path and back. AB? Never even noticed we were all absent from the backyard for that 30 minutes. And the double wagon? Amazing! Skadi loved being a big kid, and Leif loved entertaining her. Winny just loved getting out. I did not think I would be out on a walk with both kids and the dog by myself.
Dinner was easy last night as I had put hamhocks and beans on earlier in the day. Comfort food at its best. My grandfather made this and I chowed it from the time I was Leif's age. Leif wasn't so interested though. That's ok. More for me.
Ok, now that I have that off my chest.
We had a lot going on this weekend. A long weekend for us all. My FIL and his girlfriend arrived Thursday night. Leif, despite our insistence that "grandpa from Alaska" was coming to visit us and not Bompa from Colorado, was hugely disappointed when our expected visitors weren't who he was expecting. He took me into the kitchen and asked that I tell them to leave. Now.
That didn't happen obviously. Instead Leif grew to appreciate their presence after realizing that grandpa came with pool access. And Friday morning at the Holiday Inn Express afforded us the luxury of an entire pool and hot tub just for us. We had lunch at a local winery/bistro where Leif was able to eat cracker straws and salami and run around scuffling in the leaves while we enjoyed the fall air and a nice Gewurztraminer.
Dinner also took Leif by surprise. We had talked for days of Miss K coming over on Friday night. Well, then the strep struck her. (Or flakiness struck her, I never know which.) I had to scramble at the last minute. I made a quick call to Skadi's teacher and we had a new sitter. One who Leif didn't know (despite our insistence that she knows him VERY well) and certainly wasn't going to roll around on the floor with him. I have seen Miss K... I know exactly why Leif wants to roll around the floor with her...
He was apparently quite subdued the whole night. But upon Miss R's arrival to the house, Skadi was thrilled. She bounced and giggled when Miss R walked in the door. Bonded. I know this made Miss R's day.
Dinner that night at the other winery was fantastic. There had been discussions of slow service, but everything that night was on cue if not too fast. I was a little worried we would go home and Leif would still be awake. Believe me, if I am paying a sitter, I want a sleeping child when I get home!
I handed Miss R a wad of cash. I did my calculation. According to my coworkers, if your babysitter is a professional, you never pay less than minimum wage. And what is minimum wage? $9/hour or so. Truth be told, I have no idea. I rounded up given that I have two kids. We were gone 2.5 hours. Wa-la... a reasonable payment for a night out and about what I pay Miss K or A. Miss R took the $5, handed me the $20 back. Insisted. Ok, I KNOW babysitters make more than $2 an hour. I protested. Then she insisted I put my $20 away. Just wait until Christmas.
Saturday morning Leif had swimming lessons, which he excelled at. Then AB and I got our suits on. AB went into the pool and played around with Leif while I went and did parent tot lessons with Skadi. I had been worried about timing with nap - though not the stress level that I did at that age with Leif. Skadi loved it.
After swim lessons it dawned on us that we had already had a full weekend it seemed, yet it was only Saturday morning. We headed to Target for a few things and well, also because I like new stores. Nevermind that the "old" Target is very close to the health club. Leif and Skadi each had $20 gift cards from grandma for Halloween. Leif can count to 20 and so I hoped to use this time as a learning experience for him as well. We need to find out how much something costs and if it is lower than 20, then you can get it.
How naive I am.
It turned into a lesson of, "you can't just have everything you can grab". I truly think to this point he was fairly oblivious to the toy aisles. Though we did have a shot at working on one of the more important lessons, "you can have X or Y but not both" where X was a Spiderman and Y was a Buzz Lightyear. That slowed him down.
Buzz was the verdict after much deliberation.
Saturday afternoon AB wanted a trip back to the apple orchard to pick more apples. Because when you don't have massive quantities of fruit to process, cook or preserve, you just apparently become almost bored. (Eye rolling? Naw, not here.) You know you live in a small town when you get to the orchard. They are closed. But you call them and they come right down to help you with all the supplies. We hurried in our apple picking since we didn't want to completely inconvenience the owners. Though I expect it was probably the easiest $20 they made in a long time. 20 lbs of apples later...
Sunday was grocery morning where we spent loads on food. We spent a fair portion on foods aimed at establishing a more "Meditteranean Diet". I am actually doing pretty good at losing the pregnancy weight (thank you breastfeeding). All of my pre-Skadi pants are fitting me. (Pre-Leif pants will take a little more work.) But AB and I are foodies enough to know that we will never be able to go with a Nutrisystem or prepackaged foods diet without approaching depression. We also know that as we approach our late 30's (only approaching here... I have another 2 months at 35) that we need to change our daily diet even more so that we don't continue to gain weight. Incorporating excercise would be ideal, but aside from our evening walks and weekend madness, we just aren't there yet. Though we will get there. But until then, Meditteranean dieting we will do.
Sunday afternoon Leif, Skadi and I were playing in the backyard. I happened to note that the double wagon had seatbelts. Hmmm. Sure enough I could secure Skadi in the wagon and entice Leif to join her. Since AB was plastered to the TV screen watching either the Seahawks and Browns or the Colts and the Pats, we headed out onto the walking path. A half hour later Leif was crying, "I don't want to go back home", but Skadi was looking a touch chilly, and I was huffing and puffing from hauling them down the path and back. AB? Never even noticed we were all absent from the backyard for that 30 minutes. And the double wagon? Amazing! Skadi loved being a big kid, and Leif loved entertaining her. Winny just loved getting out. I did not think I would be out on a walk with both kids and the dog by myself.
Dinner was easy last night as I had put hamhocks and beans on earlier in the day. Comfort food at its best. My grandfather made this and I chowed it from the time I was Leif's age. Leif wasn't so interested though. That's ok. More for me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)