Adventures in Babysitting

I did it. For the first time ever, I hired a babysitter. Granted, we've piggybacked on our friends' arrangements multiple times, but I've never been the one to call and hire a sitter myself. It was a little surreal. I remember all too well being on the other end of the conversation. It really doesn't seem like that long ago, but apparently it was. 

I didn't love babysitting, but I was good at keeping children alive and even managed to clean the house before the parents returned. (I was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.)

I can cite a few specific instances that scarred me for life when it came to looking after other people's children. Interestingly enough, the two that make me cringe the most are memories of the same family. They kept calling me - heaven only knows why! 

The first came when we went to play in the backyard. On the way out, I saw Christopher (about 2) fiddle with the door handle, but didn't think anything of it. Until he shut the door behind him and locked us out of the house. Thank goodness we were both out there - it could have been much worse. Although it didn't feel that way at the time when I had to knock on the neighbour's door so I could call my Mum to pick us up. I had to leave a note on the door telling them we'd gone to my house. They were incredibly understanding and didn't let on to how worried they must have been to come home to a ransom note on their front door instead of a happy toddler, busy babysitter and a clean house. I felt so silly.

But I would have preferred to feel silly instead of sick to my stomach. See, a few months later, he was "potty trained". "Oh, he can go by himself," they told me. Famous last words. While I was feeding his little sister, he told me he needed to go potty and was insistent that he have privacy. I knocked a few times to check in and make sure he hadn't fallen in. He emerged after a few minutes and announced, "Ka ka. Chelle. Ka ka."

"Oh, ka ka? Good for you, Christopher!" I went to take him back in to make sure he'd washed his hands when I smelled something terrible. I looked down and his hands were brown. Shoot, I thought. He tried to wipe himself. On the wall. The bathtub. The sink. The door. It was EVERYWHERE. I had to quarantine him while I disinfected everything and gave him a bath. I don't remember how much money I made that night, but I'm confident in saying that it wasn't enough to properly reward someone for cleaning up that nightmare. Naturally, that was the first time he'd done it, so the parents couldn't have prepared me for what came to be known as The Incident. But is it any wonder that I had no desire to be a nanny? So I have a lot of respect and appreciation for girls willing to babysit.

I remember babysitting in a time when people didn't worry as much about sexual harassment and 'he said she said' sort of stuff. I know that I should be the one to pick up and drop off a teenage girl, but I remember riding off on the back of a dad's motorcycle with him. Granted, he was my dad's friend and knew it would embarrass me more than anything else to be seen on a motorcycle with a self proclaimed "geezer". I distinctly remember a particularly uncomfortable ride home with a dad who felt compelled to dole out dating advice to a 15 year old girl without a prayer of being asked on a date any time soon. (It took me asking to get a date on my 16th birthday.) He told me (while gazing out the front window nostalgically) not to lie down at any point on a date. Whether we were playing a game, watching a movie, planking (okay, that didn't exist then) or anything else. Under no circumstances was I ever to lie down on a date. He told me it only led to bad things. "Thanks, Mr. ______. I'll remember that. Anything to confess? Oh, and could you please pay me already so I can remove myself from one of the most uncomfortable conversations of my young life?"

So when I pick her up on Saturday, I'll try to keep my what-not-to-do-on-a-date advice to a minimum, and I won't take the Harley. Even though, apparently, I'm a grown up.

Christmas Carnage

We had surprisingly minimal carnage at our manger scene. We do seem to have an uninvited guest, though...

 

Most of our Christmas decorations are child-friendly, which works out nicely, because our child treats them like friends. Brandon's Mom has collected Christmas M&M figures for her family since the 80s and Teagan, for one, is incredibly grateful. They're supposed to live in a small basket on the coffee table, but more often than not can be found lined up on the bin of ornaments we never got around to putting on the tree.

