Chasing Two

I would just like to say that watching a two-year-old is a lot harder than watching a teething three-month-old. Oh sure, you who have had children already know this, but for those of us childless few who only spend an hour and a half once a week in the church nursery, this information comes as a bit of a realization. A fun and interesting realization, of course.

Tonight's 2-year-old offender: the adorable Corban who actually doesn't turn 2 until tomorrow. His mom and dad decided that it was time to switch him to a "big boy room" and figured that shopping for his new bed would be easier without his input, so I got the pleasure of having him over for a short visit while they visited IKEA.

We met at BWW for dinner and after eating and visiting for a little bit, Corban's car seat got transferred into mine and we headed over to "Dema's house".

The first thing we had to do at my house was introduce the tiny Corban to the people-shy, but child-loving Jade. Corban stands right around Jade's height, so she was quite unintemidated by this little person. Good thing because I don't think he would have liked the barking all that much. Jade seemed to like Corban a lot. She followed him around and licked his face when she would get a chance. Corban wanted to play fetch with her at first, but being the young and overly excited (and impatient) puppy that she is, she would snatch the ball from his little hand and he was afraid that she would bite him, so he stopped playing with her. But he didn't mind her continuing to follow him around.

Corban got to spend a couple hours playing at my house. We watched some Veggie Tales, read a little out of one of my children's books, colored in my Elmo coloring book, and poured all the change in my loose change jar all over the living room. Twice. At least he helped me pick it back up. Funny kid. He's got the same kind of attention span as Jade has with her toys: play with them long enough for them to make a mess, then find another means of living room destruction while the adult (me) follows in their path and tries to keep the chaos to a minimum. Finally Jade got tired of following Corban in circles (I had blocked off the kitchen and stairs so that they both were stuck in the living room) so I took the two of them outside and we threw balls around the yard (me throwing for Jade, Corban just throwing one for his own entertainment). Corban's mom and dad came back not too long after we went out there. Unlike at church when they pick him up from the nursery, he was not exactly "happy" to see them. In fact, he saw them, shook his head emphatically, then ran back into my house and shut the front door on us. I guess that means that he had a good time with me. :) He even gave me a kiss goodbye before I handed him back to his parents.

After waving goodbye to my red-headed buddy, I finished picking up the evidence of my babysitting adventure (I had finished cleaning the living room properly before he came over, so it didn't take very long), then Jade and I crashed. We were worn out. But we had fun and I suspect that she will be okay if I get a chance to do it again. Which I hope we do.