Adventures in Babysitting

Interesting fact: I have never babysat in my entire life. Yup. I'm 30 and I've never been alone with a baby OR a child. I did babysit my niece, Julianne, once, but I had my mom with me for backup (which means she did pretty much everything) so that doesn't count in my book.

Chris and I had talked about babysitting our little nephew, Jack, a few times, thinking it would be a great learning opportunity for the both of us. However, whenever we thought about actually doing it, fear would inevitably set in; fear of the unknown, fear of doing something wrong, leading to injury or permanant scars, fear of being horrible caregivers.

On January 16th, we had to put our fears aside as we were formally asked to babysit Mr. Jackson. The plan was for Chris' mom and sister to see a movie while Chris and I watched Jack. Just two hours. How hard could it be? This was it, no turning back. It was time to bite the bullet and just do it.

So mom and Mimi dropped off our sweet little nephew and they were off to their movie. And there we were. Jack, Chris, Shamrock and I, waiting to see how things turned out. We started out with a little bottle action and then it was play time. Apparently Jack had his nap before he came over, so he was ready to party it up over and Uncle Chris and Aunt Jocelyn's. To entertain him, we had tummy and tickle times as well as played with some of his toys.

Uncle Christopher changing his first diaper

Love that smile!

The only hiccup that night came from our own furry son. Apparently, our little man did not appreciate sharing the spotlight. Everything started off just fine, but the more we played with Jack, the more agitated Shamrock became, leading him to start lashing out by trying to bite poor Jack. We were able to keep them separated- one of us would care for Jack while the other focused on Shamrock- so Jackson remained bite-mark free.

In my opinion, this attempt at babysitting was a good one. No one was injured, no one freaked out, no one did anything wrong (well, Shamrock did, but we'll pretend that didn't happen) and Jack was returned in one perfect piece.

Chris and I are so glad we were Jack's first babysitters. He did amazingly well. Like I've said before, he is one very good baby. Only one peep to let us know he was hungry again, but that was it. Oh, and we only had to change his diaper once...for a #1 (whew!). :) Thanks, Misty, for trusting us with your son!