Playing with food

We were sitting at the table I had made the girl half a pb sandwich and some Frito's. Towards the middle of the meal she peeled apart her sandwich and stuck her finger in the pb then raised her hand. As the slice of bread sticks to her finger, she says "a finger puppet." I said "oh, what is your finger puppets name as she was eating she mumbled something. I said "What? Peanut Butter? Is that its name, Peanut Butter?" She giggled and nodded. Then once she ate "Peanut Butter", she created another one and said its name was Chu-chi. Very interesting name for a finger puppet. :/ where she got that name, I do not know.

After playing with the bread finger puppets I remembered that playing with your food is bad. And thought, "Oh no, she is going to annoy her parents by playing with her food since I let her do it." So after she ate Chu-chi I told her to finish the rest of the meal and no more playing with the food.

Cutting the candy

Went out of town for the weekend and had a party for my Uncle and there was tons of family that I haven't met and some I have and don't know their names. There was this little boy (haven't met), 5 years old. He followed me around as I was putting stuff up around the house, partly because I had a dog with me. We went back into the room where all the adults were having their boring conversation about who knows what and he whips out this knife. It was kind of dull, not sharp enough to really hurt himself and it had a very big head. (is that what the metal part of the knife is called? Oh well.) First of all I was a little surprised that a 5 year old was carrying around a knife but came to find out it was his grandfather's knife, so no worries there. At first I thought hey it's the south, I guess all little boys get a knife or a gun for their birthday. :/ (yes, I was concerned.) Anyway, he got out his knife then pulls out of his pocket a piece of candy corn in the shape of a pumpkin and started cutting it's stem off. He ate a piece then gave some to the dog. One of the adults saw and got on to him for giving candy to the dog. But it was nice that he shared, right? After polishing off the candy corn pumpkin he pulled out another piece of candy. He then put the knife flat on his wrist and was balancing it. I told him that was pretty cool and asked him if he would be able to balance the knife with a few more candies on it. Of course he then pulled out a pocket full of candy which to him was several handfuls of candy. Then he arranged them all on the head of the knife then set it on his wrist. He did it! He successfully balanced 11 pieces of candy corn with a few of them being pumpkin corn. After, he went around the room asking the people if they wanted to try, only my Uncle and I did. Which it wasn't hard being that the head of the knife was very wide and easy to balance.

The silly things that keep kids entertained. I wish I had gotten a picture but my camera was in the other room and I didn't think he would want to balance it forever.


Picture source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juushika/260823789/

Tonights question is...

So I just put the girl to bed in the other room. And a few minutes later she calls out my name.
"Yyeeesss?"
"Do you have to do work?" I tell her that I have to work because I'm not ready to go to bed at 9 o' clock.
"Yeah." like I do every night...
"What kind of work?" She just has to know every thing gosh
"Uh.. writing." because that is what I'm doing right now.
"What kind of writing?" that is none of your business is what I wanted to say. Instead I went with a nicer and easier response.
"for work"
"What kind of writing?" Again, I just told you. So nosy!! I'm not going to tell you but since you didn't believe me in the last answer I will tell you something else.
"for fun"
"to your friends?" Um.. no, I don't write to my friend I call or text but I will just agree so the conversation can be over. Now go to bed.
"Uh... yeah." Not really, no. It is for fun but you didn't believe me.

Splat!

I am sad to report that I had my first road kill of my life today. :(
I was on my way to work, my windows are down. I'm enjoying some nice summer wind just minding my own business driving down a residential street when these 2 birds came flying in front of my car, they're just chirping, having a good ol' time. I had no time to slow down and didn't even think of swerving. The next thing I hear is a crunch, like when you step on a big juicy bug. I look in my rear view mirror and there was a smushed little bird.
I felt so bad. When I parked at the house I was going to work at I immediately whipped out my phone and texted my best friend telling her I just killed a bird.
I guess on the plus side, it must be like 50 points for hitting a bird because they always, well I guess now it is most of the time, fly away before they get hit.


Later today I took my best friend to go check out my first road kill. I took a picture of it but for blood and gore reasons I will not post it. Now I am regretting that I didn't take a picture of me with it. How weird is that? I hope not to weird. :/

What kind of friends do you have?

