"Parents" of three

Now that I'm home for the summer I can help J watch our niece and nephew two days a week. S&K need the childcare between their work and school schedules, so we are happy to watch our bubbly three year old niece Hayden and her newborn brother Liam. J has been watching them ever since Liam was born in April, and she is understandably tired after the days where she watches all three kids. This is very good practice for when we someday have multiple children of our own.

Here's how the day went:
9:30 Hayden and Liam arrive. J makes a bottle Liam, and Hayden and James play nicely with a balloon. He is super excited to see her and expresses this by emitting loud high-pitched shrieks repeatedly. (I think that he thinks he's talking to her when he does this.) Hayden tells me several times how nicely she and James are sharing. Sometimes she is so eager to share that she rips the balloon right out of his arms, so that she can give it back to him again. Liam is fussy while the bottle is being prepared. Hayden takes off her shoes and puts on a pair of J's high heels.

9:45 J begins to make pizza dough for lunch. (N.B. Her pizza dough turns out beautifully, without any of the drama that certain other people have experienced while attempting it recently.) I hold Liam on my lap with a book, by far my most peaceful 15 minutes of the day. Liam works on his bottle contentedly. James and Hayden both insist that they be allowed to "help" Aunt Julie with the pizza. She pushes two kitchen chairs up to the counter, and they climb up to assist, mostly by asking questions about what everything is (Hayden) and stacking the spices into towers (James.) James is continuing to emit high-pitched shrieks every fifteen to thirty seconds. At one point I suggest that the pizza be topped with dirt instead of pepperoni, and Hayden is deeply upset. She tells Aunt Julie that this would be "disgusting."

10:00 The pizza dough is in the bread machine, and it's time for everyone to get dressed. I take off Hayden's high heels and put her crocs back on. I take James upstairs and put on his socks and sneakers. I close the door to my room and change into jeans and a long sleeved shirt. Hayden and James both bang on the door with Hayden insisting that they come in since I'm all "nakey." James assents by shrieking.

10:05
James has pooped his pants. J takes him upstairs to take off his shoes, pants, and diaper, put on a new one, and then put all his clothes back on. He shrieks through the process. Liam has also pooped his pants. I change his diaper downstairs, and he begins wail/shriek. We ask Hayden whether she needs to go to the bathroom before we visit the park. She is very noncommittal, so I take her upstairs to sit on the potty just to be sure. She doesn't need to go. I pull her jeans back up and we are ready to leave the house.

10:15
J carries out Liam in his carseat while I try to corral Hayden and Liam into the PT Cruiser. I load James first, who initially fusses and then gives great guffaws of laughter when he realizes Hayden will be sitting next to him in her booster eat. I strap in James, then strap in Hayden, then take the carseat from Liam and attempt to put in unsuccessfully several times before J gets it secure. James is shrieking again, and Liam is still crying. The door doesn't close on the first attempt, but it does when we reposition Liam's carseat. All three kids are in the backseat.

10:30
We listen to a CD of children singing Bible songs. Hayden provides musical criticism on several points, including "Why are there kids singing these songs?" We listen to "This Little Light of Mine" three times. We get to the park, and Hayden informs us that we are at the wrong park. Liam and James are both quiet.

10:40
We unpack the kids from the car. I carry a sleeping Liam in carseat over to the playground. Hayden walks on her own, but J has to carry a kicking and fighting James, who has seen the stream that runs through Hubbard Park and wants to get down and play in it. Hayden informs us, upon closer inspection, that we are at the right park after all. She tells me many stories about the last time she was here, with Aunt Martha.

10:45
Liam is asleep in his carseat on a park bench. Hayden and James are both in kiddie swings. Initially J is pushing Hayden while I push James, but then I push both, mostly giving underduckies.

