Adventures in Babysitting

I'm so glad I could go to my sister's to take care of my niece this past week. I was just sure Isabella would come down with the "yuck" that Monte and I had experienced, but somehow she escaped it. My sister was so good about coming out once a month to babysit Isabella when I was working, and now I am more than glad to return the favor. She and I are somewhat different in that all I have ever wanted to do is be a mommy, she wanted a career, and made quite the career for herself as a CPA, working insanely long hours! But as the saying goes, everything changes when you have a baby. She gave up her job to stay home for most of the year, and now only works during tax season (January - April) and I know she would like to give that up too. They found a nice, older lady who doesn't watch any other kids to babysit my niece, but she was unavailable last week. So that's where I come in, and I plan on going out once more in March as well to help out.

Don't let the picture in my last post fool you, the cousins weren't always so chummy with each other! :) They have totally opposite personalities. Rachel is very outgoing and rambunctious, Isabella is shy and reserved. So Rachel's constant "affection" towards Isabella was a little unwanted. For example, within minutes of us getting there Rachel ran up to Isabella to give her a hug which sent Isabella toppling over into the cupboards and hitting her head pretty bad. It was one of those times where you can see it in slow motion while it's happening but you just can't do anything about it! Needless to say, after so many "hugs" like that, Isabella wasn't exactly too keen on having her cousin get near her. There were definitely good times too, they did play together pretty nice, and were very into sharing toys. They would just sit on the floor handing a toy back and forth to each other, it was cute to watch. And my goodness, I thought Isabella slept a lot, always having slept from 7:00 to 7:00. But one night Rachel slept from 8:30 until 10:40 the next morning!! That's just crazy, plus at almost 18 months Rachel still takes two long naps a day. That would be nice!

There was one catastrophe while I was there, Rachel somehow got her hands on a glass pitcher and it shattered all over the kitchen floor! I put each of the girls in their cribs so I could clean up the glass without them around. I, of course, had surround sound screaming coming from both their rooms while I was mopping the floor. I'm sure they wondered what they had done to deserve that.

It was a good week, I miss my little niece, but it's good to be home. Between going to my in-laws and going to my sister's, Isabella and I have been gone for most of the past two weeks. I don't like being away from Monte for that long, and I don't like taking Isabella away from him. I wish my sister and I lived closer, so I could help out more.

Matching slippers

Going shopping at the "store", aka pantry.

This is great, all I get to play in at home is a drawer!

Rachel's version of combing Isabella's hair - banging her head with the other side of the brush.