I’ve been babysitting Monkey a lot lately. The week before last I watched him while TRgirl played soccer. (Randy was working.) That night I was feeding him dinner when she left, and she made the mistake of kissing him goodbye while having her purse over her shoulder. He cried, and after about five minutes I told him, “She can’t hear you anymore. She’ll be back later.” He looked at me and stopped crying.

We called Mom later that night. I had her on speakerphone and he closed the phone, hanging it up. (Apparently that doesn’t happen with TRgirl’s phone.) I called Mom back and he grabbed the phone away from me. He clearly had something very important to tell her, because he chatted on for a few minutes before handing the phone back. The unfortunate part is that we do not speak his language.

On Friday he came over to trick-or-treat. We were trying to get pictures; he was more interested in Orion. And doing “nice” to Orion.

I babysat again on Saturday. Now, for some reason he has decided that the thing we do together is go outside. He will bring me my shoes if I’ve gone inside and taken them off. So, the first he did when I got there was look for his sock and then get his shoes. We went outside and were playing when TRgirl and Randy left. I don’t think he noticed they were missing. We played outside, we had dinner, we read the same book three times. We watched Center Stage. (He was imitating the dancers.) When TRgirl and Randy got home, they asked me when I’d put him to bed. I told them 8:15, but admitted he could have lasted longer; I was the tired one.

I’m babysitting again this Thursday.