Tending Kids

My cousin and his wife took a trip to Peru this past June. My sisters and I took turns tending their kids. They have 4 kids from the age of 4 to 12. I took the last 4 days or so of tending before Dave and Kara came home. We definitely had some adventures and some funny memories. I thought I would share some and some of the ones my sisters had with them as well.

From Mandy:
The kids talking about a grasshopper. Jack: How do you know if it's a girl or a boy? Corrine: It doesn't have eyelashes (with tone in her voice) so it's a boy.

After a meltdown at dinner Corine fell asleep at the table. While moving her to a chair she woke up and remembered she was suppose to be crying. Then she'll stop, look at Mandy and remember to cry again.

From Meg and Mandy:
Anytime one of the kids would want something they would ask and if Meg or Mandy said no, the kids would say, "Well, (insert Meg or Mandy depending on who they were talking to) would let me."

They took the kids to watch Incredibles 2. At one point Corinne had it figured out on how to defeat they bad guys. So in the middle-end of the movie she yelled out, "Why don't they just..." I haven't ever heard her answer but I think they got her quite before she yelled her entire thought out.

From Me:
We were watching the movie Enchanted and we were close to the end where Queen Narissa turns into a dragon. Corinne started yelling at the screen, "Give her the poison apple! Just give her the apple!"

Jack was wanting some cadbury egg cookies. I told him if he wanted cookies he would have to help me make them. On Sunday I had him help me find the ingredients and I gave him the task of smashing the cadbury eggs. He started with a rolling pin, but decided that wasn't doing a good enough job. So he went in search of a hammer. His search took him to the garage. Instead of coming back with a hammer, he came back with a bat. He told me he couldn't find the hammer so he brought the next best thing, a bat. He proceeded to use the bat to smash the eggs.

Later that evening when Asher came back from his fireside (which Paul and Bel took him to with Millie while I watch Evie) the kids were playing outside. After a little while Lily and Millie come in holding hands and Millie whispers loudly to Lily, "Just act natural." Bel and I shared a look of what are they up to now. They went up to Lily's room where they started yelling out the window to the other kids.

Monday came and Jack and Lily have swim lessons. I took Lily to her lessons and when I picked her up, I dropped of Jack. I went to pick him up at noon. He didn't come out to the car. I didn't think too much of it. Lily's lessons had run a little long. By 12:15-12:20 I was hot so I went in the building to sit and wait. At about 12:30 I decided to go find Jack. I went and looked in the indoor and outdoor pool, but didn't see him. Went to the front desk and we sent someone into the boys locker room. Still no Jack. Another worker came and said she thought he may have gotten a ride home with a friend. She called the friend's mom and left a voice message. The other staff member gave me the home phone number (I realized I didn't have the home phone). I was just getting ready to call the home phone when the friend's mom called back and said she had taken Jack home. So I thank them and leave to go back to the house. As I'm pulling up to the house I see Lily and Corinne eating popsicles on the curb. I get out of my car and and ask if Jack is inside. Lily then proceeded to tell me that when Jack found out I had gone to get him, he decided he needed to go back to the pool so I could find him.  and Asher went with him. Jack thought I had forgotten about him, so he had found another ride home.

Now I should point out the pool is 2ish miles away from their house. I never saw them walking down the road on my way back from the pool. I got back in my car and started to drive to the pool. I realized I forgot to give Lily my number. I called the house phone and talked to Lily. She said the pool had just called and Jack and Asher where there. I got to the pool and walked into the lobby. Asher and Jack were sitting at one of the tables with some water and evidence of Frosty's from Wendy's and no shoes on. They looked pretty glum and guilty. I took them to my car so we could have a little chat and go home. I first asked them about the shoes and Frosties. Jack said he was in a hurry to get back to the pool that he didn't think of shoes. Asher thought the walk sounded like fun but Jack was already outside so he didn't have time to grab shoes. As for the Frosties, some kind soul picked the kids up and got them Frosties and then took them to the pool.

On the way home we had a little chat. I told them I wasn't angry. Personally, I think they did enough to themselves with their own guilt that I didn't need to add to it. We talked how getting the ride home wasn't the problem it wasn't calling home or telling the front desk he was leaving with a friend. I also said it was my bad too for not giving him my number so he could get ahold of me.

The ride was silent for a few minutes until from the back seat Asher discovered my roll-down windows. He started to roll down the window and exclaimed, "Whoa!" I guess he has never seen a roll-down window before. He then proceeded to tell me how cool it was and then he said, "Normally there is a button right here" (pointing to the spot where a button normally is). After that Jack found the levers to adjust my mirrors. They are manual too. He asked, "What does this do?" right before he moved it. I told him that was how I adjusted my side mirrors. He was pretty fascinated with them and he kept moving the one on the passenger side and told me how it looked my car was waving.

All in all it was a fun few days full of adventures and memories playing on the tramp, playing tag like games, drawing with chalk, watching Dark Wing Duck and other movies and of course the pool/my car.