Once again I was watching the girl over night last night. And once again it is a very interesting conversation. She is in her bed in the other room and I am in the living room out of no where she askes me...
"Do you have a Chinese friend?" I thought that is so random. Why is she asking that?
"No." I reply "but I do have a friend from India."
She then askes "So does she speak English or Spanish?" I had to think about this one because she does speak engish but her original language is Hindi. So responding to an 8 year old can be complicated.
"Well, she speaks hindi." Right after she then askes
"So she speaks English and Spanish and French?" I wanted to bust out laughing. I imediately texted my friend from India to join me in LOLing at this conversation.

A must have...

I worked for a new family tonight and I must say they had one of the coolest gadgets I have ever seen. No one I have babysat for has had one of these before. It was so cool. Instead of having to listen for or wonder what the baby is doing you can just watch and hear what they are up to with this little baby monitor.
It was really neat! So I didn't ever have to tiptoe to the door and peak in through the squeaky door just to see if the baby finally fell asleep or by trying to be sneaky wake up the poor kid. Nope, none of that was needed.

What's for dinner?

Every kid I must say no matter how old loves Mac & Cheese but I can't say much for veggies.

I had to watch a 2 year old tonight. It got time to make dinner so I made Mac & cheese and peas. Which her mom had set out on the counter for me. So I made them and put the mac & cheese in one bowl and peas in the other. I thought she liked peas. Well the little girl scarfed down the mac & cheese and it got time to eat the peas. Well I guess liked is not the right word. Getting her to eat one bit was like I was abusing her. She would not eat it. Finally after minutes of trying to get her to eat some peas I told her she just had to eat one bite then she could get up and play. So she opened her mouth just a little and I was able to slip a tiny spoonful of peas in. She chewed just a bit and tried to get up from her chair. Oh no, I was a kid once she is not going to spit out those peas.
So after 5 minutes of chewing and just standing in her chair I told her to open her mouth so I could see if she ate them. Nope, they weren't gone. She wasn't swallowing the peas! I told her take a drink of juice. So after a few minutes of trying to get her to take a drink of juice and eat that little spoonful of peas. She finally drank the juice and when I had her open her mouth the peas were gone. It was a success and no more peas for her. What a hassle.

I guess from tv shows portraying peas like this:

She has a hard time seeing peas as they really are:

These peas don't talk or have feelings.

Painters in our midst

The future Pablo Picasso's at work. And their masterpiece...

What's on the agenda today?

Here is mine and the girls eventful day check list for the day:

Decorating a pony. Check! You can't see it but this pink pony was styling bunny ears on her saddle.

Dress-up pant less ken. Check! Yes, Ken is wearing a bow in his hair and a slinky as pants.
I must say I freaked out when I pulled Ken out of the toy box with no pants. "Where are Ken's pants? He needs pants, he is cold!" the response back was "I don't know." great so poor ken is wondering around the house naked. So I found a slinky and it kind looked like a skirt but atleast he had some coverage.

Relax and watch Hello Kitty spin and count how many spins she does. Check! She made it to 65 spins, YAY kitty! I must say that this entertained us for about 15-30 minutes. We just laid on the floor and watched her spin and would take turns doing the winding while the other counted.

Bed time?

So last night I was typing on my computer. A few nights a week I watch a little girl while her parent is out working. I had already put her to bed and she asked "When are you going to bed?"
"In a little while I have some stuff I need to work on first." I reply. A few minutes tick by...
"Uhh, when are you going to bed?"
"In a second." I was wrapping things up. Plus I was running out of things to do on the computer and nothing was on tv. :/ About 10 minutes later I hear.
" I think it has been a second. I think it's time for you to go to bed."
"Ok, I'm going!" I responded, goodness. The sad thing was it was only about 10:30 and I wasn't tired but since nothing else was on tv and there wasn't anything else I could do I decided to just go to bed. And partially so she would go to bed to since apparently I was keeping her up.

Second thoughts

I didn't have children's church this morning but when I do I make it a point to learn the kids names the first time they come in and then talk to them saying their name. Especially at other church events, when I get to help out. I like to make them feel special and important.
My favorite Sunday is when I get to be in charge of children's church instead of just help.
The number of kids we get differs from week to week from 1-16 kids. The kids are so cute and each one has their own personality. It is really cool to watch them grow! I have been helping out with children's church for 4-5 years now so I have seen quite a few kids come and go but it is really neat seeing the little people they are growing into.
Anyway on to my story.
I had just gotten out of church and my mom and I went to Wal-Mart for a few groceries. We were walking down an aisle when I saw one of the little girls (she is about 6 or 7) that I watch in Children's Church. I don't see her much outside of that. She waved at me and as we were walking closer she came up to me and gave me a hug.
I don't know about you, but when a kid out of their own initiative comes up to me and gives me a hug it just melts my heart. That little girl with her one little hug made my day and little does she know that. She made one decision I had to make about next week really easy.
It is nice knowing that I have an impact on little kids and that I or anyone for that matter just by doing something nice for someone or saying something nice can change their whole day!
So get out there and hug somebody! ok, maybe not hug but complement or encourage!
Now GO! :)

