Adventures in Babysitting

So I have always babysat for my twin cousins, Jake and Jenna, from the time they were around a year old.  They're sweet kids, and ridiculously funny, but best of all they LISTEN.  Too many kids these days are spoiled rotten and can't understand the word "No," which is why there are many members of my family tree I absolutely refuse to watch.

Jake and Jenna are different, though.  Their mom (my first cousin) is a preschool teacher, so she knows how to deal with kids, and she still takes parenting classes and things like that.  The best thing about them is that now that they are 6, they say the most adult things sometimes.  Not explicit, but, for instance, this came out of Jenna's mouth the other day:

"I don't understand why Uncle Vince's girlfriend has two teeth in front and then her other teeth are way in the back."

And this came from Jake, after I told him he had to go to bed when "Drake and Josh" was over:

"Janelle, I . . . I just want to be alone."

Yesterday was nothing new.  It was Superbowl Sunday and since their dad owns a banquet hall, the whole family was there for the party.  I went over there at 2pm and it was just me and Jenna all day until Jake got back from a bowling birthday party.  I brought over my Disney Charades game and I had a good four hours of laughter over Jenna pretending to be Ariel, Simba, Mickey Mouse, Meeko, and the like.  I made her watch "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" which she loved -- so much so that she whined every time a commercial came on and she cried when the Witch, ahem, "kills" Aslan on the Stone Table.  I brought over some old Magic School Bus books for Jake and he basically screamed with excitement and begged me to read them one for a bedtime story.

Rewind.  Since they got their Maltese puppy Sassy, "babysitting Jake and Jenna" has become "babysitting Sassy".  

Fast forward.  So we are on Jake's Detroit Tigers bed and Sassy is being super annoying, chewing my sweatshirt and barking, and we couldn't figure out why.  Lo and behold, Sassy plops down and takes a nice pee all over Jake's comforter.  Jenna freaks out and Jake promptly starts crying, a) "Are we going to be able to finish Magic School Bus?" and b) "Where am I going to sleep!?"

Like the awesome sitter I am, I definitely dropped a few not-very-nice words which made Jenna giggle.  I had to hunt down extra sheets and blankets for Jake's bed, and they ended up getting to bed a half hour late because I had to interrupt Ms. Frizzle and company's trip to the ocean floor with a load of pee-encrusted laundry.

I love babysitting.