Raffi March 28, 2007

I’ve been rediscovering a childhood favorite. Raffi is children’s music legend and mixes messages of peace, understanding, and environmental stewardship into his kid friendly repertoire. I just bought these albums. I’m excited that I get to share something I loved as a child with my girls.

Bananaphone

The Corner Grocery Store

Evergreen, Everblue

In honor of my roommate Becca, here are the lyrics to his song C-A-N-A-D-A

C-A-N-A-D-A,
Tell me what’s a Douglas Fir
C-A-N-A-D-A,
Betcha never heard a bobcat purr
C-A-N-A-D-A,
Have you ever seen a lobster crawl?
In Canada, we get to see them all.

chorus:
We get to see the maple trees, maple sugar and the maple leaves,
We got the biggest wheat fields growing tall
In C-A-N-A-D-A, where we see the reversing falls -or- In C-A-N-A-D-A, where adventure ever calls,
In Canada, we get to see them all.

C-A-N-A-D-A,
Tell me, what’s a tidal bore,
C-A-N-A-D-A,
Have you ever heard the ocean roar?
C-A-N-A-D-A,
Just listen to that wild goose call.
In Canada, we get to see them all

C-A-N-A-D-A,
Have you ever heard a maple creak?
C-A-N-A-D-A,
Betcha never seen a mountain peak.
C-A-N-A-D-A,
In the land of the big snowball.
In Canada, we get to see them all.

C-A-N-A-D-A,
Have you ever seen a magnetic hill?
C-A-N-A-D-A,
Or a lady on a dollar bill?
C-A-N-A-D-A,
Betcha never seen the autumn fall.
In Canada, we get to see them all.

As my roommates look at pictures I just printed off of the girls March 25, 2007

How do you take care of these girls without your uterus crying on a regular basis?

Signing and sitting up March 13, 2007

Music: Hey Jude by the Beatles

I had tentatively started using signs with the girls in the past month or so, but wasn’t sure about the timing. Was it too soon for it to be of any use? But I recently discovered a community of nanny bloggers (yippee!) Several of them talk about signing with their kids, and I asked Shel when she started and her response was 6 months. So I’m a little behind with Liz, but I don’t think it’s going to be much a problem. Today I started using the signs for hungry, tired, water, sleep, eat, no, finished, calm, and ILU. Getting them to make eye contact can be a challenge, and I’ve been more successful with finding times to use them with Liz, but it’s exciting. I do have some reservations, but they have nothing to do with childcare, maybe I’ll go into that another time.
Rose’s sitting up on her own! I still have to sit behind her in case she loses her balance, but it’s exciting. We’ve been working toward this for about a month now. She’s doing pretty well at correcting when she starts to lose her balance, but there are still times when she topples over.
Yesterday I was told for the first time that one of the girls looks like my child. On our walk a woman who was probably about 4-6 months pregnant told me that Rose looks like me. The was even after I had told her that I was only the nanny. My roommates thought it was because of the eyes; Rose and I both have big eyes with long lashes that sort of dominate the face. But hers are brilliant blue and mine are just plain brown.
It’s glorious today! Can’t wait for our walk.

Baby Monitor March 12, 2007

Music: Whatever Lola Wants from the Kinky Boots soundtrack

The other day I finally asked Liz’s mom if I could use the baby monitor that’s looks into Liz’s crib. Liz doesn’t actually sleep in her crib, during the day she sleeps in her swing, and at night she sleeps with her parents. Rose on the other hand has slept in a crib since almost day one, and she uses Liz’s crib during the day. Now this baby monitor is pretty sweet. It not only lets me heard Rose, but I can also watch her. This has done tremendous things to my nervous system. I used to be on edge all the time if Rose was sleeping, especially if I closed the door so outside noises wouldn’t disturb her. The house creaking, or a bird singing outside would make me sit up and listen, convinced that I heard Rose waking up. Rose is known to play quietly in crib for long periods of time before heralding the fact that she is awake. Thank goodness for technology and calmer nerves.

Falling Down March 8, 2007

On Monday I fell down a flight of stairs.  I slipped on a patch of ice stepping off of the porch at Cana house, and landed hard on my thigh and then again on my hip before coming to rest on the ground.  There were about 8 or 9 steps, so I guess I’m lucky I didn’t break anything.  I’m also lucky that I didn’t land on my back.  But Tuesday was a really bad day for me.  It hurt to move.  It hurt to get up and down off the floor which is something I do constantly during the day.  It also hurt to go up and down the stairs.  I carry the girls on the hip that I landed on, and it’s hard to break old habits.  I have the most massive bruise ever.  It’s bright purple.  Yesterday I only had Liz, so that made it alot easier, and I wasn’t in nearly as much pain.  The problem wasn’t even so much my hip and thigh as it was general achiness and tense muscles, or maybe it was just a combination of all of it.
It made me think about what would happen if I did seriously injure myself.  I wouldn’t be able to care for the girls if I broke a bone.  There’s just no way.  So then what?  It’s not a pleasant thought, and it’s making me think more seriously about health insurance.  I’m making enough money to afford it, but it’s SO expensive.  So far I’ve just put it off, but in the back of my mind I think I’ve been planning on just not having it.  My dad’s a doctor, as well as my sister and brother, so unless I need hospital treatment, I don’t really need insurance.  But it could happen, and if I can’t pay for it, then I’m in trouble.  Serious trouble.  I love being a nanny, but that’s one area of the job that sucks.

For security purposes March 2, 2007

Some of the names on my blogs will be changing.  I am Stephanie, always will be Stephanie, and can’t seem to bring myself to rename myself.  Also, for those who are aware of my blog and are named, I’m not giving them aliases either, but if you would prefer me not to use your real name, just let me know.   That’s all.