2 Years

Christine's 15-year-old niece, Annie was staying with Harry and Christine for a week while Annie's parents went away. This week happened to fall on Harry and Christine's anniversary. Annie agreed to babysit while they went out for dinner. Christine was a bit nervous because Annie had never taken care of a child alone before, but both Harry and Annie convinced her that everything would be fine. So they went. Annie was very excited to be taking care of Abby. At first, Abby was a bit shy without her parents around so Annie gave her space and watched television. Eventually, Abby climbed up on the couch next to her. Annie glanced at Abby; it almost looked as if Abby was studying her. Annie smiled and said, "Hey there."

"Hi." Abby said shyly.

Annie noticed paper and crayons on the coffee table. "Do you want to color?" Abby nodded and hopped down from the couch and sat in her chair in front of the table. "Lellow." she said as she pointed to the crayons.

Annie kneeled down next to her, "You want yellow?"

"Yeah."

Annie opened the box of crayons and took out the yellow. But as she handed it to Abby, Abby shook her head. "No, lellow."

"This is yellow."

Abby reached for the box, "No," she pointed to the red crayon. "This lellow."

"No that's not yellow, that's red." Annie corrected.

"Lellow." Abby insisted.

Annie laughed, there was no use in arguing. She handed Abby the red crayon. Once Abby was done with it she pushed it aside and then pointed to the blue crayon. "Lellow."

Annie said as she took the blue crayon out of the box, "You want this one?"

Abby nodded, then said, "You lellow and I lellow."

Then it occurred to Annie that Abby just called crayons in general 'lellow'. They colored for a while, but eventually Abby grew bored and wanted to show Annie her toys. She took Annie's hand and led her to the toy box in her bedroom. "These are Abby toys. My toys Abby toys." Annie had already learned her first day with Abby that she never tired of saying her name. "Which toy do you want to play with?" Annie asked.

"All of them." Abby quickly answered.

"How about you pick one for now, and then when you're done with that one, you can pick a new one." One thing she certainly didn't want to do is have to pick up a huge mess.

"No, all of them."

Annie sighed, and then she noticed an oversized ball across the room. "Hey Abby, do you want to play a fun game?"

"Yeah!" she screeched.

Annie stood up and rolled the ball over to where Abby was standing. She then picked her up and carefully set her on the ball. Without letting go Annie gently bounced her up and down and saying, "Boom! Boom! Boom!" along with each bounce. Abby laughed and laughed. This was a fun game! They played for a little bit but Annie's arms soon grew tired. She set Abby down and sat down herself. Abby rolled the ball to Annie. "Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Realizing that she may have created a monster, Annie said, "Maybe later. I'm tired."

Abby climbed onto her lap and put her hand on Annie's eyes, "Is it your nap time?"

Annie giggled, "Nah, not naptime. Just quiet time. Let's go watch TV." she stood up and carried Abby in to the living room. They sat quietly for a little while, but Abby soon wanted to continue playing. "I want to play hair."

Confused for a moment, Annie asked, "Play hair? What's that?" It then occurred to her, "Oh do you want to play with my hair?" Abby nodded. Annie sat on the floor in front of the couch so that Abby could reach. She was surprised how busy it kept her. She couldn't help but wonder why adults were always complaining about how hard it was to take care of children.

As it got later in the evening, Annie found out why it was hard.

Abby refused to eat her dinner and demanded ice cream. Once she finally ate her dinner she then had to tackle a diaper. Then she started getting fussy. Bedtime came and Annie had had enough. Abby kept screaming and crying. If this went on much longer, Annie would also be screaming and crying. She finally gave up. "Fine! Don't go to bed! See if I care!" she stormed out of the room and slumped down on to the couch. She could still hear Abby crying from her room. She began to feel bad about losing her temper. Abby was just a little kid. All she wanted to do was keep playing, that's all. After Annie had cooled off she went back into Abby's room. She too had calmed down. Annie walked over to her, "I'm sorry I got mad at you, Abby. I'm just new to the whole babysitting thing."

"Can we play now?"

Annie sighed and shook her head, "Abby, if we play all night then we won't be able to play tomorrow."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because we'll be too tired. That's why the sooner we go to bed, the sooner we can get up and play."

Abby laid down, "Okay. Goo-night Annie."

Annie smiled, "You said my name! Good night."

When Harry and Christine got home, they saw that Annie had fallen asleep. Harry whispered to Christine, "Do you think that Abby wore her out?"

"Looks like it." she laughed.

"See, you did all of that worrying for nothing. Everything's clean, no flames, no chaos."

Guiltily, Christine admitted, "Okay, okay. I worry too much, I know. Well, maybe Annie should visit more often and babysit while we go out."

Annie groggily said, "As long as it's a lunch date." she sat up.

Christine and Harry both laughed as they sat down next to her. "I hope she wasn't too much trouble." Christine said.

"Minus dinner and bedtime, I actually had a lot of fun." Annie smiled.

Harry joked, "Next time I'll make sure that ice cream is for dinner."

"Yes, please do." Annie began, "That would save a lot of time." They all laughed and then she added, "Oh… and I hate to tell you this but…"

"What?" Christine asked with panic in her voice.

"You might need to buy her one of those bouncy balls with a handle on it."