Organization
"Okay mom, I'm back!" Sam said as she entered her and Freddie's home. "You can-oh come on!"
She looked around her living room, which looked like a twister had just gone through it. "Mom!" Sam called again. "What'd you do here?"
"Oh, hey kid," Pam Puckett said, coming out of the kitchen with a bottle of root beer.
"Where's Jason?" Sam asked at once.
"In there," Pam replied, nodding over to the playpen in the corner of the room, where the two-year old child was fast asleep. "He's finally out. That kid was a real handful; he's the one who made all this mess."
"Really?" Sam frowned. "He's never done anything like this before."
"I'm telling you, after I gave him his morning bottle of coffee, he was bouncing all around and-"
"You gave him coffee?" Sam exclaimed.
"Calm down, I gave you coffee all the time when you were a kid," Pam said, rolling her eyes.
"And I was horrible!"
"Look, you need me to babysit again tomorrow while you're at work or not?" Pam asked, ignoring her daughter.
"I-Yeah," Sam sighed. "We don't have anybody else to watch Jason while Freddie and I are at work. It was a lot easier when we'd just drop him off at Spencer's, but now that he got that gig at the art museum, we can't do that anymore. Of all the times for him to finally get a real job…"
"Alright, I'll be here at ten a.m. sharp," Pam said.
"Um…we need you here by eight, actually," Sam said.
"Eight? You're killing me!" Pam groaned. "Okay, okay, fine. I'll be here at eight. Oh, and I might have a 'friend' come over in the afternoon."
"A friend?" Sam repeated.
"You know, a friend…" Pam said.
"Ugh! No!" Sam cringed. "I don't want any of your weird guys around Jason!"
"Oh come on, Sammy, lighten up!" Pam said. "Man, motherhood has really made you less fun."
"Goodbye mom," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "And no coffee for Jason tomorrow either!"
Once her mother left, Sam looked around the living room, knowing it would take hours for her to get it all cleaned up. Plus she still had to cook dinner…Normally she'd just leave the mess for Freddie to get to when he got home, but he had been dealing with a lot of stress at work lately, and Sam didn't want to make him deal with even more when he got home.
"Alright," Sam said to herself. "I'll throw some chicken in the oven then come back out here to-"
"Mommy!" Jason suddenly wailed from his playpen, now fully awake. "Mommy!"
"And…now there's this," Sam sighed as she stepped over to the playpen and picked up her son. "Hey, Jason! Did you miss mommy today?"
"Feel sick," Jason moaned.
"You do?" Sam frowned. "I bet it's from all that caffeine in that coffee grandma gave you…alright, well maybe you'll feel a little better if you lie down some more and-"
Just then Jason gave a loud belch as he proceeded to vomit all over Sam.
"I better!" Jason happily announced as Sam had to use all her will power to keep from screaming.
"Oh good," Sam said heavily, staring down her now puke-covered clothes. "I'm glad you are."
…..
"Hey, Sam," Freddie said later that evening as he came home from work.
Sam, who was attempting to scrub crayon marks off of the living room wall, merely grunted in response.
"Sorry I'm late again, but it's just been crazy at work lately," Freddie said. "So, is dinner in the kitchen? I'm starving."
"Dinner's right there," Sam snapped, nodding to a half-finished box of pizza sitting on the coffee table.
"Pizza?" Freddie frowned. "That's dinner? I thought you were making chicken parmesan."
"Well if you want your dang chicken so badly, you can get in the kitchen and make it yourself!" Sam snapped. "Or would that be too much trouble for you? Huh? Would it?"
"Um…pizza's fine," Freddie said quickly. "Hey, do we have any red pepper flakes?"
"No we do not have any red pepper flakes!" Sam hissed. "And good thing we don't, because I'd be ready to dump them down your pants right about now!"
"Okay, someone's in a mood," Freddie said. "Wait…you're not on your-"
"Oh I dare you to finish that sentence," Sam said, narrowing her eyes at her husband.
"Sorry," Freddie said at once. "But seriously, baby, what's wrong? Did you have a bad at work or something?"
"No," Sam said. "My bad day started when I got home. Ever since I got back I've been dealing with puke, a two-year old who had about three cups of black coffee, and this gigantic mess. My mom is not the ideal form of child care."
"Ah," Freddie nodded. "So that's the problem."
"I swear, you would think she's never had to deal with kids before," Sam said, shaking her head. "She had twins; she should be used to this! We're only asking her to handle one kid! And the worst part of this all is that she's our only option! Spencer's got that museum job now, Carly is with me at work all day, and your mom has the day shifts at the hospital now! Maybe…Maybe I should just look into staying home with Jason full-time or something…"
"Well that's not fair to you," Freddie frowned. "You shouldn't have to give up your career."
