Adventures in Babysitting

Last night I went babysitting for the first time since I was about 16 years old.
Gavin and Jen both wanted to join Cari for a movie based on some book that I’ve never read (Golden Compass), so Jose and I looked after Carina for a few hours while they all went out. Carina went down for a short nap right as I got there, and woke up a half hour later. After I’d gotten her out of her crib and brought her back downstairs, I sat on the couch staring at her, not quite sure what to do with this little 6-month-old baby. Fortunately, that was when Jose showed up. There are enough little kids in his family that he’s totally comfortable hanging out with babies, and Carina loved him.

After a bit it was time for dinner, which is where I finally got the hang of things. If there’s a job to be done, I can handle that. She got her bottle and I fed her some applesauce that she was very excited about. After that, she finally started showing the telltale “I’m tired” sign — rubbing her eyes — that Jen had warned me about. Bedtime had arrived, so we took her upstairs to change her diaper and put her in her pajamas. As soon as Jose saw the poopy diaper, he disappeared. It was pretty funny. So I got her all ready for bed. Jen had told me I could sit in the rocking chair and read her a book to calm her down, but it wasn’t necessary — she was so tired that she was out within minutes of us putting her in her crib.
It turns out that Jose and I make a pretty good team when it comes to babies. This bodes well for the future.
It was fun. Carina is cute.