Outside Play

I am so excited to finally be able to let the kids play outside again. Well, I was, before it got all cold and rainy again.

It's amazing to me how different the kids are when they're outside versus when they're holed up and can't run around. They're the same kids, obviously, but they are so much happier.

Personally, I'm all about letting children roll around in the dirt and have fun getting filthy if that's what they want to do. I can always bathe them right?

These five are amazing with entertaining themselves, especially when they're in the backyard. I'm almost always out there with them, but they can spend hours just swinging and running around.

In fact, Little Man and the twins are on the swings so often, they make me dizzy (I don't particularly do well on swings myself). Here Little Man is questioning why I stopped pushing him because he'd been happily swinging for fifteen minutes before I stopped to take the picture.

Let me tell you, pushing three toddlers that all want to go at different speeds on their swings, is hard work. I was definitely sore all over the next day. No gym membership needed for me!

What fun stories do you have about playing outside? Write them in the comments!

-Lyndsey

Twins Tuesday: Adventures in Babysitting

Welcome to another Twins Tuesday, except this one won't be just about the twins.

Last weekend I spent most of Friday and all of Saturday babysitting, which means I spent the night at the house. I have done this before, but it's always an interesting insight into what parenthood might be like.

Patrick, 4 and Olivia, 6

Before I go any further, I would like to introduce you to Olivia, who I will henceforth refer to as Blankie because even though all the kids have a fascination and dependence on blankets, hers is the strongest. I don't usually have Blankie anymore, because she started Kindergarten this year and is at school most of the times I'm at the house. However, when I'm there on the weekends I do get to see her.

The other one in the picture is Patrick, we'll call him Batman because, well, he loves Batman. He started preschool this year, so I don't see that much of him anymore either.

Suffice it to say that when you are "working" for over thirty-six hours straight, you start looking for things to do. It's not that the kids necessarily get bored with the usual activities I do when I'm there for only a few hours at a time, but I certainly do.

So off to the Internet I went for a little inspiration. Yes, I did check out Pinterest, but I also looked at a few blogs that specifically discussed some form of childcare.

The first blog I found was The Childcare Blog, and I found several ideas there. I do wish there were more pictures to describe some of the activities and give better information to readers, but overall, it was a good place for me to see another person's perspective.

I like The Childcare Blog because, even though it is several years old now, a lot of the information still translates. Also, the blog has a really great list of topics, so it was very easy for me to navigate and find exactly what I was interested in.

My weekend, though long and stressful when not enough sleep was had by all, was fun for me. If you read my other post about naps, you know that I'm not very good with sleeping in unfamiliar places, but I would be lying if I said I didn't feel comfortable in that house, so it works out well.

Just for fun, here are a few more pictures from this weekend of the other three:

                 

What do you think is a good source for finding things to do while babysitting? And how would you handle a long weekend babysitting? Tell me in the comments.

-Lyndsey

Twins Tuesday: Fetch

Happy Tuesday everybody. Wait... you're tell me it's not Tuesday? I've missed an entire day? Whoops; I will reevaluate my internal calendar later. (I blame daylight savings.)

Now that I've gotten my head on straight, on with the story.

Mr. Mischief has decided to go through an animal phase. Sometimes he pretends he's a puppy, and sometimes it's a cat. It's quite hilarious actually, especially when I'm sitting on the couch reading to the twins, and all of the sudden he looks at me and goes, "Meow!" It's adorable.

I've become relatively used to him doing this, and I'll even accept him crawling around and "barking." But I was thoroughly surprised last week when he started playing fetch with me.

Mr. Mischief playing fetch would be one thing, but the fact that he... well, you can just watch the video.

Let me give you some background before you do, though. Before I got my phone out to start filming, he brought me the giant Lego. It was in his mouth; then he dropped it in my lap. He's taking his puppy routine very seriously.

This cracked me up so much I had to share it. It's just one tiny reason why I love these guys so much.

Well, until next time, what animal imitating stories do you have? Leave them in the comments.

When Little Man Cries

Ever since Little Man became one of my charges when he was about a month old, I would sing to him when he cried, or I had a particular song stuck in my head. That's what my mom did for my sister and me, and music has always been a huge aspect of my life, so it just came naturally to me.

This is not to say that I didn't, or don't, sing to his siblings, but they're older and they better understand that I'm not that great of a singer. Little Man however, doesn't seem to mind if my voice is a little off key. In fact, he seems to really like it when I sing. It usually takes about ten seconds of me singing for him to calm down.

