Two Kids

Running my ass ragged, that's what they did. I can't lie. Those two kids drove me insane.

And I loved it. Most of it.

What am I talking about? Our friends are having a second child in ten days and were in a childcare predicament. Their nanny's family moved to Las Vegas three weeks ago. They needed me to watch their seventeen-month-old two days a week for three weeks. I was happy to oblige.

JD and their son. . .I'll call him "Nicky" play well together. Nicky is three-and-a-half months younger than JD. JD will be 21 months on the 12th. They really do like each other. There are times when they play side-by-side and times when they play without each other, but they always know when the other is around. They are especially happy riding side-by-side in Nicky's new double stroller, swapping sippy cups.

I'm not sure whether or not I have Nicky next week, but today was the second day of the third week. I've finally gotten the hang of dealing with them together.

Dealing with their abilities is one of the most difficult tasks. JD is a jock. He's a natural athlete, able to hit a ball consistently off a tee, able to take slap shots with a hockey stick, able to dribble and kick a ball with both feet with accuracy. And he loves doing all of those things. I could basically fill our days playing sports if it weren't for those tedious reading and art projects supposedly important for development. Nicky, however, is a natural gatherer. What I mean is, he collects objects in containers, then transfers them into and out of other containers. Whether it's rearranging cabinets, removing clothes from a basket, then putting them back; putting rocks into a cup, dumping them into a bucket, then returning them to the rock pile, he's a natural. Watching him build is his most impressive trait, as I watched him build a lego tower that was two-by-two and perfectly color coordinated. There were two levels of blue legos, then red, then yellow, then green. No lego colors mixed in any level and the tower was perfectly straight and the blocks pushed together tightly. Magnificent.

With all of these terrific attributes, there is little they can do together. Nicky doesn't understand the concept of playing ball and reciprocal play, taking a ball thrown to him and running away. JD has no patience for blocks; he puts three or four on top, then knocks them down.

JD is my son and so it would be easy for me to do whatever he wants and let Nicky deal with it. That's not how we roll, though. So we played blocks and JD would knock Nicky's creations over. We played ball and Nicky would take JD's balls and run away.

I did finally get them to nap well. Nicky is not the championship sleeper that JD is, so getting my usual daytime work done hasn't worked well the last few times he's been over. Today, though, I got some work done and got him to nap. That was my big accomplishment. Oh, and he ate a big lunch. Related? We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm tired. Chasing two kids around all day was fun, but I'll take a break for a few days. It'll be some time till I'll be doing that, if ever. Until that day comes, I'll enjoy my three-hour breaks in between hockey practices.