holla for a dolla

In my quest to make some money (and to help out a friend in a child-care pinch) I took care of his four year old twin girls from 8:30AM - 2:30PM.  I've done some babysitting back in the day, and while spending the day entertaining four year olds isn't really what I choose for my next career move, in the words of the (in)famous beauty queen Alana,

"A dolla make me holla, honey boo boo"

So I arrived at 8:30 and the dear little darlings were sweet as can be, and lucky for me looking forward to a new playmate.  And, oh, did we play.  Several board games, none of which were finished before we started the next.  Then they wanted to go to the park.  Well, I had passed a little park on the drive to their house that had seemed really close.  Close enough to walk.  This was important as mom had not left me any car seats and I didn't feel comfortable taking them in the car without.  So we set out.  What I thought was about halfway there, they started to complain about how far it was.  (Oh, did we take a stroller? No! The park was really close, remember?) We stopped in a little store for water bottles.  I gave them the opportunity to turn back, but no, they wanted to go to the park.  So we pressed onward.  As we were walking, I started to realize that maybe, just maybe the park wasn't as close as it had seemed when I was driving.  (duh!) Probably about 3/4 of a mile later, we arrive.  We play for about 20 minutes, and then they are hungry.  Did we bring snacks? *sigh* No.  So we head back...

Well, four year old little legs are very tired by this point.  So this idiot (me) has to piggy back them all the way back home, taking turns every so often so that each little munchkin's legs get a little rest. I am a sweaty mess by the time we get back to their house. Thankfully, they don't seem terribly worse for wear and definitely eat a good lunch.

After lunch, we go swimming, which also means piggy-back swims to the deep end, and generally climbing all over me in the pool.  The girls have a ball.  And, quite frankly, so do I.

2:30PM arrives, and my friend's wife comes home.  They are so tired one even has a little mini-breakdown.  Sorry mom, that's definitely my fault.  I head back home scratching all the plans to get stuff done and immediately pass out.  I sleep for about two hours.  Those girls exhausted me!!

Oh, and then my friend asks if I can fill in one more time next week... what do I say? "Sure!"