new year

Happy 2007!......which makes me realize that today at work i'm quite certain i signed everything very carefully 1/1/06. i made a special effort to remember that it was a new month but i failed to remember the new year. haha. i spent the new year with the evil roommates and some friends. we played glow in the dark mini-golf, had dinner at max & erma's, and then played apples to apples and ate a ton of chocolate back at our house. it was a good time. we spent new year's day with david, emily, mae, and wesley.

i baby-sat one of my favorite 3 year olds tonight. the last time i watched her she flipped out when it was time for bed and had a total crying/shrieking fit on the bathroom floor while i calmly put her pj's on and then started talking to her quietly enough that she couldn't hear me unless she stopped screaming. in the end i said "do you need to pee?, no. ok. do you need a drink? yes. let's go get some juice. do you want to go straight to bed or read a book? bed. ok." and she went to bed just fine. so much drama. tonight she started winding up for some more drama. i tried the old "ok! what do you want to do first?! brush your teeth or put on your pj's? you get to pick!". she was too quick for that...she said neither. i started to tell her fine, i'll pick but then i stopped for a second and looked at her. she was starting to whimper and looking sooo sad. so i put down the toothbrush and knelt down next to her. "can't we just get ready for bed and then read a story?" huh? she was very confused by this. remember last time? when i tried to get you ready for bed you started crying and crying and you got sad and upset? it was pretty rough. do you remember that?" yes. "well you don't have to get upset this time. can you help me out and just get ready for bed and then we can go read?" sure she said. and just as easy as that she got ready for bed, we read a bunch of books, and then she climbed into her bed and was out like a light. a split second decision to talk to her eye to eye instead of forcing her to brush her teeth was the difference between her getting ready for bed while singing and smiling and her having a huge breakdown. i have the patience for that sort of thing when i'm babysitting, but i have to hand it to parents. they've got a tough job. i don't know if i could have endless patience like so many of my friends do.

i don't know where i'm going with this story. but i told it anyway.