Babysitting....August 4, 2006

Last night, Uncle (aka Michael) and I babysat for Gabriela, Isabela & Maya. We haven't done that in quite a while, so we were excited to hang out with just the girls. As always, we were greeted with 3 bright and smiling faces yelling "CC!!!!" "UNCLE!!!" and lots of besos (kisses). (For those of you who don't know, the girls are being raised to be bi-lingual, due to their daddy being Mexican)

We built castles and houses with lego blocks, read lots of books (I think they need some new ones!) and then went through all the DVDs to see which movie they could all agree on....Garfield! Surprisingly, I had not seen that one before, so it was a nice change! Pizza was delivered and we were all enjoying the meal...Gabriela having to have her crust cut off, Isabela eating it all cut up but with NO pepperoni, and Maya stuffing her mouth full like she was a chipmunk. And of course, don't forget the juevas (grapes) - can't have a meal without those!

After dinner, I thought it would be a GREAT idea to give the girls a bubblebath all together. Now I KNOW why they were SO excited when I brought up that idea...must be because Mommy NEVER does that....and now I know why! It was exhausting! In the past, I've just bathed them one at a time...and I will continue to do that in the future. Between 3 little ones trying to sit still, Isabela constantly pulling out the drain plug, Gabriela dumping water on everyone's heads and Maya drinking the bubbled water ~ CC was just trying to keep everything under control. Of course, then the ever difficult task of trying to get them out of the bath! Once they were all done, I thought - Oh....now how am I going to get them out, dried off, clothed and not leave any of them unattended? Oh yes... "Oh Uncle...".....yes, dear Uncle came in and watched the girls while I pulled them out one by one, dried them off, put on their diapers and PJs, dried their hair and let them run around. While I was getting Gabriela ready for bed, she looked at me, patted me on the arm and said, "CC - I love you". What a sweetie! Just melts your heart!

Kudos to Uncle who brushed out the girls' hair - he did a great job! They love him!

Now it was time to try and actually keep them up (not get them to sleep) They hadn't had their naps that day... We read more books, played Paddy Cake, then watched the favorite of the hour - Dora's A Big Sister! (Even I know all the words by now!) Isabela loves Dora and Boots and Isa and backpack....She's quite the talker now...providing 3 or 4 words at a time where as Maya, has no true interest in talking. Wab-ri-elllllllla (as Isabela calls Gabriela) was showing off how smart she's gotten with her spelling. She said, "CC! Uncle!... G A B R I E L A S A L A Z A R - Gabriela Salazar - that's how you spell my name!" We were impressed...but even more so when I asked her how to spell Maya and Isabela and she spelled both names right! Not bad for a 4 year old! They all make us proud.

Once all the kids were put to bed (thankfully without any hassle, unless you consider that we couldn't find "wa-wa" - Isabela's favorite chiwawa puppy), Michael & I retreated to the den, where we sat for a moment and relished the fact that those little ones require a lot of hard work, but all the love they give us in return is more than worth it.