Stuck

Child door locks are great. They work effectively about 98.8% of the time (estimate). Every time a little child tries to escape from my car when another car whizzes by is another chance for those child door locks to save her life. Also, it's fun to laugh under my breath when they try to get out and they mutter "what... ?"

But today... today. I had parked the car at a funny angle when I dropped the oldest off at school, and the car parked next to us was really close. To avoid scratching up their car (and my car door) while trying to buckle in the little one, I devised a plan. The plan was to go down as such:

1) open door, hold door
2) let little one crawl in
3) shut her door
4) let her settle herself in her seat (as she MUST MUST MUST do every day, no matter what)
5) go around to other backseat door
6) lean over
7) buckle little one

This was a great plan. I felt confident. 

I slowly started step number 6 when I realized that I needed to get a little closer in order to buckle her carseat  buckle. And just as I crawled in, and the door latched behind me, I realized - child safety locks. The door had not completely shut, but it was latched, and although I wished with all my might that it would open, it would not.

Commence crawling over front seats, which, incidentally, is not easy to do in a small sedan, nor on a steep incline.

Life As I Know It

A full-time job leaves one pretty busy.

Well, the truth is that I am not all that busy, but I am gone from home a lot, and that makes me feel busy. I leave every morning at about 6:50am and work until 7pm. I have a very large break in the middle of my day, and since I live pretty far from work, I spend my break time going to the gym, and then eating lunch and reading at Manfriend's apartment.

What could I possibly be doing that leaves me with this much time (which is, at its most, 5 hours)? I am a nanny.

I looked for office jobs. I am not sure I want to be a teacher anymore, and I wouldn't be able to find a job anyway, with the way budget cuts are working out these days. I'm also not sure I would even want to teach a classroom of 35 children (which is what a lot of classrooms are at these days). When looking for office jobs I realized that the salary I could make on my zero office experience was crazy low. I'm not beyond working for little money - I've certainly done it before, with much more stress. But, when the opportunity of a nanny job came up, with a lot more pay - I had to take the dive. First, I had to ask my mom if she would think any less of me for being a nanny. Being a nanny is not a respected profession. Being a professional babysitter is not met with a reaction of  "oh, cool". Well, maybe it's met with "Oh, cool", if the person is trying to act not surprised by your low goals.

But, the thing is that with my resume of a human development and education degree, my years working with children both in and out of the classroom, and my ease with kids - being a nanny just fits. Sure, it ain't glamorous, but it's a job. And, I'll be the first to say - a pretty good deal.

I work for a busy family who recently moved to Portland after the mom took a job here. The dad is still looking for a job. They have two girls, C who is 4 1/2 and H who is 2 1/2. C is a sweet, precocious, assertive, and active girl. H is an ornery, stubborn, and temper tantrum-filled crazy girl, but when she smiles, it's pretty sweet. The girls actually BOTH go to school during the day. I help get them ready in the morning and take them to school. I pick them both up in the afternoon at different times, do an activity, make dinner, do baths. I do their laundry and their dishes, and walk their dog. Sometimes I think "What am I doing?" Most of the time I think "This is a pretty sweet gig."

I have just finished my second week of working with the family, and things are coming around. There are still cries for mommy and daddy. There are still temper tantrums. There are still very difficult discussions about dinner choices - but we're coming around. This afternoon, as I picked up H from daycare, she ran to me with open arms, a first. She actually let me carry her. C has started protesting when I leave at night. Things are looking up.

I cannot deny that this has been a gift from God. I remember sitting in my room in Mexico, looking at this job opening and thinking "Should I?" I called the nanny placement agency when I got back to Oregon, had two interviews, and the job was mine, and I know they had their choice of nannies. I'm extremely grateful for this job - I could have been searching forever, and instead I have a great job. Also, big huge thanks to my brother who is letting me borrow his car (without which, I wouldn't be able to have this job).