I have to say, nannying is kind of an "ideal" job, really. I mean, if you like kids. My days have consisted of playing in the sandbox, reading picture books, Ring Around the Rosie, peek-a-boo, singing along to nursery rhymes, and tickling. Then there's nap time, where I get to write. Almost two solid hours of writing fun, depending on the day. And I get paid!
Some things:
1) The child has developed this obsession with a tree in the back yard. It's sort of built up a bit, so it's a toddler-step up to get to it, and I think he's just discovered that he can reach it. He will spend so much time just standing near the tree and staring up at the leaves and pointing that I decided I needed to do something to interact with him, so I started teaching him the different parts of a tree: trunk, bark, branch, and leaves. He will now say "bark" and "branch" (well, more like "berk" and "bernch") when I point at them, which is absolutely adorable.
2) He absolutely loves water. Like, adores it. He keeps asking me to turn the taps on whenever we're outside, but it's just so cold that I don't want him to get all wet. So today I set up an area in the bathroom, just grabbing some stuff out of the kitchen. I set up some towels, a giant bowl of water, a cup, and a funnel. He literally sat and poured water from the cup into the funnel (which I directed at the bowl) for an hour. Non-stop. Fully concentrating. He was just so enthralled by how the water poured from the funnel, and then in the feel of the water going out of the funnel (alternately sticking his hands underneath the spout and then inside the mouth of the funnel). And he would just giggle. So adorable.
3) He started crying when I leave. Is it horrible that I take that as a good sign?
4) I have created a game that the parents will probably hate me for. I do a bit of housework when I can, liking hanging the washing out on the line (since this country doesn't do dryers!) and then folding it in the afternoon. On Monday he was running around while his mother and I did this together, and that's when he fell and hit his eye hard against a concrete pot, making his eyebrow swell enough to make his eye look half the size of the other one and providing for some spectacular black, blue, yellow, and green bruising. Anyway, I think he became less keen on running around in that area and instead sort of clung to my legs when I went out the next day. I picked him up and you could just see the light in his eye when he realized HE was now tall enough to touch the pegs. He can get them off the line but hasn't quite mastered clipping them back on. Anyway, he'll collect some pegs and try to pin up clothes but inevitably his collection will fall to the ground, at which point he goes "uh-oh!" and I set him down and say "pick them up!" and hastily reach for a few more items I can hang up/fold while he gathers the pegs. Then he runs back and throws his arms around my legs and says "UP!" and we start the process over again. He thinks this is THE BEST game. Sometimes if he hasn't dropped the pegs in a while he'll throw them down instead. "Uh-oh!" Makes hanging up the washing take about twice as long, but so cute.
5) The child doesn't throw fits. Like, at all. Except at nap time. But then only when his mother is there (she works from home two days a week). Today, after "UP!" we went in for nap time and he just sort of babbled at me and pointed to the books he wanted read to him and then pointed to his clock. (There are these fascinating toddler clocks with a sun and stars. Set the amount of time for them to sleep, and the sun goes away and the stars come out. The sun comes back when it's time to get up. If he wakes up early, he'll just babble to himself until "the sun comes out," at which point he's like "HEY! It's time to get up!") So basically he was like, it's time to sleep now. And I put him in his cot and he waved bye and rolled over and went straight to sleep.
So basically, I kind of love this job. I mean, you know, talk to me in a few weeks maybe and I might be getting tired of it. But even changing diapers isn't that bad. Of course, I have a cold (YES, AGAIN) so maybe when my nose is a bit unblocked I'll be worse off!
I got paid for my first week and put some money into my "tax fund." I'm looking for a new spreadsheet to record financial stuff on, because I just decided that I don't like the one I made. Anyone have any suggestions?
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