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Adventures in Babysitting
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May. 19th, 2008 | 05:30 pm
mood: 
relieved
Last night, we babysat for Ian, who is aged between Gwen and Spence, while his parents got the chance to have an evening out and see Iron Man. I have to say that he was better behaved than our two little kids. Spence was thrilled to have a bigger boy to watch/imitate/try to impress, and he kept getting kind of crazy with noise, physicality, and throwing things.
Gwen, as she so often does, tried to take over and direct the action. Unfortunately for her, Ian is more of a go-off-and-do-what-he-wants-to kind of kid, and didn't just follow along with her. She played some with the boys, but eventually ended up mostly just doing her own thing.
We ordered pizza and ate it in front of the TV, watching the movie Eight Below. This failed miserably. The kids weren't really interested in the food, with Ian eating about 2 bites, Spencer picking the top off, and only Gwen eating more than one full piece. The movie didn't help much, either. The dogs were beautiful, but no one seemed too interested in the plot, which was a bit slow to develop.
Overall, it wasn't bad. Watching three wasn't much more work than two, and (since there was novelty in new toys -- for Ian -- and novelty with a new playmate -- for our kids) often was less effort than with just two.
All the kids got to stay up late. Ian was picked up at 9:00, and we let ours stay up until then (instead of a normal 7:45 start-of-bedtime). The kids got a bit zoo-y as it got later, and both gave us more trouble than normal in actually getting down to sleep.
End result, we had a pretty good evening, got no one injured, gave some friends a night out, and let the kids have a fun, extended playdate.
Gwen, as she so often does, tried to take over and direct the action. Unfortunately for her, Ian is more of a go-off-and-do-what-he-wants-to kind of kid, and didn't just follow along with her. She played some with the boys, but eventually ended up mostly just doing her own thing.
We ordered pizza and ate it in front of the TV, watching the movie Eight Below. This failed miserably. The kids weren't really interested in the food, with Ian eating about 2 bites, Spencer picking the top off, and only Gwen eating more than one full piece. The movie didn't help much, either. The dogs were beautiful, but no one seemed too interested in the plot, which was a bit slow to develop.
Overall, it wasn't bad. Watching three wasn't much more work than two, and (since there was novelty in new toys -- for Ian -- and novelty with a new playmate -- for our kids) often was less effort than with just two.
All the kids got to stay up late. Ian was picked up at 9:00, and we let ours stay up until then (instead of a normal 7:45 start-of-bedtime). The kids got a bit zoo-y as it got later, and both gave us more trouble than normal in actually getting down to sleep.
End result, we had a pretty good evening, got no one injured, gave some friends a night out, and let the kids have a fun, extended playdate.