"Well what other choice do we have?" Sam said. "If we keep using my mom as a babysitter she's either going to burn our house down or have Jason addicted to caffeine before he can even read!"
"We can always look into hiring a professional babysitter," Freddie suggested.
"Hmm, I don't know," Sam said slowly. "A stranger coming in and taking care of Jason all day?"
"There's agencies who have babysitters who have been doing this for years," Freddie said. "They're CPR trained, speak multiple languages, have degrees in early childhood education…they really know they're stuff."
Sam still looked skeptical.
"Look, it has sort of been you that's been taking the biggest hit since we lost Spencer as our babysitter, so the choice is yours," Freddie said. "But just think about how much easier things would be for you if you had a little help around here."
"I guess someone who knows CPR and has a degree in childhood ed. would be a better choice than my mom," Sam said slowly. "And it would be nice not to have to deal with so much chaos after work…Okay, maybe looking into a professional babysitter wouldn't be so bad."
"Cool, we can start looking together tonight," Freddie smiled. "This will work out great, you'll see. We should've thought of this ages ago."
…..
"I'm nervous," Sam said a few mornings later as her and Freddie waited anxiously in their kitchen with Jason. "What if this blows up in our faces? What if Jason doesn't like this chick? What if she's a total skunk bag? What if-"
"Sam, relax, you haven't even met this woman yet," Freddie smiled. "I'm sure everything will be fine."
Just then there was a knock at the front door.
"That must be Colleen now," Freddie said. "I'll go let her in."
"Alright," Sam nodded as Freddie hurried off. She turned to her son, who was sitting in his booster seat, happily eating his toast.
"Okay Jason," Sam said, sitting down next to him. "Remember what we talked about last night? Today you're going to have a new babysitter taking care of you. Won't that be fun?"
"Grandma?" Jason asked curiously.
"No, not grandma," Sam said. "Her name is Colleen, and she's going to take care of you and play with and-and you'll have such a good day with her while mommy and daddy are at work!"
"Sam, Jason, this is Colleen," Freddie said as he walked back into the kitchen, accompanied by a young brunette.
"Hi," Sam said, staring skeptically at the woman.
"Hello, it's so nice to meet you," Colleen said cheerfully, shaking Sam's hand. "And this must be little Jason! Hi Jason! I'm going to be your new friend!"
"He's a little shy meeting new people," Sam said quickly. "So don't worry if-"
"Hi!" Jason said happily, staring up at Colleen with a big smile on his face.
"Oh, he's just adorable!" Colleen giggled.
"Looks like he really likes you," Freddie smiled. He looked at his watch. "Oh wow, Sam, we need to be taking off or we'll be late for work. Colleen, are you all set here?"
"Yup, we'll be just fine," Colleen nodded. "Jason, can you say bye-bye to mommy and daddy?"
"Bye-bye!" Jason exclaimed.
"Um, bye-bye, sweetie," Sam said, kissing the top of her son's head, surprised to see him taking so well to Colleen. "Um, so Colleen, you have our cell numbers and work numbers, right?"
"Of course, already have them set in my speed dial," Colleen nodded.
"Okay, and, um, well Jason-Jason's naptime is at noon," Sam continued. "And make sure he gets plenty to eat. He likes to drink everything out of his blue bottle. We've been trying to wean him off bottles and get him to Sippy cups for ages, but, well, he's stubborn. Um, he really likes this one dinosaur show too, but make sure he doesn't sit around watching T.V. all day. And-"
"Sam come on, they'll be fine here," Freddie said, slightly amused.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Benson, I have everything under control," Colleen assured Sam.
"O-Okay," Sam nodded. "But my office is like, only fifteen minutes from here. I can be home in ten if anything happens or-"
"Come on, baby," Freddie said, gently taking Sam's hand. "Time to go."
…
When Sam returned home from work that evening, she fully expected to walk into a disaster. Jason would be screaming and yelling because he wasn't used to having a stranger taking care of him for so long, and Colleen would be at her wits end trying to handle the chaos.
But when she opened the front door, she was instead met with…silence.
"Jason?" Sam called out, looking around the living room, which was cleaner than it was when she left that morning. "Colleen?"
"We're in the kitchen!" came Colleen's voice.
Sam walked into the kitchen where Jason and Colleen were sitting at the table, laughing as they played one of Jason's favorite board games.
"Hey," Sam said, looking around. The kitchen looked as spotless as the living room, and there was a delicious aroma wafting from the oven.
"Hi, Mrs. Benson," Colleen smiled. "Jason, look! Mommy's home!"
"Hi, mommy," Jason said simply, not looking up from the game.
"Hi Jason, come give me a hug," Sam said, holding out her arms.
"I playing," Jason said.
