Kidsitting

Last Friday was Joy's birthday and we offered to watch Oliver so that she and Seth could have a grown-up evening out on the town. It's a double whammy for us because we get to do something nice for Seth and Joy and we get to hang with Oliver. They came over around five and dropped O off. Alex had just woken up from a long afternoon nap so he was rested and ready for fun.

First, O explained to Alex what noises the animals on his jumperoo make - the birdy goes "tweet-tweet", the monkey goes, "ooh-ooh-aah-aah", and the elephant goes...ok so we skipped the elephant. But Alex enjoyed hearing Oliver's renditions and was pretty much fascinated by everything Oliver did, as usual.

Around 5:30, there was a knock at the door - it was the UPS man with the Chicco walker that I had ordered with Alex's Christmas money! I frantically raced to assemble it so A could give it a whirl before it was time for bed. I stuck him in the little seat and showed him all of the cool gadgets on the "dashboard". I guess I ordered the fully loaded model because it has a steering with a horn that beeps, a gear shifter that vrooms, a key that plays music when turned, and a bunch of lights that flash. All of it is super easy to operate, so he loved being able to control all of the fun sights and sounds.

It was the moving around part that he was not quite sure of. I thought he'd get in it and try to jump and jump and jump like he does in his jumperoo. He did a little, but mostly I think he liked that he could stand up in it without having to do any of the work. We put him on the kitchen floor where it moved most easily, but he wasn't totally grasping the concept of moving his feet to move himself around the room.

Luckily his pal Oliver was more than willing to show him the ropes and shuffle him around the room. Oliver is such a sweet boy with him and Alex just loves him for it. O is definitely going to make a great big brother...someday!

After rolling around the kitchen for a while, we moved the fun into the living room. Timothy was playing Guitar Hero, and the boys were intrigued. Here they are watching Tim attempt to beat Slash in a Guitar Battle:

And here they are after he completes a face melting guitar solo. (Picture Oliver saying, "Whoa. Dude."):

It was Alex's bedtime, so I went up to give him his bath and bottle and put him to bed. When I came back down, I found O and Uncle Tim engrossed in this Thomas the Tank Engine book. After their fourth or fifth time through it, it was time for Oliver to go to bed. So we got him in his jammies and ushered him to his pack'n'play.

Seth and Joy got back around 9 after their movie was over and we all hung out for a while, talking and watching stand-up comedy on YouTube. Tim's parents were due in around 11, so when they got here, they found the four of us crowded around Tim's laptop, laughing hysterically. A little more chatting and it was time for all of us to go to bed. So the Primms gathered up Oliver and Oliver-related paraphernalia and went home, and the rest of us retreated to our beds (or couches, as the case may be).