In October, Curtis and I went down to his sister's house to babysit our nephews for 5 days. Heather & Ben went to Alabama, for a much needed vacation and to celebrate their 10th anniversary. They had asked us when they first started planning their trip if we wanted to babysit and of course we said YES!
The first day was pretty good. Heather & Ben left before the boys got up. Since Spencer (4 yrs old) & Matthew (1 1/2 yrs old) were so excited to see Uncle Curtis and Aunt Sara, I don't think they noticed much. We had lots of fun playing together. The real challenge came when it was time to go to bed. Matthew went to bed just fine, but Spencer didn't want to go to bed. It took us until around 11:30 pm to get him into his bed. That night he didn't sleep much at all, which also kept Curtis and I up too. Bless Curtis' heart, he tried to be the one to stay up and take care of him so that I could sleep, but I couldn't sleep since I could still hear everything and because I was sleeping in an unfamiliar room/bed.
The second day was a long day. We were all dragging since we didn't get much sleep (well, everyone except for Matthew...). We did manage to go to the park and have a picnic and play. That night Spencer struggled to go to bed again, but Uncle Curtis did finally manage to get him in bed and we all slept pretty good that night.
The third day was kind-of a blah day. Spencer wasn't feeling good at all. He had caught the cold that Matthew had earlier in the week, and had a runny nose and a fever. Poor boy, we knew he wasn't feeling well when he didn't even want to play with his Trio blocks and he just wanted to sit in the chair and watch a movie. We all had a nap, (which was great!) and later in the day we were all feeling better. We did manage to get out of the house for a little while. We took a drive to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and enjoyed the scenery. We would have gotten out and walked around the Temple with the boys, but it was getting late and we still needed to have dinner and get the boys a bath before putting them to bed, so I got out for a couple of quick pictures before we headed out.
The fourth day was Sunday. Amazingly enough Curtis and I managed to get ourselves and the boys ready for church with about 20 min to go before the meetings started. (This was no small undertaking...Curtis and I had to shower & get dressed, I had treatments, we all needed to eat breakfast, get the boys dressed, pack the diaper bag (with food & toys), get my oxygen filled, and get everyone loaded into the van.) I guess you can say that we both learned what we needed to to do work together to make sure that everything and everyone was taken care of. We also managed to make it through the 3 hr block w/out to many problems! That night we had another miracle...we managed to get BOTH boys into bed by 9:30 pm! It was soooo nice! Unfortunately I had a bad night and was up coughing for most of the night, so Curtis and I didn't get to enjoy sleep as much as we wanted to.
The last day we went to the Salt Lake Aquarium with the boys. We had planned on going earlier in our visit, but between being sick/tired and trying to go during a time that was good for both of the boys it just didn't work. It actually turned out to be great that we had waited for several reasons 1) we got the boys excited about wanting to go and 2) it is a small aquarium and there weren't a lot of people there when we went. After the Aquarium and a nap it was time to pick up Heather & Ben from the airport. They boys were VERY EXCITED to see their parents!
Overall this was a great experience for us. Curtis learned a lot (especially since this was his first "big" babysitting experience)! He realized just how much work it is to have kids....and he did a wonderful job!!! Curtis is SOOOO GOOD with kids. I think he is a natural and will make a wonderful Dad someday. At times I felt bad for Curtis because he had to do a lot of the work with taking care of the boys and helping around the house. Of course we worked together, but I learned (once again) what my limitations are. I struggled the most with going up and down the stairs all day long and dividing my time between taking care of myself (doing all of my treatments & not over-exerting myself) and trying to help with the kids, keep everyone fed, and trying to keep the house in some order. Although for me the hardest part was that I couldn't pick up Matthew and hold him or snuggle with him, unless I was sitting down. Despite my health limitations, we managed just fine. Because we had a schedule and the boys were use to my medical routine we all adjusted just fine. Spencer and Matthew still loved treatment time for Aunt Sara. (especially Matthew...he got to the point where I would say the word "treatment" and he would go running and trying to drag me with him to where my stuff was, and then he would insist on helping get all of it ready and making sure that I did it in the right order...it was really cute!) They also weren't afraid of my oxygen, the 50 ft. of oxygen tubing around the house never bothered them, and they knew that before I could leave the house I had to have my "backpack" ready. When we first started babysitting, we both thought that we would be able to keep the house clean everyday and that we would be able to get a few extra things done around the house for Heather. Yep, that didn't happen (which I pretty much knew from the start...but it doesn't hurt to dream right?) We did manage to keep up on the dishes, we had 3 meals a day & snacks, the kids never really fought or had meltdowns, nothing in the house was broken/damaged/colored on etc, and we even managed to get the toys all picked up on the last day and the kitchen swept. Now that is success!!!! :o)
My favorite part of the trip: Spending time with Curtis and watching how he interacted and took care of the boys (and me too). It was very touching to see Curtis around the boys and to see his love for them grow. Curtis' favorite part: Watching the boys discover new things everyday. His favorite moment (that he still talks about) is when he was trying to get Spencer up to bed on Sunday night. Curtis had told Spencer that it was time for bed and that he need to make sure that he had all of his bedtime stuff. Spencer gathered his things and followed Curtis up to bed. While in bed he said "I have my doggie, lambie, Big Bruce (a teady bear) and my drawing board...ahh, Spencer's ready for bed." How cute is that!!!
Here are some pictures of our adventure:
Playing at the park
Wow, look at my shadow!
Uncle Curtis doing a great job playing with both boys
Matthew fell asleep....at least it was relaxing for him
Matthew eating spaghetti
Who needs utensils when you have two hands! It was EVERYWHERE! All over his hands, arms, belly, face, neck,
in his ears, hair and even in his eyes!
Spencer hanging out while he was sick
My little superman!
One of the many creations that Uncle Curtis made with the Trio blocks.
Spencer examining his "cool" plane made by Uncle Curtis
This is just proof that I was there. I was trying to get a picture with Matthew and I in it, but he only wanted to play with the camera.
Hanging with Uncle CurtisMatthew has such a serious face...
The Oquirrh Mountain Temple
Spencer saying hello to the octopus and trying to count how many legs he has
Matthew thought the stingray was cool...he laughed every time they swam by him
Spencer thought it was cool too, until one of them came up out of the water a little bit right by him...then it wasn't cool anymore
Since there weren't very many people there, I let Matthew walk around instead of staying in the stroller. He LOVED walking up to all of the windows and seeing the animals.
A lot of the fish in this exhibit were bigger than he is! This trip was SOOO MUCH FUN! I'm so glad that we got to spend this time with our nephew's. I'm also thankful that they love us too. I'm thankful that even though they don't live close they do really like to talk to us via Skype. I can't wait until we get to spend time with them again! We love you Spencer & Matthew!!!! Oh, and Thanks Heather & Ben for letting us love (and babysit) your boys!
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