Before I show you this video of Little Man's reaction to me singing, I'd like to explain why he's crying. I had just brought him down from his nap and sat down on the couch with him in my lap. For his siblings, this would not be something to cry about, but Little Man really likes me to stand when I hold him, and gets upset when I sit down. So I sing to him.

Please forgive both my singing voice and the weird choice of song; it was the only one I could think of at the time that I can sing from memory.

It's a weird song to sing to a child, but like I said, it was the only one I could remember verbatim. It was written by Stana Katic; you can watch her performing it much better than I can in this video.

What do you guys think? Did your parents sing to you? Do you sing to your kids? Tell me your stories and remedies in the comments.

-Lyndsey

Twins Tuesdays: Choo Choos

I am again late with my Twins Tuesday, but I hope you will forgive me.

Last week I was able to spend some time drawing with the twins. As a teacher I looked at drawing as an opportunity to further develop their fine motor skills; as two year-olds, they see it as a way to scribble and fight over the crayons.

On this particular occasion though, Mr. Mischief decided he wanted to draw a Choo Choo. This is understandable because of the amount of times he's brought his Doodle Sketch to me, repeating the words "Choo Choo" over and over until I drew one.

Wanting to use any moment I could as a teaching moment, I immediately starting drawing with him, using the hand over hand method. This method is used quite a lot with older kids who have special needs, such as in this video, but can also be used with preschool kids just learning to read.

It was amazing for me to see how both Mr. Mischief and Gurlicue responded to the exercise. Mr. Mischief, who really just wanted a picture of a Choo Choo, was really easy-going and let me do most of the work. Gurlicue, who really takes pride in all of her drawings, on the other hand, was a little more resistant to my guidance.

I could tell she wanted to be independent, but she also wanted to draw the Choo Choo right, so she allowed me to help.

Both pictures turned out brilliantly though:

I know this isn't really a funny story post, but I found the exercise really interesting, as a future teacher. What do you guys think about hand over hand? Take my poll and let me know what you think.

As always, I'd love to hear anything you guys think about this topic, so comment with your opinions or stories.

-Lyndsey

Twins Tuesdays: Naps

When Gurlicue and Mr. Mischief aren't running around trying to find trouble the can get into, they usually look like this:

 

Yes, that is Gurlicue falling asleep on my chest; it was as adorable as it sounds. The best part of seeing the twins fall asleep isn't the fact that I get a reprieve from the commotion that they create when they're awake, although that is a nice added bonus. The best part is seeing all the weird places they accomplish this feat.

I am the type of person who really needs a bed in order to fly off to dreamland, but these two are an entirely different story. One would think that the corner of a couch, and on top of the babysitter would be pretty unconventional places to fall asleep, but the pictures above are actually pretty tame, compared to where I've seen them.

Here's a few examples:

off the edge of the couch

I still don't know exactly how Mr. Mischief fell asleep this way. However, my suspicion is that he was angry (probably with me) and in his attempt to not look at me, he threw his head onto the cushion, but simply did not have the strength to lift it again. (Sorry for the poor quality of this photo, it was the only one I could take before on of the other kids pulled me away.)

on top of a pile of coats and laundry

This one was taken after a jaunt out into the snow. I don't think she made it five minutes before succumbing to the need to nap.

in the highchair

When I first started babysitting for this family, the twins were not yet two, and sometimes they didn't make it all the way through lunch. I can't imagine how his neck would've felt if I hadn't moved him.



















And very rarely, they fall asleep in their actual beds.

Gurlicue and Mr. Mischief are a lot of fun to run around and play with, but they're so incredibly cute when they're sleeping, and sometimes even snoring a bit.

I promise I will introduce you to the oldest two of my charges, but for now, what are your funny sleeping stories? And what do you think of mine? Leave your stories or opinions on adorable sleeping toddlers in the comments.

-Lyndsey

Twins Tuesdays

Lucy and Indiana, 2 years

Welcome to the first weekly Twins Tuesdays. I know what you're thinking, "But Lyndsey, it's Wednesday, not Tuesday." Yes, I know, but I had a family medical emergency yesterday, which prevented me from posting until now.

These lovely two-year olds are Indiana and Lucy, or as I like to call them, Mr. Mischief and Gurlicue. They are adorable little jumping beans of energy, and they're the subjects of this theme day.

