Wave Bye-Bye to Mommy and Daddy

Totally scored this weekend. I decided to get all edgy and hip and techno-savvy and hired a babysitter off of Craigslist. I only sent out one e-mail, and she got back to me right away. I liked that she had good spelling and grammar. (Whaddaya expect? I'm an English teacher, folks!) Her name is Nicole and she goes to SDSU and is off for the summer. She described herself as reliable and fun. I like those things. I asked her for a reference, mostly because I thought I should, and called the reference, who was extremely nice, said she loved Nicole, and that if we stole her regular night she'd have to track me down and kill me. I appreciated that kind of enthusiasm. Nicole was so hired, even though I couldn't think of one single, solitary thing to ask about her.

We asked her to come at 6:00 to get acquainted, and she was here at 5:50. Nice. She is adorable, with very nice teeth and eyes I would describe as "the copper of a mountain lynx." She was so easy-going I instantly forgot I was meeting her for the first time. Best of all, Jarrah was nonchalant, waved hello and went back to her apple sauce. Then she toddled from room to room after Nicole and me, dragging her lawn mower, chatting up a storm like she was giving her own tour. Maybe it went something like this:

Me: We usually put her down about 8:00.
Jarrah: Don't listen to her. It's actually about 9:00.
Me: We give her a bottle of milk before bed time.
Jarrah: And a whole bunch of those fruity Gerber toddler snacks. Maybe two or three packets.
Me: Her favorite things to do are play ball and work on puzzles.
Jarrah: You will only score points with me if you wear the colander on your head.

I decided to attempt a new exit strategy that I fashioned on our daily ritual of saying goodbye to David when he leaves for work. Jarrah and I stand by the open front door, waving as David gets in the car, and I repeat "Wave bye-bye to Daddy. He'll be home tonight after work. Bye-bye Daddy!" I say this a lot. Jarrah never cries. She loves to wave. After Daddy drives away, I say "Would you like me to close the door, or do you want to do it?" She wants to do it. And she does.

When it was time for David and I to leave for the movies, we went outside with Nicole holding Jarrah, and everybody repeated variations on the above scenario. Jarrah did not cry. She waved a lot. She did, however, look perplexed, and her face reflected a certain pensiveness.

When we got home, Nicole said that Jarrah did great. She welled up a couple times when she saw our computers ("Why aren't they sitting there, ignoring me as usual?") but was otherwise cheerful. Whew! We are so going to make a habit out of this.

We also went to two birthday parties and a baby shower this weekend. That's got to be some sort of record. Jarrah had a blast at all of them, of course. See photos for evidence.