Yesterday and into last night Mike and I babysat for Brett & Jill while the attended Brett's 10-year high school reunion in Maryland. Jill was kind enough to pick me up on her way home from getting a haircut so that Mike and I wouldn't have to drive 2 cars home. BTW Jill's haircut is supercute :) 
We got to their house around 2:30 and I helped watch Aaron while Brett & Jill got dressed and ready for the reunion. The plan was for Mike to join me around 5 after he got home from the Maryland football game and picked up our dog Emma. Great right!!! Brett & Jill left at around 3:30 to make the hour drive up to Maryland to pre-game with friends and make a quick visit to see Brett's dad. Peter had just woken up from his nap and Aaron was just falling to sleep. Peter and I had a great time playing with his toy blocks, rings and his music machine. But I soon learned, as Jill had previously told me, he doesn't like playing with stuff for very long before he wants to move on to something else. Peter is only 13 months old, so there's only so much you can do to entertain a child of his age, so we crawled around for a while, wondering through the family room, the dining room, and we soon made our way to the kitchen. 
Peter apparently loves tupperware. He loves it so much that often he reorganizes Jill's tupperware drawer but throwing everything out onto the kitchen floor, only to have the nearest adult hustle to put everything back in before he can throw more out. It was a game that went on for about 30 minutes. I never knew tupperware could be so entertaining! By now it was about 5:30 and I was quickly exhausting all of my "tricks". Peter was getting fussy, probably from a short nap and hunger, and Aaron was starting to wake up.....Oh NO!!! Every time Aaron would make a sound Peter, my handy assistant, would quickly crawl over and poke/jostle the crib to make sure everything was okay. And although I'm sure Peter had good intentions Aaron was not fond of the movement. I would redirect Peter back to the "play area" and try many distraction techniques, some of which worked, others did not. After a while, Peter became completely uninterested in anything I had to offer. Amazingly the one thing Peter did want to play with was the trash can sitting next to the desk. Unfortunately for me the trash can had stuff in it, mostly paper and other "desk" trash. It's shocking that a 1 year old crawler can be so quick to beat me to the trash can and pull it over before I can pick him up. Be warned - he's a quick one. After me telling Peter "NO" and "No touch" repeatedly he became agitated and belted out some of the loudest cries of heard from him. His cries set Aaron off - and now I was alone with 2 crying (but adorable) babies. I had no idea what to do, because every time I picked Aaron up Peter would start crying again and wanting to touch and pull on Aaron and every time I set Aaron down to comfort Peter, Aaron would start to cry again. It was a hopelessly endless cycle. By this point I was growing weary of my capability of watching 2 children. I picked up the phone to call Mike to see where he was, he was supposed to be there 45 minutes ago. He was just leaving the football game. GRRRRRRRRR. It was almost time for Peter to eat and Aaron needed a bottle too. So in a moment of intelligence I ignored Peter long enough to bundle Aaron tightly in a blanket and set him back in the "crib". I picked Peter up and brought him into the kitchen where I heated up his macaroni. I set Peter in his crib and gave him some star puffs and then went back into the living room to bring the crib into the dining room to set at the floor by my chair. With a baby on each side I began feeding Peter and the propped up a bottle for Aaron by using a towel on top of his blanket. I felt like MacGyver. Surprisingly it worked, both Peter and Aaron were content. About 15 minutes later, just as we were finishing up the feedings Mike walked in with Emma. 
