Summer Babysitting - Rusty but Fun!

We are watching a little not-quite-two-year-old boy for four weeks this summer, six hours each day M-F 'til mid August.  I think I'd forgotten how much work they can be at this age. I am definitely rusty across the board in chasing toddlers, diapering, and so much more.  He is busy busy busy.  But he is relatively easy as these things go and a lot of fun. Frankly, he's delightful. Granted, he's wearing us out, but we're managing, and largely trying to incorporate him into our lives and activities.  I do love having so many helpful hands.  We were hoping this would be a venture that was mostly Patience's responsibility, but that's proving impossible given his needs and her limitations (she doesn't have the energy for him).  So we're splitting it up and the younger two are loving him.  Here are a few photos from our first week with him, including what I believe is his very first ever trip to the pool.

Our own Newsie

Where we live, there is a free, weekly newspaper.  It's delivered to our door once a week.  Some years ago (maybe 10?), there was no delivery and I considered signing us up.  But I had a brood of young chickens and rightly understood that I'd end up doing it, and it wasn't worth it at the time.  Several other neighborhood kids tried their hands at it after that, and the most recent one (and the one with the longest tenure) just graduated from high school in June.  Turns out, his younger sister had no interest in inheriting the route as he "retired" (so he could move on to bigger and better things).  We asked him about it, he said he'd been thinking of asking us, and the rest is... news I guess.

Vivace is our official Newsie.  He has successfully completed the route twice to date and last week (the 2nd one) he bagged all 130 papers by himself.  He was incredibly responsible and we were all rightly proud.  And yes, we did send him to take a shower before eating dinner.  He was covered in newsprint from head to toe.  He and Constance have shared the delivery route twice now, and he's even gotten his first paycheck.  The entire process is between 2-3 hours, depending on the weather and the size (thickness) of the paper.  It took him about 45 minutes to do the bagging, alone, and about 1 1/2 hours to deliver this week.This is going to be a great learning opportunity for the whole family, but especially for him.  It's his first real "money-earning" venture (Constance has done cat-sitting), and it definitely requires an acceptance of responsibility.  He even signed a contract. We think he is very ready for it.  Gotta love how they're growing up!

Twenty sweet years - and counting.

We celebrated twenty years of marriage this week.  What a gift to have each other.  We are very blessed and thank God for His grace to us.

July 24, 1994