Nice to Nanny - the ups and downs of my past 7 years as a professional nanny

The gators are coming! The gators are coming!

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:48:00 +0000

Due to a stressful night, I only slept about 4 hours last night. This scared the bejezzus out of me. Watching a 3-1/2 year old on 4 hours of sleep is a recipe for disaster. I knew that I would suck at work today, but I was determined to make the best of it.

Luckily, I'm damn creative. We built a fort under the pool table, which required less effort than building it with the couch and coffee table as support. After entering the fort and getting comfortable, T left the fort and announced, "It's a beautiful day! It's snowing!"

Sensing an impending fake snow battle, or something equally physically demanding, I quickly jumped in with, "Okay! We've got to guard the World's Biggest Snowball!" I read him correctly, and he was immediately under the table with me again, pretending to be a mounty like Pablo and Tyrone in "The Snow Fort". (It's really cool that he can reenact a plotline from something we haven't even seen in awhile. )

"We got to protect that snowball from GATORS!" he proclaimed.

"From gators?" I asked, thoroughly confused. I mean, he had been talking about crocodiles earlier, so I don't know, maybe this is his new thing?

"Yes, GATORS! Those gators are gonna get that SNOWBALL! The gators are coming!"

"Ohhh! Raiders? The raiders are going to try to get the snowball?"

"Yes, raiders! They're coming right now!"

Lucky for that snowball, T and I are both very adept at offering protection from both gators and raiders. We run a full-service operation around here.

Back again

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:44:00 +0000

It's been awhile, and boy, does it show in Thomas' growth and development! He's just such a PERSON now! I know, I know, that's what they do. It just kills me to see a fully-functioning 3-1/2 year old mind, knowing that we can fall into a long discussion at any moment.

I'm still loving my job. I was expecting the THREE attitude, so it's not too terribly bad. And he's a good kid, most of the time.

Mainly, I'm posting here today to figure out if I want to start writing regularly again. I've been keeping all my great stories and posting them elsewhere, and I think I'm getting tired of mixing kid stuff with non-kid stuff. I realized I have a perfect outlet in Nice to Nanny, and I think I need to start utilizing it.

decision

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 05:51:00 +0000

I think that, for now, Nice to Nanny is going to be a weekday-only blog. It seems like too much trouble to come up with entertaining things when I write everyday...I end up putting in things that I'm not crazy about, just to have a post. Anyway, NaBloPoMo is over, so I'm going to cut way back on the posting...start focusing on quality, not quantity.

But, because I did finish for the month, I'm going to exercise my bragging rights. Ha! I did it! Woohoo! Or, because it might be more appropriate for the badge image, hoo hoo!

the plot thickens

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:51:00 +0000

So Thomas' cousin Cody is going to be a big brother. The ultrasound on Wednesday indicated it's going to be a little girl, so Mommy has been talking to him about Cody's new baby sister. It's very exciting. Fast forward to this morning...

When Mommy goes to the laundry room, Thomas notices a bag full of baby stuff that Mommy has started collecting to give her sister. Thomas points at the bag and says, "That's for my baby sister!"

"No, Thomas, that's for Cody's baby sister." she reminds him.

"No, that's for my baby sister!"

Oh dear. As if the pressure wasn't already on, now he's already talking about his own baby sister as if it's a given fact. All day long, he told me about his sister. He doesn't understand that only Cody will be getting the baby sister. This should be fun.

only child?

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:17:00 +0000

Thomas is sad because his cousin doesn't live with him. I think it's making Mommy rethink the whole only-child thing. We shall see.

bored

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:04:00 +0000

I'm not sure what to do with Nice to Nanny anymore. I thought it was an awesome idea in the beginning, but that was when I just wanted to vent, give advice, and generally be cool. It's a lot harder with a great job. A weird complaint, right?

See, I'm torn, because a big part of me wants to share the blog with my boss. I know she would enjoy reading more stories from our days, and I could probably get permission to use pictures, and the whole thing would be a lot more interesting. I do have a video of him that she told me to put on YouTube, but it's a crappy cell phone video. An awesome, hilarious video, but very low quality.

