The Time of My Life: musings of a mommy-at-law: Adventures in Babysitting

This will likely be my first of a series of posts about Halloween. We have lots of Halloween activities planned, so I thought I'd get a head start. But before we get into all that, I must report on our Adventures in Babysitting last night. My friend Shay is chairing the committee that puts on the big annual fundraiser for the Junior League of DeKalb County. The event is next weekend and her last committee meeting was last night. She could not find a babysitter so I told her to bring Marie on over and Evan and Pressley and I would watch her. It was a hoot! Marie is absolutely precious. You may remember seeing photos of her birthday party earlier this month. She came over already bathed and in her jammies, all ready for bed. The kids were really sweet to her --not so much to each other the whole time, but sweet to Marie. At one point, I had walked away to get something and I overheard Evan say, "Pressley!!! We are showing Marie stuff, it is not playtime!" They had a ball showing Marie all their toys and making sure she was happy. I wish I had gotten out the camera, because it was all very cute. And, Marie has this lovey she calls bear. It is one of those little blankies with a head and arms on it. She apparently likes to suck on the arm and often just walked or crawled around with it hanging out of her mouth. That was how Corin found her when he got home from work. Anyway, Marie goes to bed early, so we put her to bed before we ate dinner and then the kids wanted to go look at her after they finished eating...and again before they went to bed. We'll have to babysit again for Marie. If I hadn't been worried that my kids would give her something that was a choking hazard, I could have just left them and let Marie actually babysit Evan and Pressley. They were that enthralled with her.

OK. So, Halloween: Pressley and I met some new friends at the park a week or so ago. Maggie and her mom, Evan. Maggie and Pressley are only 3 days apart in age and they played well together. Grown up Evan was gracious enough to invite us to a little Halloween party she was throwing this morning. It was lots of fun. There were at least 15 little kids, mostly under 3. The festivities included a game of pass the pumpkin, decorating pumpkins, having a group photo taken, and a fun little lunch followed by the richest cupcakes I've ever tasted. (Pressley ate about one bite and then insisted that I take the rest of the bites. I could only eat about 4 small bites, and if you know me well, you'll know that must mean it was one rich cupcake. I am not one to quit on a cupcake....) Maggie and our next-door-neighbor Sam were the only kids there that we knew, but it was a great, fun party. Pressley had a ball and passed out much quicker than usual for her nap. Yay!!