 

A Christmas miracle, the tree's only been wrestled to the ground twice. I documented just a few of the fallen soldiers of Christmas 2012. Missing is Ralphie from A Christmas Story in his cowboy gear (he isn't supposed to be holding a sawed off shotgun).

I wanted to be upset about Teagan breaking one of my favourite A Christmas Story ornaments, but the whole thing was just too ironic. There goes our Major Award. Did she do it on purpose? It will be a family controversy for years...

We've been forced to move her presents to higher ground, since "We have to wait until Christmas" didn't seem to hold any water with her. None of our countdowns have been accurate, because the blocks are just too fun to play with. Ah, Christmas.

{The Best Kind of} Blast from the Past

They may think that because it's taken me 6 weeks to blog about The Browns visiting that I didn't love every. single. minute. But I did. Our besties from the BYU 29th Ward, Jordan & Rachel, swung through Las Vegas and were kind enough to stop for a couple of hours to catch up on the last 4 years. (You may remember that the last time they visited us in Las Vegas they brought a truckload containing 90% of our earthly possessions. Great friends, or what?!) Yep, hard to believe that the last time we'd seen each other was 2008! And you'd never have known it the way we picked right up.

I was so excited to meet their little boys, Gavin & Holden. Just as handsome as I expected them to be and more talkative, which was so much fun. They got to meet Teagan, and while I'm not sure that she lived up to any expectations, she certainly hit it off with her built-in new friends.

 

We reminisced about the good ol' days, we caught up on the current situation and I yelled at Rachel for looking so good after having two babies in two years. (I went against my better judgment and requested to take a photo with her...fortunately my loving husband cut off my mid-section - thanks honey!)

They laughed at me when I asked, but I wanted a photo of Buddy & Jordan too - for old times' sake.

We used to hang out at their apartment all the time, as we were just in the next building over. Did I mention their amenities? While most of us were still living the sad, starving student life, Rachel was busy being a bigwig of the financial world, bringing home the bacon. They were first on the HD bigscreen bandwagon and were kind enough to pass us their old TV...which we are currently watching in our living room :) It was a thing of beauty. Don't even get me started on their sectional. Nearly every seat reclined and they had a hard time prying us out of them to go home to our rickety old futon. We ate dessert on the floor, so as not to soil the beautiful, cream, microsuede. Apparently after 4 years and two boys it looks a little different :) 

It was so much fun to be reunited, if only for a couple of hours. While we probably won't be passing through Delaware any time soon, if ever we have the chance, you can be sure we will. Happy trails, Browns!

A Happy (Albeit Unconventional) Thanksgiving

Didn't mean for this one to get so long...a lot of detail about a little Black Friday shopping. Sorry if it bores you to tears.
Brandon got screwed over at work this year and he wound up having to work the days before and after Thanksgiving AND Christmas. I have to be grateful that he gets the actual holidays themselves off, but it squashed any chance we had to spend the holidays with family. We missed them.

So, we decided to make the best of living in Vegas and go to a buffet. Brilliant, no? No cooking, no dishes...no leftovers - a sacrifice we were willing to make in the name of endless plates of food. We had invitations from a couple of dear friends, but didn't want to impose on family time and politely declined. It was incredibly thoughtful of them to invite us, but both had lots of family in town and we didn't want to impose and rob them of precious time with family from out of town. So we decided on The Feast Buffet at the Red Rock Hotel and Casino. This morning I did some research. Should have done that first.

Turns out, they more than doubled their price for Thanksgiving and the only prices listed required a membership, which we don't have. And the cherry on top was the fact that children UNDER 2 are free. Not children 2 AND under. I couldn't help but think that perhaps they would cut us some slack since she turned two 3 weeks ago. But we didn't want to take that chance.