On the other hand, if my boss knows about the site, I can't ever rant about the job on here. Not that I've ever had reason to, but I never like having a choice taken away from me. So I don't know what I'm going to do. For now, I'm just trying to finish out November. We'll see what happens after that.

hard to resist

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:16:00 +0000

I went shopping with my mom today. We stopped by the Gymboree outlet and oh my, was it hard not to go crazy. A lot of the shirts that I fell in love with last time, at the other Gymboree outlet store, were in clearance at this store. I could have easily bought Thomas a new wardrobe. Luckily, there were so many things that I wanted to buy that I walked out without buying anything. "It's hard," I told my mom, "because he's not really mine." She reminded me that they're always a little bit mine, but I said it wasn't the same. She knew. She's watched me with too many familes, and too many kids, over the years, not to understand.

As we walked out into the mall, I said, "Stores like that are just one more reason to wait many more years before having one of my own. I want to be able to afford to buy all the cute stuff when I fall in love with it." She told me that's what grandparents are for. Uh oh. I've never gotten any pressure to have kids from them before, but I fear it's coming soon...

good to be back

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 05:04:00 +0000

We were a bit worried about this morning. After 4 days with Mommy and Daddy, all of us expected Thomas to have a bit of a fit when they went to work. He is two, after all, and prone to separation anxiety fits from time to time. They can be heartbreaking, and we all knew a big one was coming this morning.

Luckily, I spotted a new Backyardigans DVD at the library on Saturday!

Oh yes, Mr. Thomas may have started out a bit clingy, but when I mentioned that new movie during breakfast, he was eager to drag me to his room to watch it. Then he told Mommy good-bye, gave her a kiss, and hardly looked back.

Thank you, creators of The Backyardigans. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

refreshed

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:19:00 +0000

I'm grateful for my long weekend. Not only have I gotten tons of stuff accomplished around the house, I am rested and eager to get back to work. I love my job, I really do. I feel blessed to have a job that I actually look forward to going to. I enjoy my work, I enjoy my job, and I'm not cooped up in an office all day. I'm sure I've written about this before, but I'm feeling it again tonight. Great kid, great bosses, great job, lucky nanny. If all the world had jobs that they loved, there would probably be no war. Or something like that.

difficulty

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:12:00 +0000

I realized this morning that a 4-day weekend is going to make it a bit harder to post every day. So we're going Off Topic today. Be brave. Hold on tight.

When I was a kid, maybe a teenager, I got dragged out the the Day-After-Thanksgiving sales with my mom. I believe this was before Black Friday was coined. At any rate, I hated it SO MUCH, I swore I'd never be like that. I do love a great deal, but not as much as I love my sleep. Also? I hate shopping on a normal day. I hate holiday shopping during the regular holiday season even more. So to face the crowds on the biggest shopping day of the year? When it's still dark outside? And there are people, oh my god, the people? Shoot me now.

So, to protest the commercialism, and mostly the traffic, I slept until 1:00pm yesterday. It was awesome! Thank you, Bosses, for the extra day off. Apparently I needed it.

a thanksgiving miracle?

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:06:00 +0000

It snowed yesterday. Big, fluffy flakes of snow. I hope Thomas got some at his house. He's been asking for snow for about a week now, but I really doubted he would see any this year. We live in a hot state to begin with, and this year has been really weird. His wish came true though, and we had a White Thanksgiving. Oh, happy day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:18:00 +0000

We'll be going to my parents' house, and later to my husband's parents' house. Thank God wine will be available all day long.

Thomas and I got ready for Thanksgiving yesterday by drawing turkeys and practicing what turkeys say. I tried all day to get him to say, "Gobble gobble gobble," to no avail. Then last night, I got a text message from Mommy that said, "Thomas was just asked what a turkey says, and he said, 'Gobble gobble'! Good job, Em!" Ah, my day's mission had been accomplished. Thanks, Thomas!

heart melting

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:42:00 +0000

In the middle on an oh-so-TWO afternoon, Thomas pauses as he runs by me in yet another circle. He throws his arms around me and says, "I love you, Em! I'm glad you're here today." Warm fuzzies, meet my heart.

I'm glad I'm here too, Thomas.

the beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:39:00 +0000

I started this blog when I got spontaneously fired from my last job. I liked having an outlet to vent, without worries of being discovered. I did disguise facts, just in case any future bosses were to discover it. And then when I worked for the V family for my few-days-from-hell, I lost all energy to write. The experience was really quite upsetting.

