Babysitting

I'm SOOOO tired! I didn't sleep at all last night because my back was irritating me too much. I tried not to let it bother me because I knew I had an entire day to catch up on sleep...wrong! 9:30 came around when I got a call from my mom. Long story short, she had acquired my older brother's 1 1/2 year old, Rikki, and needed help babysitting her. The circumstances surrounding the baby and why my mom had her were very sad, and, for our family, very aggravating, but we both knew that she needed us. I pulled myself out of bed and ran over. The baby was covered in goop, so we started by cleaning her, her clothes, and all of the belongings that she came with. I got to do her hair, which was fun because she just had this dark head of curly baby hair...baby afro! I wasn't really sure what to do with it. Then breakfast was in store. On my way out the door from my house, I remembered I had some Captain Crunch cereal, so I grabbed it. She enjoyed eating the colorful bits. I didn't know dry cereal could get all over a baby's face as if it had been in liquid form. Ha! My mom was downstairs in her office, working away, so I had to figure out how to entertain this little rugrat. We didn't have any toys other than a bunch of leftover Easter eggs. Those only kept her occupied for so long. She seemed to really like Dora The Explorer, so we danced to and watched that. When lunch time came around, my mom suggested a picnic. There was a park a block or so away, so we packed her up and tried that. Total backfire! She HATED the park. I have never once met a kid, no matter the age, that didn't like a park. She screamed when I put her on the slide, rolled over onto her stomach and screamed as she slowly slid down. She screamed when I tried to push her in the swing. The only thing she wanted to do was run around in the grass. So, if you can imagine, here was me, a 9 month pregnant woman, and my mom, a woman with severely crippled, sore feet, trying to chase around a quick little girl. It was SOOOO draining. She only wanted to run close to the road or near things that were dangerous. Oh, and she didn't want to eat either. In fact, she took a bite of the PB&J I made, and ended up giving me that "ew!!" face while spitting it out. She did, however, love the applesauce I was trying to eat. She took my spoon and proceeded to feed me...and her. One for Rikki, one for Nanny. Mmmm, baby slobber applesauce. At that point, we had only been there for about 30 minutes, and both my mom and I were so wishing she'd fall asleep so we could get a nap too. Never happened. I was at my mom's house from 10-5, and she never once slowed down.

 As tired as I am right now, I'm glad I was able to help out my mom. I can only hope that things work out for Rikki. She's a darling little girl, and she definitely doesn't deserve the current circumstances that she's living in.

 
(Day 360)