adventures in babysitting - the artetas!

i was a babysitting extraordinaire on a wed in may! my friend marlene asked if i'd be willing to watch her 3 boys so that she could go to an event with her hubby, ernesto. i said of course and so i headed over in the early afternoon to let marlene get ready and head in to the city (they live in the park ridge suburb).


we played in the backyard. the boys are excellent basketball players! this is elliott the baby who is now 2! i kid you not - he will get a scholarship! he can already dribble and make baskets like a champ and he played for so long without getting bored!


i kept trying to get a shot of him making baskets!


graham and nelson, the big boys, spent some time outside but they were more interested in watching shows like transformers...


so, being the good babysitter that i am, i let them watch as much tv as they wanted!


all three in one spot here! and no one killed each other! i rule.

i even made them dinner. i mean nothing gourmet - hot dogs and tater tots - but that's what their mom said to make them. and then graham told me the sauce i mixed for him tasted 'weird' and he wouldn't eat his hot dogs. nelson told me that he didn't like tater tots so he wouldn't eat those. the baby just stuffed his face full of hot dog and kept asking for more. i finally realized that he was playing games and shoving them in his mouth but not swallowing... so then i made him finish what he had in his mouth. i know, i'm sooooo mean. as for me? yeah, i shoved both dogs and tots in my mouth.

then i started noticing how tired the baby was and he was literally lying on the floor and almost napping there - so i got him in bed about 40 mins before his mom said he'd go down. score!! and she said he'd be super cranky and not happy to go to bed. and that he'd cry and cry and she went through this whole put him down routine that i needed to do. he made a half assed attempt at a cry when i put him down, but then he was out!

so then i went back down to the boys where we watched 'boy' tv and graham snuggled in my lap which was so cute! and then after some effort, we started getting ready for bed. btw, there is a HUGE difference between jammies and pjs. they are NOT pjs. i kept calling them the wrong name. whoops.

and after a snack before dinner, some arguing, graham telling me that sleeping is stupid, and nelson just saying 'no!!!!'... i managed to fiiiinally get them upstairs and felt totally victorious as they were in bed by about 840ish - marlene said 8 was the goal, but if they were up when she got home she wouldn't be surprised. her main babysitter never seems to be able to get them in bed. so i totally felt awesome.

and then i did what a good babysitter does: watch crappy tv!! marlene and ernesto came home around midnight-ish and even brought me a gyro from their pitstop in greek town! yum! yeah... i totally rule as a babysitter!