Rachel's First Baby-Sitting Gig

Shelby and I wanted to go for a walk around the block on Sunday, and we decided it would be OK if Rachel baby-sat Lilly and Carson. We were only going to be gone for five minutes, and Rachel has been in charge for longer than that before while I shower or Shelby works outside. This was her first home-alone baby-sitting gig, but we thought she was up for it. We were almost home from our walk, and contemplating another lap when in the distance I saw a little girl walking away from our house. "Is that Lilly?" Shelby asked. "I don't know. I think so...what is she doing?" Then a moment later, I noticed Carson was tagging close behind. They were both bare-foot. We caught up to them and asked what was going on. "We was looking for you" Was the only explanation Lilly could give. When we got home, we searched for Rachel to get an answer to why the little ones were outside. We found her in the back yard praying. When we brought her tearful self inside and asked what was going on she explained it. The timer I had set for something had gone off and she thought it was the fire alarm. She did the exact right thing by getting all the kids out of the house, but didn't know where to look for us so she decided to say a prayer. We were so proud of her. Simultaneously, I have never felt so guilty!

Lilly is hilarious. A word that for example's sake I have tried to give up is "suck". You don't realize how crude it is until you hear it come out of your sweet 3-year-old's little mouth. I have discussed with the kids how inappropriate this word is. Alas, I am not perfect and I let the word slip during dinner the other day. Lilly gave us a personal little commentary that I am sure came straight from stream of conscious. "You shouldn't say suck. It's a bad word. You should apologize, but you don't have to. Only if you want to."

My new favorite thing in the whole world is watching my kids play outside together. They get along so well when they are out there. They sometimes spend hours out there digging in the dirt, climbing on things, or just sunning themselves. I don't even mind that they come inside covered from head to toe in dirt. It will be good memories for them.