A Quick Guide to Babysitting My Toddler

I am going away for the weekend, and my bestie is pitching in to watch my toddler while my husband works his night shift. Over drinks last week, we agreed it would be awesome if I put together a little manifesto on what looking after her looks like. And, obviously post it here so she would have easy access to it in a pinch.

Sleep
When M is napping, kindly stay out of the house. You can hear the monitor through the outdoor intercom we have piped in, and we wouldn’t want to chance waking her up by you coming in out of the expected thunderstorm.

Food
M will only drink the tears of angels filtered through the mane of a unicorn, or a tantrum ensues. As (un)luck would have it, we’re fresh out of that right now so if you could bring some along that would be great.

She is a really good eater unless you try to feed her vegetables, fruit, bread, soup, pasta, anything frozen or from a can, or meat. And sweets are a no-no, trust me on that one.

Play
She will play anything as long as it has to do with Frozen. Frozen movies, Frozen songs, Frozen dolls, Frozen dress-up, or if you are just Frozen. May the universe help you if you try to introduce anything else. She does love the park, however, but won’t go unless she is wearing her Frozen dress, her Frozen jacket, and original the glass slippers from Cinderella.

Getting Dressed
Please see above.

Bedtime
M loves being read to, and she will pick three of her favorites. When you have read those three, tuck her into bed and wait patiently while she gets out of bed and picks 12 more books for you to read. After you have read those, get her to spend the next 27 minutes brushing her teeth and “preparing to sleep” by putting every stuffed toy she has in the bed too. When you have located a space for her to sleep by spending 9 minutes rearranging her stuffies according to their station in life, she may be ready to play and sing and scream for the next 2 hours before she falls asleep.

Bonus: Sunday Morning Gymnastics Class
Since M loves gymnastics, there won’t be much issue here aside from getting her dressed, putting her hair in a pigtail, getting her in the car, getting her out of the car, getting her to stay in the waiting area until her class is called, and getting her to stay on task for the entire class. Easy peasy!

So there you have it. My toddler is a gentle, sweet, and loving little thing who will make you want to have children again, even at your our advanced ages.

Don’t call me if there is a problem, I am on me-time til Monday. XO