We speculated as to who might be open today and where we could eat. Brandon was craving a burger (not out of the ordinary) so we planned on Red Robin. YUM. Holiday hours weren't listed on the website, and when no one answered the phone we were skeptical...skeptical but hungry. So we headed in the general direction, knowing that there were plenty of eateries near there and we could hit one of those if Red Robin wasn't open. Then we drove past Carl's Jr. and saw a sign for Western Bacon Cheeseburgers (I'm lookin' at you, Dad). Not exactly turkey and stuffing, but still delicious and decidedly American. So to Carl's we went...right after stopping to get Panda Express for dinner. Not so patriotic there.

We weren't the only ones there, in fact it was surprisingly busy. I do think we were the only ones that went around the booth and listed things we were grateful for, though.
Michelle: "I'm grateful for people willing to work on Thanksgiving."
Buddy: "I'm grateful for the cow that died to make my Thanksgiving delicious."
Teagan: too busy stuffing her face with sweet potato fries to comment. We'll go with sweet potato fries.
BONUS: they're open Christmas Day, so there's that possibility next month :)

We went home for Teagan's nap but all three of us ended up taking one. Apparently you don't need to have eaten turkey to be tired on Thanksgiving! Our dear friends the Statens had invited us to dinner but told us that we'd be more than welcome to come for dessert later on as well. We couldn't turn down pumpkin cheesecake, "Elder Bednar Pie" (Katie's mum used to make berry cream pies for him when he spoke in her classes), pumpkin and coconut cream pies. Boy, did they live up to the hype. And to top it off, Katie made us plates of delicious leftovers. I'm still full. We got to spend some time with their wonderful family who made us feel right at home...and Katie tried to hide how upset she was with me that we went to a fast food establishment instead of their home to begin with. :)

We put Teagan to bed and went to the computer to research some Black Friday deals. We've been debating it for a while now, but after Family Movie Night (Madagascar 3) las week we made it official: we're going to get a new TV. Yep, our $30 college TV isn't cutting it any more. I hosted game nights a while back and one of the girls told me that my house would be great to host a movie night. Then she saw my TV. The remote IS dying, making it nigh impossible to turn the TV on and off, which gave us a kick in the direction of the 21st century. We've already heard back from Santa that he's going to do his best to bring us a new TV! Woo hoo!

Not content to wait for Santa to bring it Christmas Eve, I decided to brave Black Friday. I wasn't prepared to throw elbows or camp out for a week to snag a deal (seriously, who has that kind of time and can still afford a big screen TV?) so we searched for something less high profile than the doorbusters. We found one at Target.com and I thought I would swing by to see if they had it in store for a similar price. Brandon tried to stay up with me, but he had to work today, so he retired early, telling me he didn't know how I manage to stay up until 3. "I'll be home long before 3, my dear," said I. Little did I know...

I was planning on going at 10, after the initial rush at 9, but I was stressing out over a lightning deal on Amazon and missing out on it if I wasn't home in time. {My life is SO hard, I know.} Seasons of The Big Bang Theory were going on sale for $8 between 12:20 & 4:20 AM and I couldn't pass it up. Hours in advance, I added them to cart with the intent of refreshing the page as they went on sale to guarantee availability and pulled up the original deal page just in case I needed to start from the beginning. I'd read that some people thought the lightning deals were a sham because they were gone before they were available. Prone to anxiety, I panicked. I must have refreshed the page 100 times starting at midnight. At 12:18, my heart started to race and my palms got sweaty. I watched the clock and at the stroke of 12:20, refreshed my cart only to find that the new price wasn't reflected yet. After minutes of shaking and sweating (looking back it wouldn't have been the end of the world, but adrenaline kicked in and I HAD to do this), refreshing, adding and deleting, I finally got the right price in my cart and couldn't click 'Check Out' fast enough. Eager to see how long it took for them to sell out (as per crazy rants on Amazon's comment page) I looked at the stats. I was in the first 20%. Wow. I may have overreacted. But I'm in the Cub Scouts now, so I'm nothing if not prepared.

