"Five Angry Birds and the Beauty!" by Z.
Have you ever babysat before? Well, I haven’t until…
Last Friday night, I was struggling between the ideas of “I am going to paint tonight”, “I am going to clean my house”, “I am going to write that article for my blog”, and “I am going to cook.” Not getting anything done, it came to a point where I couldn’t take this indecisiveness of mine anymore so I decided to call Meghann (Meg, you’ve been on almost all my posts recently! You are my Superstar! ♥) to see what she’s up to and if she could save me from my misery.
She was driving home from work and the traffic was not cooperating with her. She said:
-Meg: “Did you wanna go to the beach with me this weekend to help babysit my friends’ kids?”
-Z: “Did you say beach? Count me in!”
What I didn’t hear in that conversation, unconsciously or consciously, was the word “kid” in a plural form: Kids! And when she said kids, she meant five boys, ages ranging from 3 to 9, and one 1.5 year-old baby girl.
Destination: Stone Harbor, NJ!
The next day, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready and be picked up by Meg by 7 a.m. Surprisingly, I did wake up at 5:30 a.m. (not to mention it was a Saturday morning), took a shower, packed my bag for the weekend, fed my cat and was out of the door at 7 a.m. sharp! (And if you guys know me, you know that I am not a morning person at all!)
As we were driving to Stone Harbor, I started asking questions to Meg on who we were babysitting for, kids’ names, their ages, etc. She told me that her friend Aimee, Aimee’s sister Carrie and their parents live in a beach house with Aimee’s husband and their 3 kids (Cayden, Adam and Zoe) and Carrie’s kids (Charlie, Peter and Harry.) And because the adults had a wedding to go to in Philly, they needed help with the kids for the weekend.
Meeting the Kids
When we got to Meg’s friends’ house, it was around 9:30 a.m. and everyone was getting ready for the wedding except the kids. The boys were in their room watching Tom & Jerry, and Zoe was with her mom upstairs.
Meg knew the kids because she babysat them before but I had no idea who was who so I got introduced to them by both Aimee and Carrie. They informed us about their house rules, emergency contact person, kids’ food preferences and bed times.
Carrie’s kids:
It was time for their parents and grandparents to leave the house for the wedding and I suddenly found myself watching Tom & Jerry with the kids. What an awesome feeling it was because it took me back to my childhood when I used to watch cartoons with my brother all day long!
The kids and I connected instantly! Now, Meghann had 7 kids in her hands, not 6 anymore!
Meg and I decided to take turns when getting things ready for the kids. For example, when I was looking after the kids, Meg was upstairs, cooking lunch for everyone.
We all had hotdogs for lunch that day. :)
The Beach
It was almost 12 p.m. and we all started to get ready to go to the beach, or aka the BIG Trip!
We had 4 beach bags (2 for the towels, 1 for snacks, and 1 for sunscreens), 4 tubes, 1 beach-toys bag, 2 beach chairs and 1 beach umbrella to take with us to the beach. Oh and plus, 6 little kids! I think now you know why I call it “the BIG Trip.”
Before we left the house, we put sunscreen on kids. After getting everything and everyone in the car, we drove for about 3 minutes (!) to get to the beach. And here we were, at the beach!
The beach was so much fun! The kids were enjoying the sun and water, playing with their tubes and meeting up with their friends. We even saw dolphins swimming by the shore, very close to where we sat.
One of their favorite things at the beach was having ice-cream. So we all started to wait for the ice-cream man but didn’t see him on the horizon for a long time. So Meghann came up with this song which we told the kids that if they sang it three times, the ice cream man would be there in a second. Here is how the song goes…
"One, two, three
One, two, three
Ice-cream man, come here!"
After singing the song for a thousand of times, finally the ice-cream man came over and we got ice-cream for the kids! They were the happiest with huge smiles on their faces! :)
Home, Home, Sweet Home!
By 5 p.m. we were back home.
However, before we got inside the house, Meg told me that we needed to give them bath. So we gave them bath at their outdoor shower and put them into towels one by one. When everyone was dry, we took them inside and put their clothes on.
We ordered pizza and salad for dinner that night.
As we were waiting for the pizza guy, the kids taught me how to play Angry Birds. And let me tell you something, they all LOVE Angry Birds SOOO MUCH I decided to call them my five Angry Birds.
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Bed Time
It was Zoe and Charlie that we needed to put to bed first by 7:30 p.m.
Meghan was putting Zoe to bed when I was taking Charlie to bed.
All the other boys were playing Angry Birds.
Charlie and I held hands as we were walking to his room. I put him on his bed to change his diaper. I had never changed diapers before and I guess Charlie --although he is only 3-- understood that I was new at this; he automatically put his legs up to help me, and then showed me which diaper to use. One thing I learned that night was that changing diapers was not as scary as I thought it would be! Phew! :)
After changing Charlie's diaper, I put him in his little PJs and we lay down on the bed to read a bed time story. As I was getting ready to read the second story, Charlie put his head onto my shoulder and fell asleep. And I put my head onto his head, finished the story and guess what? I fell asleep, too, for a good 15 minutes. Then I got up and put him into his crib. That was one of the best moments in my life!
