A Night With My Granddaughters

Al and I babysat my granddaughters tonight and I was reminded of how challenging it is to take care of two babies...ages two and a half and 11 months old.  Everything was fine and went wonderfully until it was time to take a bath.  Al was watching the game, and offered to help, but I said I could do it myself.  The last time I bathed them it was a piece of cake, but tonight was different.  They always take a bath together, so as I headed up the stairs with C, the younger one, in my arms, while the older one, A, pealed herself away from her Annie movie and came to the bottom of the stairs and cried for me to carry her up the steps with her sister.  I couldn't carry them both and I knew the older one could get up the stairs easily on her own, so I kept coaxing her to follow me.  Eventually she gave in and came up (though she cried the whole way) as I put the younger one in the water. 

As I started rinsing A's hair after getting C's done, the older one, A, started crying and pointed to her sister  and said, 'do hers!!!'  I was finally able to get the older one's hair rinsed... after I poured more water over her sister's head again.  ;-)  Then, when the bath was over, the A didn't want to get out.  As I put the baby in my arms and tried to get to other one to let me help her out, she refused, so I walked away. (I knew that'd get her out.)  She started crying for me, so I turned around and set the baby down to pull the  2 year old out.  The baby started to cry and I picked her up and then the 2 year old cried because her towel wouldn't stay on and she wanted me to pick her up.  Of course I couldn't carry both of them at the same time, so, I tucked the towel around her and held it together as I walked bent over, hanging on to the older one's towel with my left hand and carrying a slippery wet baby on my right arm. 

I got the pjs out and the correct diapers for each, but the 2 year old kept saying 'pull up, pull up!...because she wanted the pull up diaper on instead.  It's a new thing for her while she is getting potty trained.  She wears a regular diaper at night, but I watched her pull out 3 pull up diapers and try to put one on, out of my reach, as I struggled to get the baby's diaper on.  My youngest granddaughter apparently doesn't like to get dressed anymore....she absolutely refused to let me put her diaper on!  She rolled over and crawled away, and before I could get her back into position, A plopped down on C's diaper on the floor and wanted me to put that one on her.  She started laughing and C was crying as I moved A and placed C on her diaper again.  C was struggling like crazy and I had a hard time getting that diaper on.  I had my left foot holding down her right arm and my right foot holding down her left arm.  Got it done.  Then came the sleeper.  Oh man, she wouldn't lay still.  I bet I turned her over at least 25 times before I successfully got the thing on her!  Then she sat there crying, and kept hitting her legs, like she was saying, "I don't want this on me!!!"  One down and one more to go!  Actually, I was able to use some bribery to get A to cooperate with the diaper and pjs.  Hint...she likes snacks...and her Annie movie was on pause downstairs.  I don't think she struggles so much about getting dressed like she used to.  She may have outgrown that.  But C has taken over where A left off!  

It wasn't so hard getting C's hair combed, even though it is past her shoulders, but I managed to comb A's hair as she was rolling around in circles on the floor, making shreaking sounds.  Her hair is almost to her butt, so there's lots of hair to get tangled.  With some good aims with the hair detangler, and some more bribing, I finally got her hair combed.  Whew!  On the way downstairs, once again A cried for me to pick her up and carry her down.  Al came to my rescue and picked her up and brought her down.  He said he thinks she was jealous that I was holding C and not her.  That may be, I don't know.  I gave C her bottle and she feel asleep in my arms.  And shortly after putting her to bed, A and I looked at pictures until she started to fall asleep.  I sure love my little sunshines.  Good night!

C

A