After having successfully completed my first (and non-confrontational) Black Friday purchase, I felt like I could conquer the world and headed out to Target. Not nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. The initial hulaballo had died down and they were restocking shelves. Scored a griddle to replace last Black Friday's griddle that I maimed a few weeks ago and great deals on movies and stuff for Teagan. The electronics section was a little too intense for me. No TV in sight. But also no pushing, no shoving. A little cart congestion, but nothing that sparked my social anxiety. I've never checked out so fast, either. They were MORE than prepared for the mass of humanity.

On fire, I decided to check out Wal-Mart. Again, no TV but a handful of super cheap movies for us to watch on our someday TV...if I ever find it. Everyone else had found their dream TV. I seemed to be the only one wandering around without a gigantic rectangular box in their cart. I couldn't help but wonder how many of them already had big TVs at home and were getting the next best thing or how many of them could actually afford to pay for it without a credit card. But it's none of my business, so I moved on. To Target again. Realizing I hadn't asked anyone about their stock in the back and thinking that I'd regret it if I didn't find out (after all, without a car seat in the back there wasn't a better time to get it) I returned.

Still no luck, but I spoke to a very nice manager there who gave me some advice on mounting it. And I found some great stuff on clearance. I'm sure the cashier wondered about me, buying dryer sheets, file folders and pillows at 2:45 in the morning. 2:45! Brandon was right! I called it a night (morning?) and headed home, unlocking the door a few minutes before 3:00. Who knew I had it in me? Well, I'm not 29 for a few more hours so it must have been the whippersnapper still in me. Panicking again that we won't see another deal like it, I pulled the proverbial trigger and bought it online before retiring for the night. A whole lotta panic last night. I'm not cut out for Black Friday. I had fun, though. Teagan didn't wake up any earlier than usual - happy birthday to me - so I got a solid 4 hours of sleep. A nap may be in order two days in a row!
Sidebar: the worst movie you could ever think to watch before going out on your own in the middle of the night? Gone. The plot centres around unsuspected girls being abducted. So I was hyper aware of the gentleman in a ski mask wandering around the Target parking lot the first time I went. He was still there the second time and I made sure to steer clear of him on my way in. Ooh, he was creepy. Then upon making my exit I noticed that he was Security. Probably scared off the bad guys as well as potential customers!

Disappointed that Brandon has to work today, so Teagan and I are on our own for my birthday...which feels just like any other day, except that all my friends are busy with family or out of town so we're just going about business as usual. So this is what it's like to be a grownup!

Hand Soap, Thai Food and Sharks...oh my!

Like anyone else's, Brandon's job comes with pros and cons. A con being that he has to work one Saturday every month, which produces the pro: a day off during that week. 

We've used the last several days off in conjunction with trips, but on Monday we decided to make a day of it and do something Vegas-y. That may sound silly, but we don't plan to be here forever and want to start taking advantage of the sightseeing opportunities so close to us, especially now that Teagan is old enough to appreciate things...not to mention that she's still free most places! So we headed for the Shark Reef. We hadn't been since 2009, so we thought it had been long enough to be interesting again.

The look of awe on Teagan's face as we approached the larger-than-life fish tank was worth every penny. She'd never seen anything like it. Crocodiles, fish bigger than her (and I) and sharks everywhere. She was fascinated at first, and then began to realize how close they were and preferred to be held, safe and secure by one of us. She was fine with the octopus until it moved. She refused to set foot on the glass floor, even when Brandon tried to lower her onto it.
Brandon and I both seized the opportunity to pet the stingrays. I wasn't nervous about it until the employee started barking out warnings and cautionary tales, stressing the importance of only using one finger and not touching the tail or the eyes. No big deal. I kept to the rules and petted it appropriately. To quote a little girl touching a dolphin at Sea World a few years ago: "It felt like hot dogs." T put her hand in the water, but that was the extent of it. That was even more than I expected.
We spent a lot of time in the tunnels, where you can see fish and sharks swimming above, below, left and right. Aside from the world's loudest group of high school kids on a tour, it wasn't very busy so we enjoyed a good portion of it in peace.
Oh, and Teagan surprised us at the end and touched a stingray AND an octopus. In the gift shop.