10:50
Liam is still sleeping. James and Hayden climb up the swingset to go down the slides. J rules out the "twin slides" facing south since they both have large pools of standing water from a recent rain. James goes down a tunnel slide and gets his rear end soaked anyway. He slides very slowly with a damp bottom, but still laughs uproariously and goes down several times. Hayden climbs to the top of the slide once, but is too scared to go down. James climbs over her head and goes down again. Hayden decides to go on the swings again.

10:55
James is upset that Hayden is in her swing. Hayden does not switch swings, so Aunt Julie starts a timer for Hayden's turn and then James' turn. James' interest does not last to the end of the timer, so he goes back to the slides. Liam is still sleeping.

11:00
James starts down one of the super-wet slides, and I catch him halfway down before he reaches the puddle at the bottom and pull him off. J yells something to me from across the playground. I walk a little closer to listen to what she was saying. I don't end up listening, because in my absence James begins to play in the puddle of water at the base of the slide. His frontside and his backside are now soaked. I pull him away from the puddle and attempt to splash most of it off the slide and into the dirt below. James goes to another slide with another puddle and tries to pick up an enormous bug that is flailing in the water. I take away the enormous bug, and he reaches his hands down into the mud puddle from where I drained out the first puddle. He is completely soaked and his hands are coated in dirty woodchips. Hayden is shrieking on the swings, and Liam is (to the best of our knowledge) still asleep.

11:05
I carry James (sopping wet) over to the stream that he was trying to get into earlier, hold him upside down by his feet, and instruct him to rinse off his hands in the water. He cleans his hands and thinks this is enormous fun, but then is upset when I don't let him play in the stream. I carry him (still wet) and crying back to Hayden and J. I offer to take Hayden on a walk with James, and J sits down with sleeping Liam.

11:10
We follow the stream through the park, and see a mother duck fly over our heads to her five little ducklings swimming in the cat-tails. We follow them as they swim upstream (probably trying to escape from us) and I hold Hayden in one arm and James in the other so that we can keep up. They utterly fascinated by the little ducklings. Eventually we let them swim away when we reach the empty old basketball courts. James wants to be let down to play basketball, even though I tell him that we don't have a ball with us. Hayden insists that she knows where one is secretly hidden, but I don't let her down either. Both of them cry as I carry them back to J and Liam.


11:20
Liam is awake. We take one more round on the slides (then another, then another) as we gather everything up, and then load back into the backseats of the SUV. James cries a lot as we leave--we pass the stream without playing in it again--and Hayden shows everyone how tall she is when she stands on a rock. Liam is fussy. We listen to "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" four times on the way back home. Cracking open Liam's window helps with his fusses, but Hayden insists that he doesn't like it.

11:30
We all come back inside and J shows Hayden how the bread machine turned their mixture into dough. Hayden goes upstairs and puts on another pair of J's heels, then wears them into the kitchen to model. James imitates her by putting on (without much success) a pair of my flip flops. J begins to assemble the pizza, and Hayden and James take up their positions on chairs at the counter again to help.Hayden is worried that there might be dirt on the pizza when J puts on the sauce. She also helps put pepperoni on the pizza, but is upset that she can't eat more than one before its cooked. James makes more spice towers and spills a cup of flour onto the floor.

11:45
J is looking after Liam. Hayden and James go upstairs to James' room. I knock on the door, and Hayden informs me that I'm not allowed in their house. She then tells James that his room is a mess, and they need to clean it. James laughs.

12:00
The pizza comes out of the oven, but when Hayden can't have a piece before it's cut and cooled she sasses J and ends up in time out for three minutes. She begins to cry, which makes James cry. Liam needs a bottle, and when he hears the other two crying, he begins to cry as well. I work on giving Liam bottle while J cuts up the pizza. Time out ends, and J serves pizza to Hayden and James while Liam drifts off to sleep again in my arms.

12:15
J, Hayden, James and I eat pizza around the kitchen table. Hayden is very relieved there isn't any dirt on the pizza.

...and this would probably be an excellent opportunity thank my Mother, who used to watch three three-and-under-year-olds EVERY SINGLE DAY.