Happy Anniversary!

Let me tell you a story.  Once upon a time,  11 years ago, I was working in an office as "office help."  I didn't mind the job at all, or my colorful co-workers.  (One of them cussed like a sailor and chain smoked right outside the door. )  What I did mind was leaving my baby every day to go to work.  I began to pray that God would lead me to a way to bring some money into our household, but also not have to leave my baby to do so.  Then a good friend told me she was having problems with her babysitter, and would I consider quitting my job (!!!!!) and babysitting her baby every day?  YES I WOULD - I WOULD LOVE TO DO THAT!  was my very nonchalant, cool answer.

So...that is how it all began.  It started out with just my sweet 2 year old, and this precious 10 month old girl.  I remember how the most exciting time of the whole day was when the opening tune for Elmo's World would come on.  Let me tell you - those girls would fly into the living room, and watched transfixed for 15 whole minutes.  It was so cute.  I would brush their little teeth every morning and we would get strapped into my brand new fancy double stroller, and finding little adventures in the neighborhood.  After a while, I started getting calls from other mothers wanting to know if I could watch their babies too.  I was so excited to get a real daycare off the ground!

This week marks that time - 11 years later.  I have so many memories from all the babies from those 11 years...


We have moved once since then, and in our previous house - we got a new roof put on.  Picture days of burly, dirty, scary men all over our yard, and all over our house.  My husband was at work during that time of day, so I was always nervous and kept the doors locked - just in case.  I would never look out the window at the workers because they intimidated me - they just did.  Then one morning I realized the baby had crawled out of my vision, so I followed him into the next room.  And their he was - he had pulled himself up and was banging on the glass door at the terrifying roofers.  And what were the roofers doing?  Waving hi and playing peek a boo.  This went on for the whole duration.  I would notice the guys walking by that door looking for the baby all day.

That baby had an older sister - and when she was a baby, she liked me fine.  She was very serious and business like.  She just wanted to get down in the floor and do her job of crawling around in a very concentrated way, and taking every single item off of all my shelves.  It was her job.  She was very easy going and pleasant.  The only problem was, she wouldn't take a bottle from me.  Her mom said she was like that with some people.  She was old enough to eat baby food - so don't worry about her starving - but she did need some milk during the 8 hour period she was at my house.  I had a friend who would drop by frequently, and through trial and error, she would eventually take a bottle from my friend.  So I would have to have my friend come over around her work schedule, every day, so the baby would get some milk.  What a good friend!

We have had such sweet moments - like laying an infant under hanging Christmas lights in the living room.  She would be mesmerized all - day by the colors.

And some salty moments.  One morning, years later, it was just me and a sweet 2 year old boy.   My husband took our daughter to her kindergarten class for some parent function.  He called me from his cell phone asking me to go out to our driveway and move a large branch that had called during a storm the night before.  It was 50 degrees outside, and raining.  I told Noah I would be right back and stepped out to the driveway - then ran back on to the porch just as I heard the most horrifying sound in the world.  Click.  The sound of the front door locking.  I looked in the picture window at Noah playing happily with his Thomas The Train, trains.  I knocked on the window saying very positively and calmly - "Noah - open the door for Miss Jayne."

To which he replied, "I'm playing with Thomas!"

"I can see you are playing Thomas, and that is really fantastic, Miss Jayne loves Thomas, but OPEN THE DOOR FOR MISS JAYNE!  He never did.  I didn't know what to do - my cell phone was inside, a mistake I have never repeated again.  (Mr. cell phone stays in Miss Jayne's pocket always now).  I very reluctantly had to leave him to run across the street to my 80 year old neighbor's house to use her phone to call my husband.  The neighbor tried to feed me breakfast, showed me her cats, did not realize that I was in the middle of a very pressing situation !!! and just needed to use her phone.  Finally she got the phone and I called my husband - but guess who didn't have their phone on them?

So I had to call the school's office - hysterical!  to get put through to the classroom he was in.  The office staff informed me that policy was not to interrupt class by patching phone calls through to the classroom.  "LET ME TALK TO THE TEACHER RIGHT NOW!!!! " was my very calm, and appropriate response under pressure.  I very reluctantly had to explain the situation to which they actually had the nerve to laugh.  But they did put me through to the teacher who was with my husband - who wasn't answering his phone !!!!!!

