11.18.2009

The bubble is bursting...

Bei loves his Aunt Nanette!
Look ma...no hands!

Aunt Nanette has the 3 year old grin down pat!

Boy...in my opinion daycare providers are under appreciated and under paid! I'm babysitting on Wednesday afternoons for another 3 years old, our new neighbor Savannah! Talk about a rollercoaster...one week we all have a great week, the next week timeouts for everyone...I'm handing them out like candy, the next week one is good and the other one is naughty...it is so much tougher than I thought it would be! The good news is I am learning so much about parenting, alot about Bei and alot about myself. I'm always evaluating how the day went and what worked and what didn't work. One of the surprises to me was how Bei behaves with other kids. Bei's main friends prior to Vanna were Huckleberry, Curly Locks and Max, they were here when he arrived from China and so they treated him very special. He was the tiny little guy with the heart issue who would just observe, so they always tried to make him happy and would give up their toys for him and treated him very special. Rightly so, Savannah doesn't have that history or attitude, so the real world has hit Bei smack dab in the face. Two "only "children now need to figure out how to share and get along with one another...hence the rollercoaster ride for me! Bei's biggest concern is that I am going to hold or hug Vanna. Too bad for Bei, but I'm a hugger and Vanna is going to be snuggled by me at times. In all honesty, the opportunity to watch Vanna has come at the best time. Bei really needs to be confronted with a little bit more reality and it has provided a great opportunity to learn how to share and get along with other children.
Here is a sidenote of a silly story that happened to us recently.
Dan has been clearing a 2 acre lot that we have in Wisconsin. Cutting down trees, brush and buckthorn. He has been asking me for some time to go out there with him, but it just did not work out for my schedule until yesterday. Dan took the day off, we drove over there and on the way I also invited Dan's cousin, Kathy, who is a close friend of mine to stop by since she lives several miles away.
We are over there and we have a huge roaring fire burning the brush pile. Bei is a good helper for about 45 minutes but then he gets bored, so Dan pulls out his bike from the back of the truck, Bei gets on it and then Dan walks down the ravine down by the fire, down by where I am. Uh oh...Bei doesn't have his helmet on, plus he is on the road by himself, I need to go up and tend to him. I empty my arms that are full of branches into the fire, turn around and look to see where Bei is and initially don't see him. I look down the ditch and there he is with his bike on top of himl...in a pricker bush!!! Okay that is not funny...I run up get the bike off of him and he starts crying. Bei's biggest wounds are prickers from the bush which we have to get out of his hand. We get that done and then Bei just wants to cry in his mama's arms now and get that extra little bit of love that mom's have when their babies are hurt. So I am holding Bei when I turn to look over my shoulder and see Dan pulling Kathy's face off some boulders that we have at the bottom of the ditch. Somehow Kathy caught her foot on a vine and went sailing down the ditch face first. Okay...kind of funny...good thing I didn't see it because I laugh when people fall and it is very awkward for everyone involved (but isn't that why America Funniest Home Video's is such a hit). Kathy had scratches around her eye and forehead and her glasses were bent a little. But the truly funny part was the look on Dan's face... he was regretting the moment that he asked me to come "help" him. I won't be looking for an invite back out there any time soon. The good news is that both Bei and Kathy got to have Diego band-aids!

No comments: