The Crawl/Adventures in Babysitting

About 4 hours after I penned my last blog, I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst itching I've ever had. It was awful because my jellyfish stings had gone all hivey and they were spreading. The worst was that I had three stings on my chin so it looked like I had some weird lip herp. At 2AM, Lee told me to rub vinegar on my stings (this is what you're supposed to do when you're stung... not 6 days later). But I was desperate so I did. I didn't have any white vinegar so I used apple cider and wound up smelling like a rotten apple. For the record, it doesn't take the sting out 6 days later. Ice made it better. The doctor took me first thing in the morning and gave me Zyrtec and some steroids, which she warned me would give me extra energy. And they did because at Fancy's step class on Saturday morning I was using three risers and yelling things like "turn up the music!" while I made up additional "special" dance moves. For those of you wondering, the Dreamcatchers are still there, however I haven't seen them dress alike in a few months. But they do have a new cheer they yell when they like something. I can't make this stuff up.

The Crawl for Cancer was this weekend, and we almost didn't get to go because on Wednesday morning my babysitter dislocated her knee and didn't think she could watch Ellie while on crutches. This sent me into a babysitter tailspin. I called nine people and by Friday night at 7PM had heard "no" from all but one. All of my eggs were in Number Nine's basket. She was the co-worker of my co-worker's friend, but since I was all out of babysitting options, that practically made her family.

This poor girl probably thought I was nuts because I had e-mailed, voice mailed and then texted her. Number Nine finally called me while Elizabeth and I were on our way to Chelsea Handler's book signing for Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea. "Hi Tiffany - it's Number Nine. I'm so sorry I didn't get back to you earlier. I was traveling for work and then last night I was at the Kayne West concert." We talked for a bit about Ellie, where we lived, when I needed her, etc. At the end of the conversation, she asked me I wanted to know anything about her. Oh God - I should be asking her some really tricky babysitting interview question. Ask her if she knows the number for 911 - no, that's a gimme... ask her if she's ever been convicted of a felony - no, that's weird... "Uh... so you've babysit before, right?". She replied a confident "Yes". Yes! "Well, Number Nine, I think this is going to work out great. We'll see you tomorrow at 12:30."

Nine showed up right on time, and she was actually a really sweet girl, about 26, UT graduate, lots of experience with kids, and most importantly she and Ellie hit it off. Ellie was eating when she got there, so when she was finished, I took her back to her room to change her diaper and show Nine where everything was. I asked Lee to clean her high chair tray. About two minutes later in the middle of my instructions, Lee came into Ellie's room, showed me and Nine a spotless tray and said, "Look at how clean I got Ellie's tray!". This is odd. "That looks great, honey. Thank you". Then Lee blurted out, "I just gave it to the dogs and they licked it that clean". No. You. Didn't. But I knew he probably had. I tried to ignored him and continued my nursery tour. Thankfully, Nine did not run from the house screaming.

We made it to the pub crawl right on time and had a lot of fun. Team "Nun too Drunk" (Catholic school reference - my idea, but was a little slanderous so I didn't think Katy would honestly sign us up as that) consisted of me and Lee, Katy and Joe, Veronica and Chris, Sandy and Jason, and Kennemer. Maunder bailed on us so there was just nine on our team. The event was held on lower Greenville and it was pretty big - there were 250 teams with 10-12 on each team. Every team got to pick their shirt color, and we were in gray tees. From what I understand, the event sold out in only two days, so if you missed out, register early next year. The idea was to go to 5 bars in 5 hours, but we only made it to 4. Lee and I are lightweights. We made it home around 6PM, and Ellie and Nine were playing. I will definitely use her again (if she will come back).

Every day, Ellie gets more skilled at walking. This means that she wants to practice all the time including while we're at church. This Sunday was by far the most challenging day we've had at church so far. We really can't let her crawl/walk all over the place, but holding her angers her inner beast. Lee and I took turns taking her to the back of the church so she wouldn't squeal. It was a full time job trying to wrangle her. Her other favorite thing to do now is slam doors, cabinets, drawers, etc. She hasn't gotten a finger caught yet, but that day is coming, I'm sure.

Later that day, we all went to Cooper's first birthday party at The Little Gym. You would think that with the word "gym" in the title, I would have gotten out of the little black dress I wore to church, but I didn't so I was Stephanie's inappropriately dressed friend in the low-cut black dress who was still crawling around on the floor. And I had no tissue paper for Cooper's gift so he got the tissue that the dry cleaners had shoved into the sleeves of one of my shirts. Class act.

Ellie had such a good time at the party. At first, she sat there taking in the rainbow-colored walls, padded floors, and jumping children, but after 2-3 minutes, she was up walking around and trying to climb on everything. The thing she liked the best was the parachute. Loved it and was hysterically laughing the whole time they had it out. They also had this thing that was like a bounce house minus the top. There were about eight to ten 2-4 year olds there running and jumping on top of it so I thought Ellie would be scared, but she wasn't. She wanted to walk and jump on it just like everyone else. I was trying to keep her close to me so she wouldn't get creamed, but little Miss Independent would have none of it. In between activities, they would play music while the kids ran around and Ellie would shake her little butt to the beat of the music. She even sat in a little chair at the table with the other kids and had cake. Halfway through the snacks, she took her plate and dumped everything on the table. We haven't worked on manners yet.

We had my parents over on Sunday night to thank them for keeping Ellie last weekend and to celebrate my dad's promotion. I grilled a steak and some chicken kabobs and made a salad and mom brought an appetizer and pie for dessert. Ellie was pretty worn out by the end of her big weekend. We were too. I think between party planning for Ellie's birthday, buying gifts, Mother's Day, and the wedding on Saturday night, next weekend will be more of the same. By the way - we still need a sitter for Saturday night... Number Ten, are you out there?