About a month after that debacle, I thought I would finally start writing again. Then, on a whim, I answered an ad for a part-time position. Mostly I was just trying to fulfill my weekly application quota for unemployment. But there was something in this woman's ad that touched me. I answered it, even though I knew I couldn't really afford to work part-time.

The mom sounded really nice in her emails and on the phone, and the interview went really well. She offered me the job on the spot. I accepted, but the entire drive home I was freaking out. How could I accept a part-time job? What was I thinking? The interview was Friday. I spent all weekend stressing about it. I was hesitant to tell my husband that I had taken the job. After all, I had just told him I only applied in order to meet that quota. I didn't know what was going to happen. I feared I had made a HUGE mistake.

Accepting that job was the best thing that's ever happened to me. Okay, I could argue the point for several things throughout my life, but professionally, taking this job was a fantastic choice. By changing my income so drastically, I forced us to stick to a strict budget. Although I make about half of what I used to, this year has been tremendous for us. We have an actual savings account with real money in it, we have paid down a whole lot of debt, and we live more simply and happily than we ever have before.

Best of all, I'm working for a family that I love. The child is wonderful. The parents are amazing. They go above and beyond anything I've ever seen. They really do value me, and it's an awesome feeling. As a nanny, it's not that common to find these things. I'm not expected to do any housework or errands or anything except play with, and take care of, Thomas. Because of this, I end up doing a lot of little things around the house because I want to. I don't mind unloading the dishwasher or vacuuming the crumbs off the kitchen floor from time to time, because I know that they don't expect it of me. When I had some car trouble and asked for a recommendation for a mechanic? Daddy had it completely fixed for me by the end of the day, and wouldn't even hear of letting me pay him back for it. I went to work with a dead alternator and a lot of worries. I left work with a fixed car and a heart full of joy.

another milestone!

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 05:03:00 +0000

Today I put Thomas to bed for his nap in big-boy underwear.

HE WOKE UP DRY!

Hallelujah! We are one step closer to conquering this thing! Plus, I got some points for being the coolest nanny ever. Win-win-win.

it's perfect!

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 04:45:00 +0000

Look what I stumbled upon this weekend!

It's a Pablo the Penguin cake pan!

Thomas would go nuts over this! His birthday is coming up in the next few months. I'll have to tell Mommy about this. The look on his face on his birthday video would be classic!

This cake pan needs to be acquired ASAP!

why?

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:39:00 +0000

Is there any phase more obnoxious than the "Why?" phase? I thought this phases usually started at 3, but Thomas is ahead of schedule. He started with the Why?s several months ago. Oh, how I miss those days.

Because you know what is even MORE obnoxious than the "Why?" phase? The "Why not?" phase! Because, really, how do you answer this? He doesn't use it in context, he just asks Why Not to everything. We finally just started answering, "I don't know how to answer that!" to which, of course, he replies, "Why not?"

We were playing with a stuffed cow the other day. I was the voice of the cow, and whenever Thomas would tell the cow something, the cow would ask, "Why?" After two Why?s with two answers, I decided it was time to turn the tables. The cow asked Thomas, "Why not?" to which he relied, "Cause...I don't know how to answer that!" Ahh, mimicry.

fine

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:09:00 +0000

"I messy messy! I need to take a bath!"

"No, Thomas, you took a shower this morning!"

"Ooookay. I'll take a bath this weekend."

"That's a good idea. I'm sure you'll need a bath after you play at the park tomorrow with Cody."

"No, I not get messy at the park! I just play with Cody! I not get messy at the park...it'll be fine. It'll be fine!"

worst part of this job

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:46:00 +0000

No, it's not getting peed on, though that is far from pleasant. The worst part of this job is actually being bored on your days off! I've never had another job where I say, "Man, I wish I didn't have this paid time off today. This just totally sucks."

Today is just one of those days when I'd rather be working. It could be that I'm just missing Thomas, it could be that I'm having hide-and-seek withdrawls, or, most likely, that I'm just bummed about the fact that I actually have to go to the grocery store. Probably part of the first and the last. What can I say? The kid makes me laugh. Also, grocery shopping with no list or menu plans is just plain wrong.

sweetness and pee

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:36:00 +0000

As I wipe off his hands, he throws his little arms around me and squeezes me so tight. "I love you today! I just missed you on 'acation!"

