Adventures in Babysitting!

Wow, I've been dead, but I have a good reason to be.

Sunday evening, I left Virginia for the twelve hour drive to Florida. Me, my cousin's wife (also named Kayla), and her one year old son (named Evan) drove all night and when we hit the Florida state line, the sun was coming up. Kayla and I were living off of caffeine, ice cream from Dairy Queen, and the occasional stop at a fast food joint. The two of us had woke up at seven o'clock Sunday morning and even though I had taken a two hour nap during the day, I was having issues staying awake. We drove through, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia (Atlanta in the middle of the night when there's basically no one on the road is beautiful, Alabama, and then we were in the county where they live once we hit the Florida state line.

To sum it up, I stayed up for thirty hours after we went to the grocery store, bought my roll-away bed, and laid down on the couch for a two hour nap. I didn't wake up Tuesday morning until one in the afternoon. Also, there's an hour time difference between my house and here, I'm still getting used to being an hour backwards. Tuesday all Kayla and I did was go to the grocery store and come back to the house.

Wednesday was my first day of babysitting. My cousin, Zac, works at a golf course during the day and Kayla had to go to a job orientation. I have never really watched a kid before so from ten to three (when Zac got home), I was at home alone with the baby. It was a little rough because I didn't really know what I was doing and he also enjoys running over toes with his walker, biting, slapping, and clawing. It took almost forever for him to take his eleven o'clock nap (which didn't happen until one), but it gave me a little bit of time to write (I'll get to that later). He woke up when the roommates got home at two-thirty and I had to watch him run around in walker for a little bit long, but in the end, everything turned out alright.

Today, Thursday, Kayla's job orientation continued. Once again, I had to watch Evan and I went through the trails of, he was sleepy, but when I went to rock him, he'd throw his pacifier on the ground and then take a chunk out of my shoulder, chest, etc. Like yesterday, I gave him a whole bottle and he still tried to fight sleep. As I was rocking him for the second to last time, he began to get fussy, threw his pacifier in the floor and then proceeded to bite the little flat section between my breasts (he had bit those before, but it didn't hurt near as much as that did). I sat him down in his playpen and as he began to cry, I grabbed the pacifier again, put it in his mouth, and began to rock him; in two minutes, he was out like a light. As I was writing the second paragraph a moment ago, he woke up, kinda sat up, and then laid back down on my pillow (I placed it in the playpen earlier) and fell asleep. Even though I went through so much to get him there, he's adorable when he's sleeping.

Before all of that happened though, he was running around in his walker and I had finally figured out how to work Zac's huge speaker thing and I hooked my iPod up to it via Bluetooth. I was playing some of my favorite Japanese songs and he was dancing to them, but since then, as I write this, I switched it over to some much quieter, soft music (my sleep playlist in fact) so that I'm can work my magic as Evan sleeps.

Sometime next week, Kayla will start her job, but she'll be working the night shift. I won't have to watch Evan as often because Zac will be home by the time she leaves, but I don't really mind it. Babysitting will just prepare me for the future if I decide to have kids. I have to admit also, I don't mind being home alone with this freedom; I mean, I'll stay to the house, but it gives me a little bit to work and take care of personal matters while others aren't home.

On the topic of my writing, as I've been busy, I didn't really have time to start writing the next chapter of Deal With the Devil until yesterday. I know you lovelies who read it are used to once a week updates, but since I've been busy, I haven't updated in three weeks. I am living in Florida until July 22nd and I will not be able to do once a week updates until I get home, which even then, I'll be busy preparing for my return to school on August 10th.

Have I given up on the story? No. I love writing the story for you guys and I'm hoping that you'll all stick around to see what I have rolled up my sleeve next. I am working to have chapter twenty-four up by the end of this weekend or this coming up Tuesday (I'm not really sure when I'll have the time to write). Until then, if you guys ever need me, my tumblr is right here - Look Mom, I'm Going to Hell - Just send me an ask if you ever want to chat. ^.^

Until next update,
Kayla VI

Also, since this is posted on DeviantART and here, I thought I'd leave a little thing for you Mibbians. I'm running a contest on the site; if you're interested, here's the link - 30 Song Contest - Hope to see some entries from you guys!