Babysitting

Saturday night Dan and I were able to babysit our niece, Samantha while her family went to the UT basketball game. We had her for 4-4.5 fun filled and active hours. She came over at 6 and was a whirlwind of activity all night. We took her to see the Baby's room and she played with a few of the Baby Einstein toys we have. We don't have that many toys yet, but these two play music and have flashing lights. She really liked them. We turned off the lights and hit the buttons to play music and the lights would flash like a disco- she and Dan danced and jumped around the room for an hour. She tried to get me to dance, but it wasn't going to happen. After the dance party, she and I played toss the dog with a stuffed animal. It worked ok while I was sitting in my rocking chair ( sound like a grandma) because I could pick it up off the floor. Then she wanted to switch spots and she got the chair. She could never quite get the dog to me- it kept ending up on the floor. Bending is not my thing anymore, especially Saturday night. I was having fairly frequent and long contractions- every 12-15 minutes and they were pretty uncomfortable. Luckily, Dan returned and we moved on to other activities.

We took Remi for a walk- Samantha had to help hold the leash.
Before the walk, Dan grabbed a few pieces of candy to have on hand in case he needed the sugar. Samantha avidly watched him in the pantry and asked what he was doing and if she could have some too. He told her- when we get back.

As soon as we walked in the door from the walk, she took me to the pantry and told me she got to choose a piece of candy. She looked intently for several minutes, then tried to take 3 chocolate santas - reasoning that they were all the same. I told her she could have one. She wanted some goldfish to snack on too. She tried to bargain with me, saying " I can have another when I finish these ( goldfish). " I held my ground and said no, only one.

We watched some cartoons next- not too much was on and of course we don't have any kids videos yet. We all three sat on the couch with Samantha in between us. Dan flipped to the UT BBall game briefly to check the score. As it was on, Samantha said, " This is terrible for me" in a very serious voice. Guess she didn't want to watch the game. It was pretty funny.

While on the couch, Samantha told me about all the babies she has in her belly (rudolph, bear, etc). She said her belly was getting BIG. I said, not as big as mine and showed her my belly. She said Wow. She was able to feel the baby move a little and she very gently explored my belly. She was fascinated by my belly button- I told her it used to look like hers but I don't think she believed me. She even said hello to the baby - she introduced herself.

Dan and Samantha took turns fishing and being fish next. Samantha got out Brie's cat toy- a long felt piece with feathers on the end. She had Dan "fishing" with it. Samantha started by actually making fish lips and noises and she caught the feathers in her mouth and actually bit down- getting several feather pieces in her mouth. She spit the feathers out and said, "Unca Dan, you can be the fish now."

It was a fun and entertaining evening.

On a side note about me- I am starting to have a lot more contractions- usually 4-5 per hour or so. This is all normal and good per my doctor. Sometimes they vary in intensity from being tight to being pretty uncomfortable.