Babysitting Co-op

So, I'm really excited that a few families on our block have decided to form a babysitting co-op. It's three families, with a total of 5 kids. We're basing it on a point system, everyone starts off with 30 points, and one kid = 1 point per hour. And we've established that the first kid is 1 point and any additional kids will be a 1/2 point. So if you have three kids, which one of us does, it'll be a total of 2 points per hour.

I'm the points keeper, which is cool, cuz I'm love spread sheets! :) Last week was the first time the co-op was used and I babysat the family of three. They were in bed when I got there, but of course as soon as mom & dad left they all started crying, which was fun. But after about a 1/2 an hour of crying and rocking I got them all down and enjoyed a very quite few hours and read, and received 6 points.

This Friday Neil and I are going to go to a movie and possibly grab a drink afterwards. I'm also hoping to do a little bit more work outside the home and will possibly take advantage of the co-op for that as well.

Go babysitting co-op!

My daughter, the Energizer Bunny

We went to Prospect Park yesterday for a picnic with friends. I knew that we would be arriving at the park right around nap time and had already resigned myself to Chandra not having a nap. But I didn't expect her to become the Energizer Bunny non-stop for 5 1/2 hours! We arrived at the park and within 10 minutes one friend took her for a little walk, hoping to pick up cute girls who couldn't resist the cuteness of my little one. She came back & then it was on to frisbee throwing. About a half hour after our arrival we decided that being in the sun without any shade wasn't the wisest of decisions, so we moved our group to under a magnolia tree. Luckily Chandra sat down with us and ate a little. Everyone was more than happy to give her something to eat, watermelon, grapes, sandwiches and dumplings. Now it was Dad's turn to take her for a walk, along with a little bit of soccer playing. I got her to hang out in her stoller for a few minutes after that. I threw her purple blanket over her stroller & hoped that maybe I could get a little cat nap out of her, but instead she thought it was a great tent, and kept waving at people walking and talking to herself.
Thank goodness there were so many people that she knew and loved to play with. Jason, one of "her guys" was there and continually played with him. He would lift her up and hang her upside down, throw her around and throw a frisbee.
About 3 hours later, Neil came over to say that him and Jason were going to go grab a drink and have a bathroom break and he's be back shortly, little did I know that shortly was more like an hour and 1/2, and that was when the Energizer Bunny struck, and when my babysitters left. So I decided to take her to the field and walk around, and she discovered a red soccer ball. And never stopped. Seriously this little girl ran and ran and ran for pretty much an hour and 1/2 non-stop. Alright, we stopped once to put some more sunscreen on and I was hoping that she would sit down for a minute and let me at least finish my beer, but that was not in the cards. Thank goodness for Kevin and Axel for their never-ending energy as well, they kept the ball moving most of the time and were wonderful with Chandra. I'm pretty impressed my little girl's ability to dribble a soccer ball at 2 1/2!
So needless to say, we finally left the park around 7:30pm and of course after walking about 10 minutes the little bunny had FINALLY fallen asleep.

Toddler Parenting 101

Ok, I really don't know what I was thinking. It started innocently enough when I taught Chandra how to turn on and off the radio. It's two buttons on different things so I was really impressed when she got it down pretty quickly. Now when I want to hear some music I just say, "Hey, let's listen to some music." And my little one runs to turn on the radio, how very convenient. That's what kids are for anyways right? At least in the long run, to make our lives easier, right? Yeah, whatever, once again, I live in a fairy tale world, and I'm ok with that.

Anyways, I digress. After a few weeks of her turning on and off the radio, I think, hey, let's introduce the TV remote. I show her the little red button that turns it on and off, and to make sure the little "eye" is facing the TV so it can see that the button is being pushed. Well, she catches on pretty quickly once again, and this time is even more excited about being able to turn the TV on and off, and me seeing my daughter something new and learning so quickly I am a very proud parent? So, why oh why would I decide two days later to start having No TV days?? It's not like we watch alot of TV during the day, by 10am the TV is off more often than not, and doesn't get turned back on til at least 5:30pm, if then. And it's not like we're watching soap operas, we're watching "Little Einsteins", her favorite, "Backyardigans", my favorite or lately "Powerpuff Girls" ok, not necessarily educational, but fun and reminds me of more innocent times. :)

So again, why the hell would I do this to myself? Teach her something she gets excited about & then take it away? Am I evil? Not really? A glutton for punishment? I guess, a little. Oh well, at least she gets as excited about turning the TV off! One thing at a time I guess.

