Adventures in babysitting

One day last week I babysat for a friend’s baby girl while she took her son to a doctor’s appointment. She thanked me a number of times for agreeing to babysit. (Although, if she knew the extent of my ignorance about childcare, she might not have been quite as grateful.) I babysat for years as a teenager, but I seem to have much less contact with kids as an adult. So, I was a little intimidated about watching a 4-month old for a few hours. Everything went surprisingly smoothly. The little one slept for the first hour, and when she woke up, she didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t a baby expert. Or, if she did notice, she didn’t say anything. Except for some indecipherable baby coos. I had a good time with her. And I think I found my calling in life. No, not a babysitter. I want to be a baby! I was seriously jealous of her gear, and here are a few examples. 1) She has a chair that appears to be a be a normal baby chair, but it actually has a massage option! I turned on the vibrations for her, but she didn’t seem to care. The poor thing doesn’t know what she’s missing. Hopefully she will learn how great massages are, perhaps right after she learns her ABCs. 2) Her mom showed me some special medicine I could give her if she got the hiccups. She says it works right away, and the hiccups are gone. Why haven’t I heard about this medicine before? I’ve been following antiquated methods for mine, which mostly include Husband trying to scare me. It’s a lot of fun for Husband, but not fun for me and ineffective against the hiccups. 3) The lucky girl also has a special warmer for her baby wipes. I liken it to the “hot towels” they used to offer on airplanes before they decided to save money by ditching them along with the miniature bag of peanuts. I’d gladly take the hot towels back – or even the tiny bag of peanuts. But, I considered the downsides of being a baby – having your diaper changed, not being able to talk, and drooling on yourself. All that of that seems tolerable, until you realize that you’d be giving up chocolate (and other solid food). In that case, she can have her massage chair, and I’ll gladly keep my Hershey bars.