My good friend the SeaBird had a baby a few months back. Roughly four months back. So now she and Mr. SeaBird are proud parents of their own mini-human.
And I am an occasional babysitter. It is so much fun to be around a little one that you have known from before its start. I met SeaBird Jr when he was just an idea. So now that he’s filled out into a real little person, he’s just that much more interesting.
Especially if I’m babysitting in the morning. Lately I’ve been taking the early afternoon shift. Otherwise known as my “Napping with My Eyes Open Time”. I don’t usually actually sleep during this time, but I do usually arrange to do not-much-of-anything brain dependent from about 2-4pm. Household chores, grocery shopping, errands. Things that don’t require alertness.
So if I’m babysitting during this time slot, it usually means I’m inclined to go “ooooh lookit how cute you are. Now go to sleep.” Which is fine, because it’s his nap time too. But he’s not /happy/ about it like I would be. And unfortunately all the tactics you use to lull a baby into dopeyness seem to still work marvelously on me. So he’s still awake, and I just want to crawl under his fluffy blankie and watch the mobile go around and around and around and… *yawn*
But yesterday I was on the morning shift. Turns out I am waaaay better with babies first thing in the morning and just off a coffee. Especially since he’s a morning baby too. So instead of arguing with each other about who is going to nap when, we were like “hey it’s you!”. We played all morning. We played SpaceBaby and VibratingBaby, and WorkoutBaby, and ReversePeekABooBaby. And then I fed him and he fell asleep mid-suckle, and was just going down for a nap when mom came home. Perfection. Snap. Babysitter stripe for me.