sit, sit, sit on some babies

ba·by-sit also ba·by·sit 

v. ba·by-sat also ba·by·sat (-st), ba·by-sit·ting also ba·by·sit·ing, ba·by-sits also ba·by·sits

v.intr.

1. To take care of a child or children in the absence of a parent or guardian.

2. To take care of or watch over someone or something needing attention or guidance.

For those of you who do not stalk me quite as well as I stalk you, I've spent the last year and a half with the best job: babysitting. Tending to children. Giving them guidance. Ya know, doin' my thing, no big.

Today was my "last" day. For now. I'm sure I'll have a night or day here or there but I'm trying to get the wheels going on getting to school, finishing undergrad, having a college degree and all that boring schmoring stuff. I spent the week doing full time mommying with one of the girls that started it all. Started the era of Nanny McEmily. An era that began with a few hours a week for one family and eventually grew into full on full time nanny work for two or three families with several little kiddos on the side every now and then. Phew, and this has been the best era. Even better than anything Nanny McPhee could or would do. That's right, I said it.

There were days when I would hurt from laughing so hard with the kids. There were days when I would want to cry and whine louder and harder than kids were crying and whining. There were days when I would come home and shower the snot and germs off me (there were also a lot of days when I didn't shower the snot and germs off me...). But there was never a day when I would come home and not realize how lucky I was to be doing what I was doing. (my family is not allowed to comment on the prior statement).

Being around kids is the best (even on the terrible-horrible-not so good days). The best playtime, the best laugh time, the best eat like a kid time, and even the best therapy time. (Yup, I get my free therapy from 2 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 8 year olds). I feel like I have spent the majority of the past year stressing out about what wasn't happening in my life; however, I just needed (and still need to...) look at everything that IS happening in my life. I mean, hello, the kid's biggest worries include: Phineas and Ferb sometimes coming on during nap time, a minuscule amount of crust being left on that PB&J for lunch, and bath time playtime never seeming to last quite long enough (dontcha just haaaate when mean babysitters make you get out of the bath even though your whole body has turned into a giant prune?! it's the absolute worst.)

Favorite moments of sitting on those babies include: Snuggle time in Emily's lap (if I had a nickle for every time I heard, "Can I pleeeease sit in your lap?" ::pouty smile::...). Reading books before bed time. Singing Disney channel show songs at the top of our lungs. Singing Christmas songs during every month of the year. Drawing lots and lots of hearts and flowers, but also drawing lots of cars because we're not all girls, mmkay? Stuffing baby dolls up our shirts so we could be mommies and have MORE babies and have the BIGGEST family ever (!!). Practicing piano and playing duets. Eating froyo like there is no tomorrow. Trying and deciding that pretty much everything does taste better with peanut butter. Playing Just Dance until we had burned off 900+ calories and couldn't move our arms.

I can think of a lot more. But in fear of having you decide to stop reading my blog after an hour or two I will end there.

Basically to sum up, kids are cooler than you. I love getting to be Nanny McEmily. And I love taking crazy babysitter pictures. Thank you to all my little babysitting kids---you have made me smile harder than a fat man (or just me...) on free froyo day and laugh louder than a baby getting tickled by the Tickle Monster. Enjoy!