i’ll be sitting for my godson and his baby sister this evening. it’s been a long time since i’ve taken care of more than 2 kids at a time and i’m curious to know how i’ll handle it. the norm used to be that i’d have upwards of 6 kids at my house during the summers, ranging in ages from 0-16 most of them my cousins or children of my cousins, 2 of them my own kids. today is an experiment in whether or not i still have what it takes to run a zoo.
today, the math goes: 8yr old + 1 yr old + (3 yr. old*2) + teenager + me = x. the break down is 4 females (this count includes me) and two 3 yr old boys. somehow i think this is a formula for some type of disaster. so here’s my gameplan…
1. i’ve misappropriated a 24″x32″ chart pad from my office. and to salve my conscience i have to keep in mind that no one has used it in almost 2 years.
2. i have a plethora (a jefe plethora) of arts and crafts supplies that haven’t been used since i moved into my box-sized apartment. i will liberate them from bins. everything from popsicle sticks to finger paints to foam stickers to crayons and clay.
3. everyone gets smocks (AKA my old tshirts)
4. free for all on the patio
5. once it’s cool enough to take little people out in the evening sun, we swim.
6. arm floaties for the toddler boys, my girlchild is like a sturgeon and needs no support, and the squishy baby will hang like a koala at my side.
7. stay in the pool until water fatigue is making them all exhausted.
8. baths, movie, snacks, bed time. I WIN.
now what to do about dinner. my son only eats hot dogs lately, so diagonally sliced hebrew nationals for him and his compadre. for me and the ladies, including the squishy but cheeky ms. baby i’ll be babysitting for the first time, chicken and veggies. i think she has enough teeth to manage poultry. and if not, she gets eggs and fruit. kids will eat eggs at any time of day. fruit, too.
off i go. prepared for nothing to work out as i’ve planned. but OPTIMISTIC.