If you could have only seen the smile on Peter's face when he saw her, you might melt. I was of course relieved, I don't know how Jill does it?!? The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We had come over the night before so we could learn the "bedtime routine". It was now Mike's turn to participate in the babysit activities. After a short playtime with Emma, Mike took Peter upstairs for his bath, playtime, story time then bed. I could tell Mike was doing a great job because I could hear him and Peter talking and giggling over the monitor. So I stayed downstairs and snuggled with Aaron & Emma. I could also tell when Mike was putting Peter in his crib for bedtime because of the crying that I heard. Mike made his way downstairs and we listened for about 5 minutes as Peter's crying got softer, until there was no more! Yay...Peter is asleep. GREAT JOB Mikey!!!! Now it was our turn to eat dinner. Jill had cooked us a chili casserole for dinner, so I reheated in the oven for us to eat. It was delicious. After we ate we sat back down in the family room and turned on the television. About 45 minutes later Aaron began to cry. I knew he wasn't hungry because he wouldn't take the bottle, so I figured he must have a dirty diaper. As I was laying Aaron on his back to change him, Mike got this puzzled look on his face. I said "what's wrong" and he didn't respond. I then asked "You did put a diaper on Peter, right?" To which he cutely replied, "Um, ...no" - it was hilarious. But now the task of waking Peter up to put a diaper on him and then get him back to sleep. So we put Aaron in his crib and went upstairs to wake Peter up. When we got upstairs and looked in the crib it was one of the cutest things Mike and I have ever seen. Peter was wedged up against the far end of the crib tightly gripping a stuffed animal. He looked like an angel. But, we knew we had to get the diaper on before....well, you know. So Mike reached in and picked him up. We turned on the light and laid him on the changing table. I ended up putting the diaper on him, because we wanted to be quick. He was so sweet, he didn't cry, he just rubbed his eyes and yawned...so sweet! Once the diaper was on him and we re-buttoned his sleeper we put him back in the crib and went back downstairs. He only cried for a couple of minutes before falling back to sleep. Downstairs was pretty uneventful for the rest of the night. Mike ended up falling asleep on the couch at around 11 leaving me up to watch Aaron who had a tummy ache. But I kept myself entertained by watching "Tomorrow Never Dies". Brett & Jill got home around 2am to relieve us and we slowly made our way to the car and home. I must say, it was a great experience watching 2 children under the age of 2. Mike and I really enjoy spending time with all of the Gardner's - we had a lot of fun. But don't think it wasn't exhausting....I have a much better appreciation and understanding of Jill's daily schedule.
We got to their house around 2:30 and I helped watch Aaron while Brett & Jill got dressed and ready for the reunion. The plan was for Mike to join me around 5 after he got home from the Maryland football game and picked up our dog Emma. Great right!!! Brett & Jill left at around 3:30 to make the hour drive up to Maryland to pre-game with friends and make a quick visit to see Brett's dad. Peter had just woken up from his nap and Aaron was just falling to sleep. Peter and I had a great time playing with his toy blocks, rings and his music machine. But I soon learned, as Jill had previously told me, he doesn't like playing with stuff for very long before he wants to move on to something else. Peter is only 13 months old, so there's only so much you can do to entertain a child of his age, so we crawled around for a while, wondering through the family room, the dining room, and we soon made our way to the kitchen. 
