monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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In which Kim and I are both babysitters, but I actually had to work at it!
Yesterday I woke up at 12:45 because my insane neighbor was manicuring the edges of his driveway right underneath my window! Can't he get a new hobby? i think he needs to take up needlepoint or something.
I barely had time to get dressed, come downstairs and complain to Rich about the neighbor, and read my morning websites when Rachel was calling to see if I was ready to go help on the set of the movie Ash was filming.
RA asked him to make a short film about visiting teaching, using a script she found somewhere. Ash had to re-write the script, and it's pretty funny now, and they've been trying to shoot around the weather and everyone's schedules for a week or so.
Yesterday the shooting took place at RA's house, and the two women who play the visiting teachers have three little kids between them, so Rachel asked me to come along to be the baby-wrangler.
When I got there, the kids were playing with some toys RA keeps for her grandchildren, so we had time to sit and talk while Ash ran back home for more equipment. We had to artistically mess up the living room, too, so that was fun.
When they were ready to shoot, the kids were playing happily in the dining room, so that was easy, until oops! The two little boys noticed that their moms had gone out the front door to stand on the steps. They could see the moms were right there, but both of them were worried that they were being left in the house!
It actually took both Rachel and I to wrangle the three kids, because the two little boys each needed their own minder! For your future baby-wrangling needs, here are some tips:
1. Boys are easily distracted if you show them a bug.
2. Under the branches of weeping willow trees it is like a private house or cave, and would be even better if you had a small table and chairs.
3. If a toddler is nervous about the texture of grass, he's going to cry when he falls over and is laying in it!
4. Kids like to pet cats. If the cat doesn't like people at all, one person can hold the cat and keep all of its paws held still, but the cat will hiss its hatred and show all of its teeth. Kids don't notice the hatin'.
So we had some entertaining moments and Rachel did not get scratched by that cat, who ran off like he was shot out of a gun as soon as she let him go.
Through all of this, I was worrying about going to Speech class in the evening, and giving the speech I hadn't written yet. After the shooting was over, Rachel drove me home and sat in the driveway with me to help write my speech, and then I had to go to class.
Kim was at her first day at her summer babysitting job, but she was supposed to be home around 5:30, so she was going to go to class with me, just to keep me company. She wasn't home by the time I had to leave, so I cowboyed up and went by myself.
I got to the room where my class was supposed to be, but the room was full, and there was a lecture in progress! That wasn't right, so I looked at some rooms nearby, and asked a passing stranger with red streaks in his hair, but he was no help.
Finally I called Rachel, and told her I couldn't find the classroom, and why was I going to take this stupid class anyway, and can't I just drop it?
She suggested that I check my schedule again, to make sure the room number was right, so I looked, and yes, it was the right room, can't I just go home and forget about it? She told me to check the time, because maybe I was wrong about 6:00, maybe it was going to start at 6:30, so I looked at the time, and no, it was at 6! Wait - what does R mean? Thursday?? Oh, okay, I had the wrong day, so I calmed down and went home. On the way out of the building I passed the kid with the red streaks again, and he was also talking on his phone about the wrong night, so I am not the only idiot mistaken one.
Kim got home from work shortly after I got back to the house, and she was exhausted. Apparently babysitting takes a lot out of a person. She played Halo and Grand Theft Auto all day with one of the kids while the other two played in the mud in the backyard. That doesn't sound that hard to me!
2:01 p.m. - 2009-06-09
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