Adventures In Babysitting

Three Men and a Baby. Well, subtract one man and add one baby. Then you’ll have: Two Men and Two Babies. Well, 1.5 and 3 years old actually. But you get the point.

Earlier this week, good friend B and I adventured ourselves in an evening of babysitting. In the days leading up to the big night, both B and I were the talk of the lunch table at our respective places of employment. Everyone wanted to know how two guys in their upper 20s with no prior parenting experience (I’m leaving out a great joke here on B’s expense), would handle two kids for an evening.

I got over to B’s early so we could have a pre-game pep rally, and go grab some dinner. On our way to pick up dinner, B turns to me and says “have you ever changed a diaper before, cause I haven’t. And I’ve never been good with poop and puke.”

“Nope,” I said. “But it can’t be that hard.”

We made it back to B’s and the kids arrived: books, trucks and DVDs in tow. We received our instructions for the night and Mom and Dad were off to Meet Virginia at the Train concert.

This babysitting thing isn’t that hard! We played trucks and watched cartoons (Doobie Doobie Do). Then we took all the pillows off B’s couches and piled them in the middle of the room. This made for a great mosh-pit where the kids could run and jump into. When the older one started jumping off the couch into the pit, B and I moved the coffee table so no one hit their heads. We were so proud of our injury-prevention move!

The older one was inquisitive, asking a lot of questions of B and me. The youngest just kept on smiling and laughing at us (did she know something we didn’t?).

We decided we should go outside and walk (run) around for a while. A little exercise would make them tired and sure to tucker them out for the night. “We’ll have Sports Center on in no time” I promised B. The youngest one got a kick on how her screaming voice echoed over the river. I’m not sure the neighbors were as entertained, however. We made several laps up and down the river-walk. A few trips and falls, but we learned quickly to tell them that they weren’t hurt, just get up and keep walking. No one cried.

We made our way back inside, turned off most of the lights, and put in Bob the Builder DVD. We couldn’t avoid it any longer: diaper time. “You do it” B told me. We all started chanting “no poopies, no poopies, no poopies.” Fortunately, our chants came true! I strapped on a new diaper and put her frog PJs on.

B and I weren’t sure when kids go to bed. It was just before 10pm, and we figured it was time for the little one to go down. Even though we were warned she would cry…she fell asleep right away.

We let the older one hang with the big boys, and he eventually fell asleep curled up next to B on the chair. Sports Center and Baseball Tonight were both over. Admittedly, we were hooked on Bob the Builder (Can we do it…”Yes We CAN!”). Mom and Dad called to be picked up, B went and got them. The little guy joined me on the couch were we both fell asleep to an episode of Seinfeld.


Listening to: Fresh Air with Teri Gross
About to Start Reading: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy