Nanny,The Nanny

Today I started my first job since having Lilly. I guess the word "job" is probably a very loose interpretation of what I'm doing. The only thing joby about it is that I'm getting paid. I guess you could call it Nannying. I agreed to nanny for one of Ryan's friends, who just had their other nanny quit. They have 3 kids (10, 4, and 2ish) I'm not sure if that's right, but I know it's close. If I like doing it and don't end up pulling out all my hair or killing someone, I've been offered the position long-term. I think that'll be the case. How can you go wrong with getting mommy practice with several kids, getting paid, and getting to take your baby to "work"? The kids are old enough that they're pretty self-sufficient. They played most of the day. Lilly enjoyed getting to play with all their new Christmas toys.

The mom, Emma, was giving me the walk-through of the house and the run-down of the day, basically telling me her kids were demon children from time to time. I found myself wondering how that would go. Thankfully, I never had to see that side of them. They were very well-behaved. Emma told me that the 2 year old, Ben, will usually fight having to take a nap, and that I should ignore the screaming and kicking because eventually he'd go to sleep. When nap time came around, I politely asked him to take a nap and told him that he could have a treat when he woke up, and he crawled right into bed and fell asleep until after I went home...he was pushing 5 hours by the time I left. I made sure to tell his dad that I promised him a treat. Ha! Anyway, it's exhausting, but it feels good to be doing something.

In other news, today was day 1 of my pre-surgery diet. I can only eat up to 1000 calories a day, in the form of protein shakes. The intent is to shrink my liver to give better access to my gallbladder. First off, let me whine about how incredibly hard it was to do today. Drinking my meals has completely sucked the joy out of my life. I was shaky and sick for most of the day (and as I sit here, I'm fighting the urge to either puke or pass out). I have 13 more days of this, and a subsequent lifetime ahead of me. Oh, goodness, what have I gotten myself into?!

And because I didn't take any pictures while babysitting (mostly because I didn't feel it appropriate to take pictures of other people's kids and post on the blog), here is what Lilly did when we got home. My favorite is the last frame, where Lilly has a firm grip on June's tail. 

P.S. Yay for 700 posts!!