The teacher answered her classroom phone laughing too.  "I hear you are in a little bit of a situation", was the teacher's sing song greeting.  "LET ME TALK TO MY HUSBAND RIGHT NOW!" was the second time that day I tried to muster as much grace as I could with all the hair on my head standing straight up in the name of panic.  Then, and I am not kidding, he got on the phone laughing too.  I am not going to repeat what that conversation was, but he did come straight home and let me in the door.  Noah was absolutely fine - Praise God!  I think their must have been an angel in my house who liked Thomas The Train too, because that sweet boy laid in then floor and played with his trains through the whole fiasco.  We hid a key on our porch the very same day.  And now - I have really conditioned every single child who has stepped foot in my house that bad things will happen in the world if they ever touch the locks.

Of course, their was one baby girl who climbed out of her pack and play one afternoon and locked the bedroom door.  I tried and tried to unlock the door with a credit card/screwdriver, all along trying to stay very cool and positive with the other kids who were milling around in the hall watching - asking several, several questions.  When we finally got the door open, the toddler was back in her bed - just got out to lock the door I guess.  Because why not?  Well, we now have special tools to enable any locks in our house.

This is a little different, but that same toddler girl I mentioned above, wanted to nap with another girl her same age one day.  They were almost two, and I laid them down in separate baby beds in my bedroom.  I peeked in and listened at the door and everything was fine and calm, the picture of sweet babies.  Then after awhile I heard something, something very suspicious.  And when I went in my room, I cried.  They had both gotten out of their beds and had gone into my bathroom where they both had climbed on the potty and used it - they were in the throes of potty training.  While they were in there, they had gotten into a drawer and gotten out my full bottle of my favorite perfume and sprayed every last drop - but it was ok!  Because when they saw me, one said, "Miss Jayne - we went potty!" So darn proud.  I noticed poop in the toilet and said, "Do you need me to wipe you?"

"Oh no, that was the other girl - and don't worry - I wiped her butt."  Oh my.  And - as luck would have it - this was the time of the day that parents started to arrive to pick their children up.  The first thing every parent said as they entered our house was, "Oh my goodness, what is that smell?"  Because no matter what kind of perfume you have or how expensive it is - a full bottle of perfume sprayed all over a small room is comparable to a skunk's spray.  And then parent's would follow my sobbing to the bathroom which was covered in toilet paper and perfume, and two smiling happy toddlers, who were ready to take on the world after a good nap and a trip to the bathroom.

And one more salty moment - remember when I mentioned the picturesque double stroller I bought?  Well, after 100 or so walks, it decided to break suddenly.  We had walked through our neighborhood to a little park when I heard SNAP!  And the only way to get home was to pull it on two wheels backwards.  For blocks and blocks.  With toddlers asking so many questions, and lots of neighbors outside to watch.

All in all, it's been such a sweet 11 years.  I used to watch a 4 year old girl who had a speech impediment and a lot of self confidence.  The result was comparable to a New York city cab driver.  "So what's the mattah with the dollhouse?  I can't get it tah open." was how she would talk.  One time I was in the kitchen with her eating lunch when a mouse ran came out.  Being a brave heroine and always putting others first, I reacted by running screaming into the living room and standing on the couch.  She followed me but stayed on the floor.  "Now whattya standing on the couch fah?"  She is going into the 7th grade now, and bright and beautiful and I really miss getting to see her everyday.

This is a transitional time of year.  All the babies grow up, and at every summer's end a couple of them enter school, and new kids take their place.  I am excited about the new ones starting this year, but every group of kids has a special place for me.  My heart is the size of Wyoming with all my sweet memories of such precious babies.  And btw, the girl who liked Elmo's World, the girl who liked to lay under the Christmas lights, and the girl who wouldn't take a bottle from me are all starting Jr. High next week.  Watch out world!

“Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that.”  Monday I started a brand new wonderful little girl who followed me through the house all day saying, "Hold you", and bellowing , "Miss Jaaaayyyyne!"  All day.  Sweetest sound.

It Is In Christ 

We Find Out Who We Are

And What We Are Living For

Ephesians  1:11