The other week we baby sat my friend and fellow blogger Ashley Angel‘s one year old Azalea (if you haven’t seen her blog check it out because her kid is freaking adorable). It was very last minute and the only interaction I had with her was at Disneyland and she was in a stroller most the time so I’m not sure if she’d remembered me. As you all know I have twins on the way and I thought what a great way to brush the dust off then to watch her for a few hours. It was also going to be interesting to see/ test Sophia Rose on her big sister skills too. Taking care of a one year old is so much different then a baby but at that one year’s old age you have to be way more attentive making sure they don’t put things in their mouth, running with scissors or other dangerous stuff since they seem to get into EVERYTHING! So which one is more work?? A Baby or a one year old? The interesting part is Ashley and Azalea have never really been away from each other, this would be the longest time away from one another. So I felt that could complicate my success with babysitting her just a bit.
It started off great, she waved good- bye to Mama and Dada with no tears but I think it’s because she was so distracted by Sophia Rose. I wasn’t sure how Sophia Rose would act because she has never been around someone smaller then her. She is either around kids her age or older. So it was an rough start for her as the baby wanted to touch and hold everything she was holding which is completely understandable since it was all new to Azalea. I had a few old baby toys I brought out since I was worried Azalea would get bored but she was so uninterested she’d rather see what Sophia Rose was doing. No matter where or what Sophia Rose was doing that little baby watched. She didn’t quite interact with her, just watching.
Sophia Rose tried to be nice and give the baby toys but they were toys that Sophia Rose didn’t care about and because Sophia Rose didn’t care, neither did the Azalea. It seemed I had to constantly say “let the baby play with that, it’s her turn”. What was also interesting and unexpected but should of been expected was Sophia Rose being jealous. Since my husband and I haven’t been around a child that small in a long time we found ourselves constantly laughing at the things she did, or oohhhh and awwwwing over her adorableness and like a cartoon character Sophia Rose put her face in our face and try to do adorable things too. So it was a good reminder to us to divide our attention equally between the two.
Next was dinner time, at this point we have been alone with Azalea for two maybe three hours and she still hasn’t cried or asked for Mama or Dada which made it seem like we were still doing good! This is where my husband and I had to divided. He went to make dinner and I was on watching the little ladies duty. My husband loves making dinner (I know aren’t I lucky!) so tonight’s dinner menu was pasta, yum! My hubby made the tomato sauce from scratch (how cute is that) and we had baby bow tie pasta. Unfortunately Azalea didn’t like the divide and conquer, she did not like my husband being out of her sight so she whined and pulled on the baby gate that divides the kitchen and living room so my husband finished cooking with her in his arms. We all sat around the dinner table and just like we remembered we cut the baby bow ties in half lightly sauced with tomato sauce and Azalea went to town! For my husband and I this was fascinating to watch. At this age Sophia Rose main method of nutrition was a bottle with formula, she didn’t eat solids and she was a picky eater. So to watch someone so young gobble up her dinner it was so nice to see!! After dinner was bath time for Sophia Rose, we were trying to stick to the same routine and the whole time in the bath Sophia Rose would yell ” what are you doing?”. I could tell she didn’t like being away from all the commotion so I went in and washed her hair and let her get out of the bath.
At this point in the evening it seemed my husband and I got our groove back and the girls were finally playing with one another. So after Sophia Rose dried off we all played together until bed time. We brought Azalea to Sophia Rose’s room and had her hang out with us for story time and we kissed Sophia Rose goodnight and we took Azalea into the living room. Again Sophia Rose didn’t like being away from the action so we could hear her open her door or she’d nicely ask “what are you doing?” My husband and I felt bad but we really wanted to stick to the routine so he went and laid down with her until she fell asleep.
But then It was just me…and Azalea. To be honest I was so uncomfortable, I felt like she didn’t like me since she seemed to gravitate towards my husband more all evening. So I stuck to my routine/ cravings which are oranges. This whole pregnancy all I want are oranges. I don’t know how I got her attention but the second I finished peeling the oranges there she was with this adorable face, a very expressive face. Its as if she used the words “oh what’s that can I have some?” each word sounding longer and longer. I wasn’t sure what to do since my kid doesn’t voluntarily want to try new things so I was kind of excited to share with her so I took a tiny bite and gave it to her. It’s like I exposed her to crack, she quickly scooted up on the couch and sat really close to me, almost right on top of me. I thought to myself, I think she wants more. So I got up and cut the oranges into tiny pieces and put them in a bowl for her. I gave them to her on the couch and she vacuumed all the pieces so fast that before I reached the kitchen to grab myself another orange she was right behind me with an empty bowl and banging it on the metal baby gate bars like she was in jail trying to get my attention. I thought to myself “I think she wants more!” So I texted Ashley asking if Azalea has ever had any oranges and she said no but not to give her to much because of the acid in the oranges. I felt terrible like oh my gosh duh! How could I not think of that! What about all the sugar in oranges and it’s so late (its like 8:30p or 9:30p at this point) so I cut the addict off and didn’t give her any more oranges. At that time Luke had just come out of Sophia Roses room and Azalea slightly whimpering as if she was tattle tailing on me cutting her off of oranges ran up to him and wanted to be picked up.
We didn’t expect Ashley and her husband AJ back for a couple of hours (it was about 10:oop at this point) but those oranges really really got Azalea going, her personality really came out. When Ashley dropped Azalea off she listed off all these warnings like she loves to climb, she’ll be running around making a mess everywhere etc. Luke and I looked at each other like “please we got this Sophia Rose was that and so much more” but after those oranges hit the blood stream SHE WAS OFF! Running around literally making circles around the couch hollering, constantly following my dogs saying ” dog, dog, woof” it was hilarious. We thought where has this kid been? This is not the same person from two hours ago. It was so much fun to watch and interact with. Then all a sudden she stops and looks up at us and starts to cry. Luke and I stood there, what do we do??? she hasn’t cried all night!!!! So we went back to basics! We went through the check list, is she hungry? no she ate a lot not that long ago. Check her diaper! Sure enough she was wet. The diaper change was pretty easy she didn’t really cry or whimper or squirm. Luckily that was it and the guessing game was over….so we thought. We put her down and she was a little slower, wasn’t running as fast. She again looked up and gave us a huge pouty lip and Luke swooped her up and held her for no more than 6 minutes and she was OUT! ASLEEP! We mental high fived and we never felt more confidant in our parenting skills. She only woke up once after that until Mama and Dada came to pick her up which I thought was great because she was sleeping in a house she has never been at before. All in all I think the evening was a slam dunk! It truly gave my husband and I some confidence back in regards to child rearing at that age. The future is full of unknown as this family has grown fast and it feels like we’re growing over night but if my twins are anything like little Azalea, we will be fine. If they’re anything like Sophia Rose was at that age…God help me because my hands will be full but my heart will be full and it’ll all work out.
As I reflect on that evening I think of the lessons I learned:
- *Reminder* Sophia Rose is will no longer be an only child.
- Sophia Rose has grown up so fast!
- We have to do a better job at giving Sophia Rose attention so she doesn’t feel left out.
- Manage Sophia Rose’s expectations of what life will be like soon.
- Finally, routine routine routine
Head over to my friend Ashley’s newly redesigned blog www.alwaysmiyuki.com/
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