While we were out and about near the Strip, we made a day of it and hit Town Square. I've been obsessed with the holiday hand soaps at Bath & Body Works. How sad am I? I'm in a vanilla induced haze and can't seem to buy enough of them, knowing that they'll be gone at the end of the season. I have a sickness to be sure. A sad, sad sickness - apparently I need a little more excitement in my life. 

To reward Teagan for being on her best behaviour while I hemmed and hawed over the attributes of Winter Spice & Vanilla vs. Coconut Lime Verbana, we took her over to the park. She loved the slides and got a kick out of the kiddie-sized maze and it was fun to be at the park as a family. And to reward Brandon for his patience at "Bed, Bath, Body Works & Beyond" as he calls it, we picked up Thai take out on the way home. Everybody wins on days like these. They should happen more often. Like once a month!

It's Your Turn.

Me: Wow, Teagan has a stinky bum.
Buddy: She sure does. Remember that time this morning when I changed her and we didn't think she was poopy but she actually was?
Me: Are you casually throwing out the fact that you changed a stinky diaper already today, passively aggressively inferring that it's my turn?
Buddy: You see right through me.

BAZINGA.

We invited our friend Jason and his three adorable kids over for dinner yesterday while his wife, Natalie, enjoyed a well-deserved Girls' Weekend. You may be thinking 'How thoughtful of you!' but before you go thinking we're amazing friends, you should know that they had Brandon over NUMEROUS times when Teagan & I visited both sides of the family for weeks at a time. So, we're way behind on the being good friends scale, but it was a start. 

We ate dinner, too much ice cream and let the kids play together - Teagan idolizes Carson & Sydney. When Sydney suggested they dress up in Teagan's new Princess Dora clothes (thanks, Dynelle!) Teagan jumped at the chance. Bet you've never seen a princess in footie pajamas before. (Speaking of pajamas, poor baby Cameron got all dolled up in a pair of Teagan's PJs. Apparently we were out to prove she's a girl - everything was fluffy and pink! He's a good sport.)

We put Teagan to bed and Jason laid his kids down so we could chat and Jason could enjoy some adult interaction while missing his wife. We couldn't decide between a game of Quiddler and a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, so we opted for both. Quiddler came first and on the last round, Brandon produced a doozy of a word - the perfect segue into the night's second activity, two of our favourite episodes. (For the record, he was short an 'A' but the laugh was worth the cheat!) It may be lost on you if you haven't seen Big Bang, but Sheldon, one of the main characters uses it as an exclamation when he's made a particularly clever point.

It Snowed in Vegas...sort of.

Brandon and I looked out the window today to see it raining. But it was falling too slow to be rain. So I looked closer. And if you look closely (mostly at the side of the house on the left) you may see it too - SNOW. In Las Vegas. Snow before my family in CANADA has seen snow. Don't worry, in the time it took for me to fetch my boots it had stopped. Not holding our breath for a white Christmas.

Como se dice "Happy Halloween"?

I capitalized on the assumption that this may be the last year I get to decide on Teagan's Hallowe'en costume. Granted, I could have taken better advantage of the opportunity and NOT used Nick Jr. as my inspiration, but I just couldn't resist. Kristina & Pablo got her a Dora backpack this summer and she looked so cute toting it around. In casual conversation with a friend, it came up that her sister had a Dora wig she'd be willing to lend us. Brilliant! When the wig came, Teagan couldn't bear to look at it let alone wear the thing. It really freaked her out. Couldn't even keep it on long enough to get a blurry photo. Hmm. What to do, what to do? I tried the wig on to show her it wasn't scary and it was as though a lightbulb went off above that football shaped mass of hair. I could be Dora! I had everything else I needed in my closet - although I'd never worn them together - and I printed off a template for The Map to roll up and keep safely tucked in the pocket of Teagan's teeny tiny backpack.