Next were the Twins and Peter that I had to put to bed. After having them brushed their teeth, I put them in their PJs and read three bed time stories, and they were all in their la-la-lands.
Harry was the last to go to bed. He sat with me and Meg for a little bit and then went to bed at 9:30pm.
Both Meg and I were so tired at the end of the day. We went to bed shortly after Harry.
Sunday
It was 8:50 a.m. when little Charlie and Peter came to my room to wake me up.
-"Z, it is 8:50, time to wake up,” giggled Charlie and Peter.
What a wonderful way to start a Sunday morning! :)
I got up and joined everyone at the breakfast table.
It was about 11 a.m. when their parents and grandparents arrived. When we were saying goodbye to each other, the kids were hugging me and kissing my arms and hands, saying “Bye Z.” :)
I had a wonderful weekend with my five little angry birds, the beautiful Zoe and Meg.
How to be a good babysitter?
I think the most important thing to be a good babysitter is to ask as many questions as possible to the parents before they leave.
To do that, I recommend arriving a few minutes early to meet with the kids and parents. Make sure you have the answers for:
And remember…always, always, always have the kids in your sight.
If you want to take babysitting one step further, you can also apply for a CPR and first aid certification. Check out American Red Cross for more information on CPR courses and certificates.
P.S.: As a courtesy, I changed the kids and their moms' names, except Charlie because his name means something very special to me.
♥ ♥ ♥
Last Friday night, I was struggling between the ideas of “I am going to paint tonight”, “I am going to clean my house”, “I am going to write that article for my blog”, and “I am going to cook.” Not getting anything done, it came to a point where I couldn’t take this indecisiveness of mine anymore so I decided to call Meghann (Meg, you’ve been on almost all my posts recently! You are my Superstar! ♥) to see what she’s up to and if she could save me from my misery.
She was driving home from work and the traffic was not cooperating with her. She said:
-Meg: “Did you wanna go to the beach with me this weekend to help babysit my friends’ kids?”
-Z: “Did you say beach? Count me in!”
What I didn’t hear in that conversation, unconsciously or consciously, was the word “kid” in a plural form: Kids! And when she said kids, she meant five boys, ages ranging from 3 to 9, and one 1.5 year-old baby girl.
Destination: Stone Harbor, NJ!
The next day, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready and be picked up by Meg by 7 a.m. Surprisingly, I did wake up at 5:30 a.m. (not to mention it was a Saturday morning), took a shower, packed my bag for the weekend, fed my cat and was out of the door at 7 a.m. sharp! (And if you guys know me, you know that I am not a morning person at all!)
As we were driving to Stone Harbor, I started asking questions to Meg on who we were babysitting for, kids’ names, their ages, etc. She told me that her friend Aimee, Aimee’s sister Carrie and their parents live in a beach house with Aimee’s husband and their 3 kids (Cayden, Adam and Zoe) and Carrie’s kids (Charlie, Peter and Harry.) And because the adults had a wedding to go to in Philly, they needed help with the kids for the weekend.
Meeting the Kids
When we got to Meg’s friends’ house, it was around 9:30 a.m. and everyone was getting ready for the wedding except the kids. The boys were in their room watching Tom & Jerry, and Zoe was with her mom upstairs.
Meg knew the kids because she babysat them before but I had no idea who was who so I got introduced to them by both Aimee and Carrie. They informed us about their house rules, emergency contact person, kids’ food preferences and bed times.
Carrie’s kids:
- Harry, 9: He is the oldest of the gang and his mom told me that he could help us with getting kids listen to us if we needed. Harry told me he wants to become an artist when he grows up, and he loves the black Angry Bird.
- Peter, 6: He loves playing Angry Birds and taught me a lot about the different special abilities of the birds. His favorite Angry Bird is the red bird.
- Charlie, 3: He is the youngest of the boys and he loves to bite thanks to "Charlie bit me!" :)
- Cayden and Adam, 5, aka the Twins: I was told that if I didn’t know which one was Cayden and which one was Adam, I could differentiate them by looking at their front teeth: Cayden has a chip on his front teeth so the chip’s c is for Cayden’s C. I was also told that Cayden likes the color red, and Adam likes blue. Or it is vice versa. I still get confused. :) So what I did was, if I couldn’t remember their names, I said “Cayden” and if he didn’t look at me, then I knew that was Adam. In the beginning it looked like a brilliant idea...it was working very well but I guess I wasn't the only brilliant person around them and that’s what everyone else was doing to separate them. So after a while when I called one of them, no one was replying back!