I was out of town last Thursday-Sunday. Thomas has been extra-cuddly and sweet all week. Truly precious. He, like so many before him, really make me want my own someday. Someday in the far future. I still enjoy it when Mommy & Daddy come home waaay too much.

Not so precious? Today I got up from relaxing on the couch to find my back pocket soaking wet. How I didn't notice while sitting there, I have no clue. We didn't play in that room this morning, so it must have been from an accident early this morning, before I got there. Nice.

a new milestone

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:05:00 +0000

As I've mentioned, potty training with Thomas is going pretty well. As of yesterday, we have hit another milestone. Closer and closer to toilet independence we come.

Before naptime, Thomas always goes to the bathroom. His pacifier magically appears in his bed at that time. Because of this routine, it is really easy to get him ready for bed. Well, yesterday, he took off to go to the bathroom while I quickly stuck the pacifier in my pocket and followed him. I must have taken too long. By the time I got back to his bathroom, he was pulling up his pants. That's right, folks. Thomas, on his own, 1) pulled down his own pants and underwear (we've been working on this for awhile), 2) used the toilet all by himself, and 3) started dressing himself again. Ah, autonomy. I'm so proud.

better than boobies

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:12:00 +0000

Thomas has discovered breasts. It started when he poked Mommy's chest and announced, "Squishy!" Ever since then, he's been obsessed.

Today he poked me and said, "You got your squishies in there!" Ahh. So he is no longer describing them. Now he has named them. Squishies. I like it. It's cute. It's also pretty darn innocent-sounding. If he were to say something in public, it wouldn't be immediately obvious what he was referring to.

In a previous job, when the little boy asked what they were, the mom told him they were boobies. He walked around all day saying, "boobies" and poking me. I told her that I had just told him it was part of my body. "Oh," she said, "I wish I had thought of that." I wish you had thought of it too. It's a bit embarrassing to have to pretend it's not happening when you're out at the grocery store.

For a two year old boy, "squishies" > "boobies". Spread the word.

four dollars!

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:38:00 +0000

I bought Thomas a shirt yesterday at the Gymboree outlet. It's a yellow t-shirt with a race car and the word "Speedy" on the front. He will LOVE it! Daddy's a race car driver, and Thomas is into everything cars. We spend a lot of our days crashing cars or racing in the driveway. It's going to be perfect. I found a very cute hat too - race car on the front, "Pit Crew" on the back. Unfortunately, I noticed a stain on the bill before I bought it. I couldn't wipe it off, and they didn't have another one in his size. So sad. But I'm still excited about the shirt. It's going to be so perfect! Now my only problem is going to be waiting until Christmas to give it to him!

not even in arkansas

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 21:55:00 +0000

When I started watching the Q family, I was 22. The youngest boy was 4. As I drove the kids around to various sports practices on my first day, the 4-year old suddenly asked me, quite seriously, "So, Em, you got any grandkids?"

Umm...nope.

we teach him too well

noreply@blogger.com (Em - professional nanny) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:06:00 +0000

Thomas knows that whenever we go outside to play, we have to put on his socks and shoes, his jacket, and his hat. He's generally very good about doing this, but I'm afraid it may have been hammered a bit too deep into his little head.

November is very mild this year. A little chilly, of course, but no so much that I've bothered digging my jacket out of the back of the closet. I'm a hot-natured person, and I rarely wear long sleeves. Even in winter, I'll usually take a jacket with me, but carry it around everywhere, never actually wearing it. There's a heater in my car, and there's always a heater on at the house, so I usually get too hot if I actually wear the jacket.

Thomas and I decided to go play outside the other day, and after I got him all dressed, including his jacket, I told him it was time to go. He stopped dead in his tracks and told me, "You need to wear your jacket." I explained that I didn't have a jacket. He looked at me very seriously and said, "You can't go outside without your jacket! It's cold!"

Well, shoot. I mean, what do you do with that? I was completely floored. On one hand, I didn't want to invalidate what he has been taught by telling him that I didn't need a jacket to play outside, but on the other hand, I knew that he needed to get some energy burned off before naptime. After standing in silence for a moment, I told him that I forgot my jacket at home, but I would wear my sunglasses instead. For whatever bizarre reason, this made perfect sense to him, and off we went.