Babysitting

I have a confession to make that may make me seem like an awful, petty person:
I'm not crazy about babysitting. Sometimes, I even feel a little resentful. I think back to raising my three kids four hours away from the closest family.
But then I remember what it felt like to be a young mother at the end of my rope.
And, whether I'm there to play or to babysit, I always enjoy my great nieces.
In the midst of a stressful week (I think I'll be able to write about the stresses next week, and you won't believe how mafia-esque they are), I had agreed to babysit from 9-2 on Thursday. Then I had a mammogram. Then I had to go teach.
So, deep breath, and I got to their house at 9 with a coffee in hand.
For the morning, it was just me and Regan, who is 21 months old now. She has these big brown eyes and eyelashes so long that she had oatmeal stuck in them when I arrived. It was just me and her for the morning while her big sister went to pre-school.
Regan loves to play in the water, so I set her in the bath for about 45 minutes.

She played happily until an itsy bitsy spider came out the water spout. Then she screamed.
I took a tissue and squished the spider then threw him in the trashcan.
Regan was still hesitant.
"Spider take a nap?" she asked.
I agreed that the spider was definitely taking a nap.
We had to walk to pick up 4-year-old Caroline at preschool and I noticed that the preschool was near a chocolate shop.
Regan and I went to the chocolate shop.

Little kids aren't sophisticated enough to enjoy chocolates, so I got the girls suckers called PushPops, which made a sticky mess, but that's what indulgent aunts are for. I got myself a salted caramel chocolate.

When Regan went down for a nap, Caroline and I made no-bake cookies. Their whole family is gluten free, so I made sure we used gluten free oatmeal. Caroline made sure to get every bit of chocolate out of the bowl afterward.

In spite of my hesitation at the beginning of the day, I enjoyed spending that one-on-one time with the girls.

Little Princesses

This afternoon, Earl's niece called and asked whether I felt like entertaining her three-year-old daughter Caroline. I don't teach on Wednesdays so I went to the new house they've purchased about five minutes away.
The house is empty with freshly refinished floors and patched walls waiting for new paint colors.
Caroline and I stopped at Half-Price books. Caroline has a new thing about the color pink and wearing dresses. She loves both of them. It's a surprise because she seemed like such a practical little girl. In the book store, Caroline headed straight for the princess books and was momentarily distracted by a Hello Kitty purse.
When we got back to our house, I went to the basement and dug out some old VCR tapes. Caroline wanted The Little Mermaid, but I couldn't find it any where. I did find Cinderella. I turned it on and Caroline was engrossed.
Toward the end of the movie, Caroline declared that she needed a dress to wear. The Snow White costume I made when was Grace was 2 was hanging in the basement, so I got it and she slipped it on.
"Now I need a crown," she declared. I searched Grace's room, but apparently she took her tiara with her to college. So I cut out a cardboard crown (think Burger King crown) and covered it in aluminum foil.
I tried to get a good photo of her, but whichever direction I turned in, the sun was shining through the windows flooding it in backlighting. So I went for a cute expression.

It seems like just a minute ago that Grace was wearing this dress and now she's in college.

I forgot that I had this picture of Grace wearing the dress. So here she is.