Little kids are mean!

So we went to the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden, in Astoria Queens on Sunday. Great place for families, it has a HUGE outdoor space with picnic tables, a stage area where kids were playing on. We were there with another family with a 2 year old, so we let our little ones go up on the stage and walk around. After a while two little girls who were probably around 5 years old came up and were dancing around with one of their dads. The dad left and one of the nice employees of the bar came over and gave everyone a balloon, including Chandra. They were all playing around, and 1 by 1 the balloons popped. Then the little girls turned their attention to Chandra and came up and said, "You're a baby, and there's no babies allowed up here." Of course my shackles go up and I look at the one little girl who I swear was evil incarnate and said in my best 5 year old snottiness, "Babies crawl, so she's not a baby, she's a little girl." so nah! I did not stick my tongue out, but I was tempted. The evil girl just stared at me and I stared back and won! Then they run up to Chandra say, "Betcha can't catch me." And run away, of course Chandra thinks that's awesome and starts chasing them. This goes on for awhile, they egg her on saying that she can't catch them, which wouldn't of bothered me, except I knew they were doing it in a not nice way. I kept thinking that Chandra doesn't know any better and thinks they're just playing so I'll keep my distance and let it go. Then the 2nd little girl, starts picking up rocks and throwing them at Chandra. After she's done it twice I go over and say, "Hey, we don't need to throw rocks." She of course just looks at me and runs off, while yelling at Chandra again. A few minutes later the little girl throws more rocks at Chandra, and of course I say, "No throwing rocks." The third time I saw her pick up rocks to throw at Chandra I really had to control myself to not grab the little shit & say, "Look ya little shit, if you don't stop throwing rocks at my kid I'm gonna kick your ass." Instead I walked up to her before she threw them and said, "Hey I asked you three times now to stop throwing rocks at her, don't do it again." I then picked up Chandra and walked her over to the stage where Margaret, the other girl we were with, was thankfully playing and running around. I went and sat down at our table and let John, Margaret's dad, watch the girls for minute. I then see the evil little shits come over again to start playing around on the stage, and the one that had been throwing rocks just went right over to Chandra and started pushing her! Of course I yell, "Hey!" And John jumped right over & told her to leave Chandra alone and to go away. I was ready to go punch a little girl!
This was definitely an eye opening experience, mostly for how protective I am of my little girl! Now I'm all for letting kids play & learn from their experiences without too much adult interaction. BUT I absolutely found my limit yesterday! It was really hard for me to let Chandra play with these little girls when I knew they were being mean. They started off calling her a baby, and running away from her, then they started spitting at her and then threw rocks at her and then started pushing! And she just thought they were playing, and was having fun, cuz she's 2! Luckily we were all done with our food and pitcher and was ready to go so I didn't have to take down a 5 year old.

So much better than yesterday

Ah, the pure happiness of life when I have a well behaved 2 year old! A few days ago I decided (and have now regretted) that I am done with my little one totally ignoring me when I ask her to do something. And I didn't realize how much she did it until I started addressing it. My favorite is when I ask her to do something and she goes to the window and looks out with a slight little grin on her face, oh what a sweet heart! When asked what she is doing the response is, "I'm doing something here." "Oh really, and what is that?" "Looking out the window." Like it's totally obvious and why should I ask such a silly question. The attitude of this one is amazing!

But today was wonderful, she has finally realized that I am going to continue to ask her to do things and she has to stop running away or what not. It also helps to say, "Hey if you don't come here right now, you don't get any Easter candy after lunch." I'm going to be totally delusional and believe it had little to do with the candy.

The first of many

Ok, so I'm copying my sister and creating a blog. At least it's for a good cause. Helping me get off my butt & uploading some pictures of our beautiful daughter on a weekly basis, so our family all over the country can enjoy them & also hear what's going on in our lives.

So this week has started with rain, and Chandra sleeping in til 10:30am!!! And she's down for an afternoon nap as I type! So I've had a wonderful Monday so far. Now what I need to do is start writing my article for Gather, which was due on the 25th. Can we say procrastination? Well, let me upload a picture and then I'll try to get some work done.