No talking

I must say tonight was fun. I watched a 6 year old and a 2 1/2 year old. The 6 year old spent 2 hours instead of talking writing everything down. She thought it was so funny, and it was. While she was on this obsession we played a game called "Hi Ho Cherry-O". A good game for little kids it just goes really fast.
I would ask or say something to the 6 year old and she would quickly reply by writing on the little board thing. I  don't remember what it is called but I know almost everyone at one point in time has had one.
It got to be real fun when I had to guess what she had spelled. and funny when she misspelled a word. one of the words was really spelled "relly". And to see her shake her head yes or no when I got it right or wrong.

Then when it was time for bed I always read a story for each kid. The 2 1/2 year old chose "The Jungle Book" and the 6 year old chose "Calvin and Hobs" comic strip book. it was so funny because last time I watched them a month or so ago the 6 year old was obsessed with "Calvin and Hobbes" anyway the 2 1/2 year old said once she saw the book in a cute little kid voice "Aww, not Calvin and Hobbes!" But we did read a little in each book. 

The mind of a child

Play time today of course consisted of story telling. I was, like usual, the boy role, dad. Kenleigh was the mom and Joce got to be the fairy. Yes, we have fairies in our stories.

The fairy candle

 Jocelyn first brought a candle out. I'm assuming to light her way. Then Joce kept bringing stuffed animals into Kenleigh and my house along with a little keyboard and a couple of other little toys.
Kenleigh was getting upset that Jocelyn kept bringing more and more toys. She kept telling Jocelyn to stop and Joce did.

All the "pets"

In Kenleigh's upsetness she goes to the corner and says to me "Well, I guess your having to much pets while I'm not having to much pets. I am gonna have to tell you you're having to much pets." So she walks over to me and says. "Because you have to much pets." I rely with "What? Well how many do I have?" She then proceeds to count.
"One, Two, three, and one kid. You can't take care of all of them. Can we give all your pets away? and just keep Daisy?"
"What about Copper?" I reply.
"Since he was the first pet. You can keep two. All the ones you want you keep. All the ones you don't want you give away."
I thought about it for a second then said. "But what if I like all of them?"
"If you like all of them you have to give them all away."

Copper, the first pet with his "treat"

"Aww. but what about the horses." I said.
Smart girl, she responds with, "Horses eat everything. Don't you know that? they eat pillows, hay,... Now you think about that while I got to my room then go outside and mow." She takes her little bubble popper to the other side of the room and pretends to mow.
A few minutes later she comes back and asks if I have thought about it. And says "You have to keep your children, they were born by God."

We continue on with the story pulling out a few more costumes like a grandma who then is a queen (that's me), and a princess. The princess her whole life has not lived in a palace and finds out that she is a princess. Through some weird events. The queen is about to die and gives the princess a necklace that will keep her alive for 4,000 years to rule the country of Genevia. Then the Queen dies and princess gets the power. The princess marries a prince.

The Pink Shopping Cart



This is the life, having someone push you around in a nice pink stylish shipping cart

Their Aunt and I got to take the girls to the grocery store. And we found a pink shopping cart car. The girls of course wanted that one because it was pink. Then their Aunt chose a theme and we went with Pirate theme. I was the crocodile, their aunt was captain hook. I'm not exactly sure who the girls were, I guess they were just crew members.
There driving I must say is not very good. funny how that was only when I was pushing them around. hehe :)
But at the end of the trip, for good behavior there was a chocolate cookie treasure. Yum!

After a rain

Nice day for a picnic.
It rained a few nights ago so the ground was still a little wet. As were the cushions that we sat on.  I felt them with my hand and they were just a bit damp, not that bad at all until I actually sat down on the cushion and I could feel my jeans absorbing the water. After the picnic the girls wanted to swing. Pushing two at the same time is hard work! Joce said the swing was wet so she went inside for a towel and when she came back she had brought out a small, thin wash cloth. I was expecting a huge towel or a hand towel not a little wash cloth. But she was smart! because it covered the swing perfectly and the swing to me wasn't wet at all but whatever makes her feel better.

