Watching Spartababy!

I want you married friends, and you married friends with children to know that I hear your cries of how busy you are. I see your cute pictures. I hear how you never have time for yourself.

And I feel the guilt.

I know that I have a life of luxury and time to waste.

And I think that it is so totally unbalanced.

And so, in an effort to make the world right--I am trying to help out my fellow friends with children in whatever way I can to alleviate your stress--

But really--it's to alleviate my guilt.

So I've started watching kids 4 days a week for 2 hours. This is just long enough for me to wonder how on earth anyone watches kids 24/7.


Yesterday, Crystal came up and I got to watch Asher while she and her husband Matt took her daughter Valerie for some much needed individual attention/shopping time.

And I got to spend some one on one time with the big guy. As you can see from his picture--he's very fat. And cute and lovable. I used him as my plaything. I had a ball making him talk and moving his massive arms. I would walk him up to the mirror and hide my face so that it looked like he was speaking and then in the perfect baby boy voice I would say, "I AM SPARTABABY!"

He didn't really laugh--but I had a riot!

Then we had baby workout time where I would lay him on his tummy on the floor and try and get him to roll over. He hated that, but he looked so cute while getting so frustrated with me. Then I'd roll him over onto his back and he would smile because he wasn't on his tummy.

He fell asleep in his carseat to some great music and after he woke up, I changed his diaper. No biggie. Then I fed him---again--no biggie.

While feeding him, he made a horrible pooping noise.

I thought, "Dang! What a waste of a diaper!"

And then I thought, "I wonder how long he can last in his own poop?"
Along with the thought, "What if I change him and he's not quite finished?"

I decided to hang out for a little bit and see if he got upset. He was kind of doing his grunting thing and I could see that he was not pleased.

Sigh.

I went to change his diaper, but soon realized that we had an explosive situation and so I gave him a little bath in the sink. There's nothing quite like trying to hold a baby so that he doesn't get poop on anything, while scrubbing a sink with the other hand so that he can safely bathe.

It all worked out. I'm very strong!

He ate again and we played and then he started getting sleepy, but I tried to keep him awake because I didn't want him to not sleep for his parents later on. How am I supposed to alleviate my guilt if I hand back a baby that will be up all night long?

We had a good time and because I kept him awake and hadn't fed him for an hour--he was very cranky when his parents came to get him--which I think they liked because they felt loved.

Spartababy and I had a very good time together. I'm glad I was able to take care of him for
6 short hours.

I'm overwhelmed with respect for you parents out there that dedicate your lives to your families with no thought of down time or time for yourselves.

You're kind of amazing.