the dumbest day babysitting

Some friends and I were talking about baby stuff today, what are the popular items new mothers must have these days.

Well, that made me remember my dumbest day ever babysitting t.c. back when he was a baby.

His parents had the idea it was time to switch from a baby bottle to a sippy cup thing. That's fine. Whatever.

WELL... four hours later he was the most miserable child. Nothing could make him happy anymore. He'd suck at the cup and then get mad. He was generally pretty mad at this point, and it wasn't like him, throwing his head back and yelling at me.

It was a long morning.

THEN the other kids had a disaster down by the freezer.

The freezer's lid didn't close evenly all the way around the top, so we'd put a paint can on one corner to weight it down. SOMEONE had DROPPED the paint can while getting a popsicle.

Thank heaven it didn't smash their little toes, right? But the top popped off the paint can so we had gray paint from here to Kingdom Come.

Oh gawd. It took an entire roll of paper towels to clean up and even then it wasn't great. Paint is slimy and kept spreading around more and more. All the while t.c. kept kvetching away in some other kid's arms while I worked at it.

Finally, I told them it was good enough, and give me back that baby. I went straight to the cupboard and poured his beverage from the tippy cup into a bottle with a nipple. I didn't know what else to do. He devoured the bottle and fell asleep, huge relief, the little sweetheart.

So then I'm doing the dishes, right? I'm washing out this sippy cup, right? And I can see soap suds between two layers on the lid. What is THIS?? Oh, get this: The cup had a clear silicone lid that snapped over the top. INVISIBLE save for the suds in between now.

Here I'd been feeding the child all morning with a cup with a cap on!

Okay, that's not right. No wonder he was so mad.

If we're going to have all these modern inventions, someone's going to have to show me how they work.

John called later to check on his child, and I told him what had happened. His response? "Mo-THER!" Oh yes, Mother.

Sigh. That poor hungry baby. Yeah, life went on and he didn't starve. He was fed. My nerves unpretzeled. The paint dried, it's all good. Thank goodness. love, Val