These are the muddy shoes. Not that bad right?

Joce wanted to play in the fort that connected to the swings. She was walking behind Adalynne, Joce asked me. "Why her have mud on her shoes?"
My simple reply was "because she walked in dirt."
Joce then proceeds to ask "A dirty puddle? Why her walk in a muddy puddle?" Joce then stands right behind Adalynne and says "ah!! Don't her get mud on me!!" as she quickly runs to the fort.
After we came inside the girls wanted to watch a movie. The decided upon Peter Rabbit. And as most people know that the mean farmer who likes to eat rabbits is named Mr. McGreggor. Here is Jocelyn and Adalynne's dialog while watching:
"Mr. Regga garden" -Adalynne
"Mr. Regga?" - Jocelyn
They both are sharing the blanket and while they are getting situated on the couch Joce says "I have a boo boo right there you know." and points to the back of her leg. Then they are quiet for a while watching the movie. When Mr. McGreggor is trying to catch Benjamin and Peter. Adalynne hollers out. "Mr. Regga! hide!" and pulls the blanket over her face.
Once Peter and Benjamin have made it home safe Joce looks to me and asks "Why no supper?" "Because Peter didn't tell his mom where he was." was  my response.
Then Joce has little rocks on the floor which she calls "treasure" and while she and Adalynne are watching the movie she says to Adalynne. "I wanna watch the mobie, can you get those for me?" and points to the rocks.

We end the day with a bubble party outside. I was able to get a picture of some nice bubbles before they popped on the sofa. By that time Kenleigh had shown up and she wanted to blow me a nice big bubble and then before I could get a picture she would pop it and then laugh. finally she let me get a picture then of course after she heard the snap she popped the poor little bubble.

Puppies are not eaiser than babies

The past day I have been watching a puppy and a dog. I think that counts as babysitting in a way. Their house they recently put in a doggie door that leads directly to the back yard.
Well last night it rained. The puppy likes to jump. Are you putting things together yet? Anyway I was sitting on the couch in a white shirt. The puppy jumps onto the arm of the chair resting his paws on the arm. I got up after i pushed him off and saw mud on the whole side of the chair. Earlier he brought in a bone looking thing that I had to wrestle him to to ground just to get it out of his mouth and throw it away. didn't want him to choke on me!
Today the puppy brings in horse poop and is munching on it. I had to bring out the vaccum for that. Then just as I sit down again the puppy has brought in pieces of dog poo. Ok, really his chewing is out of control!!! And having to clean up all this mess is just stressful, can't he stay out of messes?!?
Ok, Puppy! He just brought in what looked like a chunck of poo or some bone. Really glad that when I picked it up it was just an odd looking rock.

Only a few more hours...

Happy Birthday



the candle

My Birthday was last week and I haven't had to babysit in a week.
I was studying for finals when Kenleigh who is 5, walks in and tells me "Happy Birthday!" Then on her way out she asks when my birthday was. So cute!
A couple of minutes later I hear the squeak of the door being opened. "Hello." I say as Kenleigh peaks around the corner.
"I brought you a cake." She says holding out a yellow plastic peg board looking thing.
"Oh yes, I see. It looks lovely!" I say in response.
"It is a pretend cake and here is a candle." She says then pulling out from behind her back a costume jewlery necklace that has a really long chain. I grab the "candle" and blow it out. "Oh, wait you didn't sing me happy birthday." Kenleigh sing happy birthday with a big smile on her face. Then I blow out the candle again.
"Joce made it."
"Oh, well tell her she did a wonderful job."
"And I helped." She chimmed in.
"It looks great!" As I say that she drops the cake. "Ahh, you dropped my cake." I say jokeingly.
"I can fix it." she says picking it up and turning it over. "Now you have lots of candles!" The flip side of the cake being a peg board had all the little ends of the pegs. I counted, apparently I am turning 25. (not that old yet.) After a bit more talking. She leaves and wishes me one last "happy birthday".
Then walks up stairs and I hear her yell out who wants a piece of Tori's birthday cake?"
10 minutes later she returned saying the necklace which was a candle is now apparently a fishing pole.
"this isn't your real present a fishing pole is."
"Where is the fishing pole?"
"Right here." Holds up the necklace.