My neighbours downstairs have an 11 month old girl named Jeania, who is adorable and usually very quiet and easy to please. She loves clapping and pointing, and generally putting everything in her mouth and holding DVD cases.
Last night, her mom, Sheila, asked me to watch Jeania while she went across the road for dinner with a friend. It was only going to be two hours at
most, and I’ve spent lots of time with Jeania and her parents so she is familiar with me, so I agreed (also no diapers would need changing, so that helped).
Jeania comes over at 6 pm, and she crawls all over, laughs, slobbers, and generally enjoys herself. Every time she stands on her own, she turns to me and claps. When she falls on her bottom seconds later, she claps. As she places the remote in her mouth, she claps. When she manages not to drop the DVD case she is holding, she claps. Then the case falls, she looks at it, then looks at me, and claps. She’s just having a good time.
Then she stumbles, and screams her head off. Fortunately Maz is able to appease her with funny faces and soon all is well again. Then the piece de resistance comes out – the frozen ice pack. She grabs it, and begins sucking on it, and is quite content for a very long time.
Then, as she looks around the apartment, she looks at me, and start
s screaming bloody murder. She has finally realized, an hour and ten minutes later, than mom is not here and she is convinced she has been abandoned and is stuck with me. I tried EVERYTHING to calm her down. We touched things, made faces and noises, went flying, played with the ice pack, tickled, watched TV, had some juice … nothing could calm her down. I even tried just letting her wear herself out with crying (which I’m sure the neighbours loved), but she didn’t let up. She was quickly getting into a frenzy, and I just couldn’t find anything to make her calm down.
Finally, at 7:30, her mom got to the door and came in. She told me she could hear Jeania from downstairs (I live on the third floor), and couldn’t believe what a state Jeania was in. She apologized and then I apologized for traumatizing her child.
I’m not sure I’ll be up for more babysitting any time soon, but I also don’t think I’ll be asked in the near future either. I think it’s best Jeania and I agree to be nothing more than friends for now.
Last night, her mom, Sheila, asked me to watch Jeania while she went across the road for dinner with a friend. It was only going to be two hours at
most, and I’ve spent lots of time with Jeania and her parents so she is familiar with me, so I agreed (also no diapers would need changing, so that helped).Jeania comes over at 6 pm, and she crawls all over, laughs, slobbers, and generally enjoys herself. Every time she stands on her own, she turns to me and claps. When she falls on her bottom seconds later, she claps. As she places the remote in her mouth, she claps. When she manages not to drop the DVD case she is holding, she claps. Then the case falls, she looks at it, then looks at me, and claps. She’s just having a good time.
Then she stumbles, and screams her head off. Fortunately Maz is able to appease her with funny faces and soon all is well again. Then the piece de resistance comes out – the frozen ice pack. She grabs it, and begins sucking on it, and is quite content for a very long time.
Then, as she looks around the apartment, she looks at me, and start
s screaming bloody murder. She has finally realized, an hour and ten minutes later, than mom is not here and she is convinced she has been abandoned and is stuck with me. I tried EVERYTHING to calm her down. We touched things, made faces and noises, went flying, played with the ice pack, tickled, watched TV, had some juice … nothing could calm her down. I even tried just letting her wear herself out with crying (which I’m sure the neighbours loved), but she didn’t let up. She was quickly getting into a frenzy, and I just couldn’t find anything to make her calm down.Finally, at 7:30, her mom got to the door and came in. She told me she could hear Jeania from downstairs (I live on the third floor), and couldn’t believe what a state Jeania was in. She apologized and then I apologized for traumatizing her child.
I’m not sure I’ll be up for more babysitting any time soon, but I also don’t think I’ll be asked in the near future either. I think it’s best Jeania and I agree to be nothing more than friends for now.
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