Peter apparently loves tupperware. He loves it so much that often he reorganizes Jill's tupperware drawer but throwing everything out onto the kitchen floor, only to have the nearest adult hustle to put everything back in before he can throw more out. It was a game that went on for about 30 minutes. I never knew tupperware could be so entertaining! By now it was about 5:30 and I was quickly exhausting all of my "tricks". Peter was getting fussy, probably from a short nap and hunger, and Aaron was starting to wake up.....Oh NO!!! Every time Aaron would make a sound Peter, my handy assistant, would quickly crawl over and poke/jostle the crib to make sure everything was okay. And although I'm sure Peter had good intentions Aaron was not fond of the movement. I would redirect Peter back to the "play area" and try many distraction techniques, some of which worked, others did not. After a while, Peter became completely uninterested in anything I had to offer. Amazingly the one thing Peter did want to play with was the trash can sitting next to the desk. Unfortunately for me the trash can had stuff in it, mostly paper and other "desk" trash. It's shocking that a 1 year old crawler can be so quick to beat me to the trash can and pull it over before I can pick him up. Be warned - he's a quick one. After me telling Peter "NO" and "No touch" repeatedly he became agitated and belted out some of the loudest cries of heard from him. His cries set Aaron off - and now I was alone with 2 crying (but adorable) babies. I had no idea what to do, because every time I picked Aaron up Peter would start crying again and wanting to touch and pull on Aaron and every time I set Aaron down to comfort Peter, Aaron would start to cry again. It was a hopelessly endless cycle. By this point I was growing weary of my capability of watching 2 children. I picked up the phone to call Mike to see where he was, he was supposed to be there 45 minutes ago. He was just leaving the football game. GRRRRRRRRR. It was almost time for Peter to eat and Aaron needed a bottle too. So in a moment of intelligence I ignored Peter long enough to bundle Aaron tightly in a blanket and set him back in the "crib". I picked Peter up and brought him into the kitchen where I heated up his macaroni. I set Peter in his crib and gave him some star puffs and then went back into the living room to bring the crib into the dining room to set at the floor by my chair. With a baby on each side I began feeding Peter and the propped up a bottle for Aaron by using a towel on top of his blanket. I felt like MacGyver. Surprisingly it worked, both Peter and Aaron were content. About 15 minutes later, just as we were finishing up the feedings Mike walked in with Emma. 
If you could have only seen the smile on Peter's face when he saw her, you might melt. I was of course relieved, I don't know how Jill does it?!? The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We had come over the night before so we could learn the "bedtime routine". It was now Mike's turn to participate in the babysit activities. After a short playtime with Emma, Mike took Peter upstairs for his bath, playtime, story time then bed. I could tell Mike was doing a great job because I could hear him and Peter talking and giggling over the monitor. So I stayed downstairs and snuggled with Aaron & Emma. I could also tell when Mike was putting Peter in his crib for bedtime because of the crying that I heard. Mike made his way downstairs and we listened for about 5 minutes as Peter's crying got softer, until there was no more! Yay...Peter is asleep. GREAT JOB Mikey!!!! Now it was our turn to eat dinner. Jill had cooked us a chili casserole for dinner, so I reheated in the oven for us to eat. It was delicious. After we ate we sat back down in the family room and turned on the television. About 45 minutes later Aaron began to cry. I knew he wasn't hungry because he wouldn't take the bottle, so I figured he must have a dirty diaper. As I was laying Aaron on his back to change him, Mike got this puzzled look on his face. I said "what's wrong" and he didn't respond. I then asked "You did put a diaper on Peter, right?" To which he cutely replied, "Um, ...no" - it was hilarious. But now the task of waking Peter up to put a diaper on him and then get him back to sleep. So we put Aaron in his crib and went upstairs to wake Peter up. When we got upstairs and looked in the crib it was one of the cutest things Mike and I have ever seen. Peter was wedged up against the far end of the crib tightly gripping a stuffed animal. He looked like an angel. But, we knew we had to get the diaper on before....well, you know. So Mike reached in and picked him up. We turned on the light and laid him on the changing table. I ended up putting the diaper on him, because we wanted to be quick. He was so sweet, he didn't cry, he just rubbed his eyes and yawned...so sweet! Once the diaper was on him and we re-buttoned his sleeper we put him back in the crib and went back downstairs. He only cried for a couple of minutes before falling back to sleep. Downstairs was pretty uneventful for the rest of the night. Mike ended up falling asleep on the couch at around 11 leaving me up to watch Aaron who had a tummy ache. But I kept myself entertained by watching "Tomorrow Never Dies". Brett & Jill got home around 2am to relieve us and we slowly made our way to the car and home. I must say, it was a great experience watching 2 children under the age of 2. Mike and I really enjoy spending time with all of the Gardner's - we had a lot of fun. But don't think it wasn't exhausting....I have a much better appreciation and understanding of Jill's daily schedule. 
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