Teagan's costume was one we couldn't put together well on our own. Enter eBay. She loved wearing it, so I suppose it was an investment for the dress up bin.

As for Buddy, we grabbed a pair of "one size fits all" purple gloves and a $3 T-shirt from Wal-Mart. My industrious husband crafted his own Swiper mask and we whipped up a fox nose with a straw, pom pom, construction paper and a party hat. He really had Teagan going. She was constantly giving him the stiff arm and saying "Swiper, no swiping!" We were looking through Halloween photos this week and she'd point at each of us and say our names. "Mummy...Teagan...Swiper!" I tried it multiple times. Always Swiper, never Daddy.

Our first order of business was Trunk or Treating at the church - thanks to the Mountain's Edge Ward for letting us join in on the fun. Being a newly created ward, we wouldn't have had anything set up on our own. Teagan managed to eek out a "trkotrt" every time, usually without moving her mouth (hence the lack of vowels) and it was usually so quiet no one actually heard her. But she enjoyed it, and gave a hearty "da doo" (thank you) after each handout. She was eager to dig in, so we let her gnaw on a few pieces. Don't worry, she paced herself...that's inaccurate. WE paced her. It really was a lot of fun, and reminded us of the Trunk or Treat last year - we had moved (earlier that day) into the Coronado Ward and were lucky enough to have a Trunk or Treat with our new and old wards combined. It was hard to know who we should know, since we'd only attended our new ward twice, but everyone was friendly...and generous!

We'll probably head to a pumpkin patch next year but this time around we were content with pumpkins we found at Wal-Mart. I scored a short, fat one that was perfect for me :) and a big one for Buddy. We shared them with Teagan, but she'll probably get her own next year. She wasn't into the mess and only put her hand in a few times to scoop out the seeds. She had fun colouring the back of my pumpkin and eating the candy I had to bribe her with to sit still for a photo with the finished products.

The Big Dance came soon after and we decided to brave Trick or Treating around to a few friends in the neighbourhood. We headed out at 6 (an hour and a half after our first trick or treater. 4:30? Really?) and bumped into our friends, The Statens as they were leaving their house. We joined forces and began knockin' doors. We were 0 for 3 and I'm sure Teagan was expecting something a little more exciting. Our friends, The Phelps, came through as our first people home and handing out candy. Phew! People were really nice (despite what you hear about unfriendly Las Vegans), most hanging out in their garage or driveway, saving themselves a trip to the front door every 10 seconds. Genius. Some people were confused, but a lot caught on and knew who we were. I must confess to being surprised when The Joker and The Goth gave us a head nod and said "Dudes, you're Dora, Boots and Swiper. Awesome!" then went back to drinking beer in their garage, listening to satanic music. I guess you never know. Teagan wasn't as shy as I thought she'd be, but candy at every stop will do that to you. After a few streets we set out a bowl of candy on our doorstep and hitched a ride with the Statens over to a block party some of the Coronado Ward members put on in their neighbourhood every year. It was awesome! "Hay" rides, a bounce house and smores in the street? So fun. Glad we went - I think it will be a tradition for us. Love where we live! 

We came home and put Boots to bed and formed a plan for the rest of the night. It seemed like the bowl on the porch was working out nicely and for numerous reasons we just left the bowl out there (one of them being the state of my hair underneath the wig, another the risk of incessant doorbell ringing waking Sleeping Boots and lastly but not leastly: laziness, pure and simple.) It worked out really nicely. I think I may do the same next year. Everybody wins. You can accuse me of not adopting the spirit of Halloween, but the comfort of my couch will help soften the blow. Now to hide the stash so a certain two year old doesn't point and grunt at it all day every day. Learned that lesson with the vase of "decorative" candy corn at the bottom of the stairs. It's half empty...or is it half full?