On Monday Aidan had his first experience being baby-sat by Laurie, who Mommy and Daddy hope will become a regular babysitter for him. Recently Mommy and Daddy have been looking into finding a regular babysitter starting seriously in the spring, when Daddy's conference circuit gets going again. Mommy wants to have someone to babysit Aidan during the mornings (about 8:30-11:30AM) while Daddy is away at conferences (he has five planned between December 2008 and August 2009), so that she can still get a partial work week in, even with Daddy gone. We think that Laurie is going to be the person who can help us with this.
Laurie is a recently retired nurse with straight, iron-gray hair and a delightful crinkly-eyed smile, who absolutely ADORES babies. When we first moved to New York last fall, Laurie saw Aidan on the playground and walked up with a gigantic smile, tickled his chin, and said to Mommy: "He is so YUMMY! Don't you just want to bite him sometimes? He is DELICIOUS!" Since then, Mommy has noticed Laurie at the playgrounds regularly with different kids, and she is always exceptionally good with kids and thrilled to be with them.
Recently we found out that she does occasional babysitting, and has babysat for several of Aidan's friends, all of whom have had good experiences with her. So, Mommy talked to her about the random weeks of babysitting starting in the spring, and asked if she could start earlier with once-per-week babysitting before, so that Aidan could have some time to get used to her. Fortunately, she said that the plan should work out for her. So, we started our once-a-week babysitting sessions this Monday morning.
That morning, Daddy hung out with Laurie and Aidan for a while at the playground before saying goodbye and going to work, but Aidan was pretty upset when he left! Unfortunately, only one of his friends from his normal informal playgroup was at the playground (it was a wet, miserable day), and so he didn't have much distraction to help. However, Laurie took him on a walk in Fort Tryon and sang about the leaves and the bushes, and he eventually calmed down. Then he passed out for a very early nap, and ended up sleeping for four solid hours! Mommy picked him up after 40 minutes, when Laurie's shift was over, but was amazed at the super-sized nap! (Aidan normally only sleeps for 1 to 1.5 hours!) We know that Aidan loves hanging out with Mommy and Daddy, but we think he is going to be happy with Laurie, and that things will get easier the more they hang out. Daddy is looking forward to having a few extra hours once-a-week to work on the extra consulting job he just picked up, and Mommy is happy to ease into the transition and to have someone who fits so perfectly with us. We think it is going to work out really well!
The other major change this week was the election on Tuesday! Daddy took Aidan to the polls with him in the morning, and Aidan helped pull the lever in the voting booth, which ended up helping Barack Obama become the first African American president of the United States! Mommy and Daddy are excited that Aidan got to be part of such a historic moment.
Other than that, things went on pretty normally. Aidan is still throwing lots of temper tantrums and his teeth really hurt him, so that is not fun. But he is particularly loving being outside, and the weather has been unseasonably warm, so that has been nice this week. This weekend we drove up to the Catskills and enjoyed some time with Grandpa and Grandma Ruane. It will be the last time we are up here until Thanksgiving, and it was great to have some down time! It is amazing that the holidays are sneaking up on us already - they will be here before we know it!
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