Sunday, September 18, 2011

Happiness is... having a good babysitter (or 2!)

I've had a few people ask if things are really going as well as they seem in my blog and emails. Well I do tend to be overly positive in my blog posts and email updates because I figure no one really wants to hear me whine! Although it's not always rainbow and butterflies and I definitely have my bad days I am doing really well here in L.A..

Today was a particularly fabulous day. David and I generally take turns getting up first in the morning and today was his morning so I was able to sleep in. Now there was a time in my life when sleeping in meant staying in bed until noon. Now my life is such that sleeping until 7:45 like heaven. David and Asha decided they should all go for a bike ride so my "sleeping in" included listening to Asha talk loudly to David while he hooked the trailer up to the bike for 15 minutes as Stobie's tail banged against my door. I then had 15 minutes of glorious silence until my family greeted my with tea in bed.

After breakfast Asha and I made cookies. I always think that baking with Asha will be fun until I remember that for her "baking" is not about the finished product but about tasting everything along the way (including the salt right out of the shaker). We managed to save a little bit of cookie dough for making actual cookies!

When we came to L.A. I figured we wouldn't be making too many friends with the people from David's school. I didn't think there would be very many people with kids and I worried that the people in his program would be sort of upitty. This was confirmed when David came home from his first day of school and reported that most of the students drove BMW's and Land Rovers. Well David hasn't really found any kindred spirits but he has made a few friends. One classmate has a similar way of thinking to David and his wife just had a baby last week so they have a few things in common. He did, however recently email David about all of the fantastic premium outlet malls in the L.A.. Ha ha! I guess he doesn't know David very well yet!

Well Charlene, one of David's classmates invited us to a barbeque at her house along with a few other people from their school. Charlene and her husband live in one of the oldest neighbourhoods in L.A. and they are surrounded by huge 100 year old houses at various stages of dilapidation and repair. I expected Miss Havisham to peek her head out of one of the windows as we drove by.

Luckily we recently found a couple of great babysitters so we were able to leave the girls at home and actually enjoy some adult company. We drank beer, ate salmon and grilled corn on the cob, and had proper conversations without continually cutting food into small pieces and stopping our children from eating dirt. Charlene and her husband Tobin are both architects and seem really nice and down to earth. Ken, another classmate is a tad socially awkward but one of those people who doesn't talk much but then throws out something brilliant every now and then. The other couple at the party were aptly named Hillary and Weston. They are also very nice but they fit the "fancy people" stereotype that I expected to be in David's program. They were people that I probably never would have hung out in any other situation but they were really interesting. I found out such interesting tidbits as where the term "Ivey League" came from and where Reese Witherspoon hangs out.

We had a great visit and great food but the best part of the day was returning back home. Asha was mad because she didn't want her babysitter Christi to leave (always a good sign!). They had made a fort out of the boxes in the garage, a game that all of the other kids in the neighbourhood are completely sick of. Absence had made my heart grow fonder and I was even willing to be the evil queen who had trapped Princess Asha in the tower of boxes. I was then rescued by the girls across the street who came to play and were willing to be fellow princesses for a while.

So overall a fantastic day! I truly think the key to happy parenthood is a good babysitter! The benefits are endless! You get some kid-free time. Your kids get someone new to play with who isn't sick of playing in boxes yet. And being apart lets you and your kids miss eachother when you get back! Perfect! (I won't mention the fact that Nia is getting all 4 molars at once and screamed when we tried to put her to bed. No, that would be too whiny of me!)

No comments:

Post a Comment