Every Tuesday I will post something about the twins; whether or not it will sufficiently entertain you is yet to be seen. For the sake of full disclosure, I must inform you that I myself am a twin. Therefore I pretend to have a lot of insight into twins, even though I know nothing more than my own experience.

But enough with all of that, and on with the story. A few weeks ago I was watching Mr. Mischief and Gurlicue playing with their cars. They spend a lot of time doing this, especially when their brother isn't home to steal the cars away. They also spend quite a large amount of time throwing things, sometimes at each other.

I am currently convinced that this incident was actually an accident. Nevertheless, while the twins were throwing a few of the cars across the room, one of them catapulted from Gurlicue's fingers and landed square on Mr. Mischief's forehead. 

This too, is not a novel occurance, but what happened next was.

I immediately opened my arms to offer comfort to Mr. Mischief, who had already started crying. It was after about five seconds of this, when I looked over at Gurlicue to see her crying as emphatically as her brother and holding her forehead in her hands. 

They both went on like this for a little while; actually Gurlicue was upset for longer than Mr. Mischief. And though I have never been a believer in the idea that twins have telepathic powers (it has never happened with my sister and me), this did make me laugh.

Now that I've finished with my little story, I'd like to hear what you guys think about twin telepathy, or some of your own stories.

Also, if you want to see a few sets of twins testing their telepathy skills, check out Jack and Finn Harries, and the Merrell Twins. I also found a video of stuff people say to twins that I found hilarious and truthful.

-Lyndsey

What Does It Really Mean to be a Babysitter?

David, 15 months

I've been babysitting for this Little Man since he was less than a month old, and his siblings for five months before that. But it only took five minutes for me to absolutely fall in love with every single one of them. This fact brings me to my question: What does it really mean to be a babysitter?

When I first started, I expected babysitting to be an opportunity to gain experience with young children, a chance to earn a little extra cash between classes, and maybe even a way to try out some of the teaching techniques I was learning at school. All of these expectations have come to fruition, but I've also found something more, a connection.

I have no idea what being a parent feels like. I do, however, know what it feels like to watch these kids run up to me when I walk in the door or "heal" bumps, bruises, and hurt feelings with whispers, hugs, and songs.

Pictures such as this one could be capturing just how engrained into these children's lives I am, and they in mine. However, they could also represent a simple request for a drink or a diaper change.

I recently found a video on Vimeo of Doug Sterbenz describing the differences between parents and babysitters at a leadership conference. Sterbenz works within the business world, not that of childcare, but I found his take on babysitters interesting. His perspective on babysitting has not equaled my experience; however, I realize that I am different from most babysitters. I am not a teenager looking for a way to bolster my allowance; I am seeking a meaningful experience.

In contrast to Sterbenz, I also found a post about the top ten reasons why babysitters love what they do. I will admit that this list comes from a site that connects babysitters with parents and is therefore most likely biased, nonetheless, I believe these statements are true for some babysitters.

To me, this is more than a job, but I'm interested in other views. Therefore I'm asking all of you to write your opinions in the comments. What does it really mean to be a babysitter?

-Lyndsey

(image credit: provided by author)

About This Blog

 As a babysitter, I have a million and one stories about my charges. Okay, I may be exaggerating just a bit, but seriously, it's a lot. Since I have all of these stories and no one really to share them with, because my family is sick of hearing them, I thought I'd write them down here.

Primarily this blog will serve as something of a journal of my experiences. Nevertheless, it is imperative that I inform you that I am a college student, studying to become a teacher, and therefore there will most likely be times that I analyze my own stories for their implications concerning my future teaching career.

For the past year and a half, I've been babysitting almost exclusively for a couple with five children, at one point all under the age of five (there is one set of twins). Therefore, most if not all my posts will involve this family. Don't worry though, I have the parents' permission to post about their children.

There's a good chance that if you keep coming back to this blog, you'll see stories that will hopefully make you laugh (because kids are hilarious) and maybe even cringe (because I tend to make a lot of mistakes), as well as some pictures and videos of these five amazingly adorable kids with whom I have irrevocably fallen in love.

Lastly, I promise I'm almost done with all this expositional humdrum, as we are all at the very least sons and daughters, if not parents or babysitters, I highly encourage comments and discussion. If you're reading this (first of all, thanks, you're awesome), I greatly value your opinion, even if it differs from mine. Feel free to respond to my stories and tell me your own.

I'm looking forward to this journey, we'll see how it goes.

-Lyndsey

 P.S. I have a little bit of housekeeping to which I must attend. Credit for my background image goes to layoutsparks.com.