- Zoe, 1.5: Surprisingly, she loves to eat, eat and eat. She is the youngest of all, and very lucky to have all of her big brothers and cousins around her.
It was time for their parents and grandparents to leave the house for the wedding and I suddenly found myself watching Tom & Jerry with the kids. What an awesome feeling it was because it took me back to my childhood when I used to watch cartoons with my brother all day long!
The kids and I connected instantly! Now, Meghann had 7 kids in her hands, not 6 anymore!
Meg and I decided to take turns when getting things ready for the kids. For example, when I was looking after the kids, Meg was upstairs, cooking lunch for everyone.
We all had hotdogs for lunch that day. :)
The Beach
It was almost 12 p.m. and we all started to get ready to go to the beach, or aka the BIG Trip!
We had 4 beach bags (2 for the towels, 1 for snacks, and 1 for sunscreens), 4 tubes, 1 beach-toys bag, 2 beach chairs and 1 beach umbrella to take with us to the beach. Oh and plus, 6 little kids! I think now you know why I call it “the BIG Trip.”
Before we left the house, we put sunscreen on kids. After getting everything and everyone in the car, we drove for about 3 minutes (!) to get to the beach. And here we were, at the beach!
The beach was so much fun! The kids were enjoying the sun and water, playing with their tubes and meeting up with their friends. We even saw dolphins swimming by the shore, very close to where we sat.
One of their favorite things at the beach was having ice-cream. So we all started to wait for the ice-cream man but didn’t see him on the horizon for a long time. So Meghann came up with this song which we told the kids that if they sang it three times, the ice cream man would be there in a second. Here is how the song goes…
"One, two, three
One, two, three
Ice-cream man, come here!"
After singing the song for a thousand of times, finally the ice-cream man came over and we got ice-cream for the kids! They were the happiest with huge smiles on their faces! :)
Home, Home, Sweet Home!
By 5 p.m. we were back home.
However, before we got inside the house, Meg told me that we needed to give them bath. So we gave them bath at their outdoor shower and put them into towels one by one. When everyone was dry, we took them inside and put their clothes on.
We ordered pizza and salad for dinner that night.
As we were waiting for the pizza guy, the kids taught me how to play Angry Birds. And let me tell you something, they all LOVE Angry Birds SOOO MUCH I decided to call them my five Angry Birds.
Bed Time
It was Zoe and Charlie that we needed to put to bed first by 7:30 p.m.
Meghan was putting Zoe to bed when I was taking Charlie to bed.
All the other boys were playing Angry Birds.
Charlie and I held hands as we were walking to his room. I put him on his bed to change his diaper. I had never changed diapers before and I guess Charlie --although he is only 3-- understood that I was new at this; he automatically put his legs up to help me, and then showed me which diaper to use. One thing I learned that night was that changing diapers was not as scary as I thought it would be! Phew! :)
After changing Charlie's diaper, I put him in his little PJs and we lay down on the bed to read a bed time story. As I was getting ready to read the second story, Charlie put his head onto my shoulder and fell asleep. And I put my head onto his head, finished the story and guess what? I fell asleep, too, for a good 15 minutes. Then I got up and put him into his crib. That was one of the best moments in my life!
Next were the Twins and Peter that I had to put to bed. After having them brushed their teeth, I put them in their PJs and read three bed time stories, and they were all in their la-la-lands.
Harry was the last to go to bed. He sat with me and Meg for a little bit and then went to bed at 9:30pm.
Both Meg and I were so tired at the end of the day. We went to bed shortly after Harry.
Sunday
It was 8:50 a.m. when little Charlie and Peter came to my room to wake me up.
-"Z, it is 8:50, time to wake up,” giggled Charlie and Peter.
What a wonderful way to start a Sunday morning! :)
I got up and joined everyone at the breakfast table.
It was about 11 a.m. when their parents and grandparents arrived. When we were saying goodbye to each other, the kids were hugging me and kissing my arms and hands, saying “Bye Z.” :)
I had a wonderful weekend with my five little angry birds, the beautiful Zoe and Meg.
♥ ♥ ♥
How to be a good babysitter?
I think the most important thing to be a good babysitter is to ask as many questions as possible to the parents before they leave.
To do that, I recommend arriving a few minutes early to meet with the kids and parents. Make sure you have the answers for:
- Kids and parents’ full names
- Emergency information
- Important phone numbers
- Directions to the house
- Any medical information and food allergies of the kids.
And remember…always, always, always have the kids in your sight.
If you want to take babysitting one step further, you can also apply for a CPR and first aid certification. Check out American Red Cross for more information on CPR courses and certificates.
♥ ♥ ♥
If you have never tried babysitting before, and never let “that little kid in you” to leave, try babysitting! It takes you back to your childhood instantly! I promise, it is not as difficult as you think, and you are going to love it!
P.S.: As a courtesy, I changed the kids and their moms' names, except Charlie because his name means something very special to me.
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