It is appropriate that yesterday was Independence Day, because I got a bit of independence myself. We had our first babysitter yesterday. Usually the grandparents come through in grand style for us, but as my parents are in Alaska and Jeff’s parents are camping, I was truly worried for a minute. One of the fab things about teaching at HS is an abundance of potential babysitters. Candidate uno was one of my favorite students of all time, Heather. Not only was she in my Honors class, but she was the greatest student aide ever. She would say things like, “I know you didn’t ask me to, but I went ahead and put those papers away, after I organized and labeled them….” I will miss that girl. I knew she would be a fantabulous babysitter for Bradley and Jeff.
Once Heather arrived I escaped for a delicious lunch with Shanna, Mollie, and Bonnie. We got to talk all about Mollie’s engagement and wedding plans, harass the waiter, gossip about random people, and generally decompress. When I got home Heather and B were playing on the floor, and B was only mildly impressed at my arrival. He is such a laid back kid, I knew he wouldn’t go crazy with the new company; I was concerned how Heather would fare with two baby gates that require a graduate degree to open/close, three dogs (we are dog-sitting), a husband (who hid most of the time) on crutches, and a baby who loves to climb. Of course, she is magical and did great.
Later that day the entire family was able to go to Hannah’s house for a BBQ. There was tons of delicious food and fun people. B got to play with other kids, Jeff was able to sit on someone else’s sofa for a couple hours, and I was able to socialize. It was a great vacation. We didn’t do fireworks since B was a wreck before we left Hannah and Brock’s and neither Jeff nor I felt like being outdoors in the gross heat. Anyway, we got a nice recap of all the fireworks on the news later that night.
I know this is probably the last year Jeff and I can avoid festivities by blaming them on B’s schedule. Soon enough he will be two and we will be branded Scrooge parents for not letting our kid experience the joy of three hours of waiting in sweltering Monsoon heat for a fifteen minute firework show that will most likely scare the crap out of him.
I hope everyone had a decent 4th of July!
