January 06, 2003 - 7:56 p.m.

A Mary Poppins Day

Today was a good day to be the nanny, at least in this particular household. Normally, Mondays are one of my toughest days. I am usually worn out from staying up late (because it's the weekend and I can sleep in, right?) and being awakened between 7 and 8AM by the Sudbury Marathon being run in countless laps around the kitchen island a mere 7 feet above my head, or the Half Pint Roller Derby also just above my head, or B's impression of a tap dancing convention. Why I haven't learned to either go to bed at a reasonable hour or buy earplugs, I do not know. Chalk it up to being a hopeless optimist. :)

Anyway, the kids are also usually tired out on Monday morning, thanks to a weekend of raucous fun with the parents and no naps. Don't get me wrong, these are not the kind of parents who make up for their absence during the week with extravagance and indulgence on the weekends, but they do try to make the most of the time they have with the kids - often at the expense of quality and quantity of sleep.

Happily for me, the kids were in good moods this morning (and throughout the day) and so was I. That really makes all the difference. It keeps H from being a total diva (I am the oldest and even though I am only eight years old, I am perfectly capable of making all my own decsions, and you should listen to me even though I am not even pretending to listen to you). It keeps M from being bored and needy and sucking her thumb (no child care literature tells you how to deal with a six year old who still sucks her thumb, though not in public). It even allows B to be as well-behaved as a three year old is capable of being (don't ever believe in the terrible twos - threes are MUCH worse; they test every ounce of authority you try to bring to bear, and they'll take advantage of any weakness in that authority).

Today, for the most part, the kids all did what I asked of them, when I asked it. We got off to school with a minimum of my nagging and their whining. B and I had fun on the way to pick up a couple of new snow tubes by inventing stranger and stranger kissing partners - he started it I swear! "Have you ever seen a police kiss a lamppost?" from B. "How about a monkey kissing a slug?" was my response. And so on. It was silly and lame, but we cracked each other up, and that hasn't happened in a while.

After the kids were all home from school, we broke in one of the new snow tubes on the slope of the front yard. It's amazing the sibling harmony that 15 inches of snow on the ground and a sledding apparatus can being about. They had a blast trying to all pile onto one snow tube before gravity sent them down the hill with or without all the passengers. Then they tried each getting on a snow tube and linking arms before shoving off. It was awfully cute, and they really were looking out for one another. Every so often they remind me what good kids they are! :)

As twilight began to fall, I dragged them inside with the promise of popcorn and hot chocolate with marshmallows. The remainder of the afternoon was whiled away with computer games and painting at the easel. Nobody argued about whose turn it was, and a minimum amount of advice was given to the computer playing sibling from the peanut gallery. Pretty astonishing to this somewhat jaded nanny. :)

At one point during the afternoon, I complimented M on how patient and helpful she'd been all day and told her how happy that made me. She smiled sweetly up at me and told me that she is going to try to do that all the time! Awwwww. Way to melt the frostbitten cynical nanny heart! :) Of course, not wanting to set her up for failure, after giving her a big hug, I let her know that everyone has bad days when they are grumpy and it's okay to be perfectly behaved all the time. But it was still awfully sweet.

I love my job!

today's project: blazing sledding paths in the front yard

musing about: how lucky I am to be part of these kids' lives

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flutter back - fly ahead