"Oh, my bad kid," Sam chuckled, rolling her eyes. She turned back to Colleen. "So…was everything good today?"
"Oh yeah, Jason and I had fun, didn't we?" Colleen said.
"She fun!" Jason beamed. "I like her, mommy!"
"Wow, I'm glad you had a good time today, sweetie," Sam smiled.
"We went to the park and looked at all the different types of birds," Colleen said. "Then we went to the library for story time, and then we came home and Jason helped me organize the living room-"
"You got Jason to help you clean?" Sam repeated.
"Yeah, I hope you don't mind," Colleen nodded. "But I thought it'd be a fun activity if Jason learned how to organize his toys around here."
"Mind? Why would I mind that?" Sam said. "I've been tripping over his toys since the day he learned how to crawl!"
"Oh good, because we also organized his room," Colleen said. "And when Jason was napping I sort of cleaned up in here too. Oh…was that too much? It was too much, I'm sorry-"
"Are you apologizing for doing my chores?" Sam chuckled. "Seriously, it's more than fine."
"Well that's a relief then," Colleen sighed as she got to her feet. "Well, is there anything else you need? I don't mind staying a little longer if you want to take a little bit to unwind."
"Oh…wow," Sam said. "You-Really?"
"Sure!" Colleen beamed.
"Um, alright, it would be nice to watch the evening fights for once," Sam said. "Hey…the stove's on."
"Oh, I had a little bit of time on my hands so I thought I'd make dinner," Colleen said. "It's lasagna. Jason said it was his favorite."
"Yeah, and his dad's too," Sam grinned. "Wow, Colleen, you are seriously the best."
"I'm just glad to help," Colleen said modestly.
I can't believe I was so wrong about this babysitting thing; Freddie and I should've done this ages ago! Sam thought to herself as she headed out to the living room. Just then the front door opened and Freddie walked in.
"Hey," Freddie said, giving her a quick kiss. "Colleen's car's still here."
"Yeah, she's giving us time to 'unwind'," Sam beamed.
"What?" Freddie said. "Seriously?"
"Seriously!" Sam nodded. "Freddie…this woman's amazing! She cleaned our whole house! She's spent the entire day keeping Jason more entertained than he's probably ever been in his life. She has a lasagna in the oven for us!"
"Lasagna?" Freddie repeated. "No way!"
"We totally just found our new permanent babysitter," Sam said.
"I'll say," Freddie said, looking around. "Wow, it's so clean in here; I love it. I've been saying for years we need to implement some sort of organizational system around here."
"You guys?" Colleen said, poking her head out of the kitchen. "Jason wanted to know if I could whip up a batch of brownies for dessert. I don't mind, but I just wanted to check with you both first."
"Pfft, knock your socks off!" Freddie said. "Lasagna, brownies, clean house…Colleen, we may have to have you move in with us."
"Just happy to help!" Colleen chuckled.
"Alright, this is officially the best idea we've ever had," Sam said as Colleen headed back into the kitchen.
….
Two weeks had passed since Colleen had become the Bensons' official babysitter, and it seemed like things couldn't have been going better. Jason absolutely loved her, and she did such a good job doing extra things around the house. Sam figured it was really the perfect arrangement.
"Alright Jason," Sam said one Saturday morning as she sat her son down in his highchair. "Daddy had to go to go help Aunt Carly with a computer problem, so it's just me and you today. What should we do? Want to go to the park?"
"Where's 'Leen?" Jason asked. 'Leen was the name he referred to Colleen as.
"Colleen's not coming today," Sam replied. "She only comes when mommy and daddy both have to work."
"Want 'Leen!" Jason pouted.
"Well sweetie, you'll see her on Monday," Sam said. "But today me and you can have some fun together!"
"No!" Jason said moodily. "I want 'Leen!"
"I-Jason, come on," Sam frowned, trying not to get too offended at the words of the two-year old. "You wouldn't rather have your babysitter over your mommy, would you?"
"'Leen!" Jason shrieked stubbornly. "'Leen is fun!"
"You don't think mommy's fun anymore?" Sam asked.
"No!"
Okay…that hurt, Sam thought to herself.
"Um, I know!" Sam said. "Do you want to go to the candy store Jason? We can pick out lots of candy for you to have!"
"Candy?" Jason said curiously.
"That's right!" Sam nodded.
"I like candy," Jason said.
"Great!" Sam grinned. "Well mommy will buy you tons! How's that sound?"
"That good!" Jason said happily.
Unbelievable, Sam thought to herself. I have to bribe me own kid to want to hang out with me…what is happening?
…..
"I can't believe I spent the whole day fixing Carly's computer," Freddie sighed later that evening as he stepped into the kitchen. "She really needs to start taking better care of that thing. All of her pictures had the wrong file extension and her hard drive was a mess."
"Yeah, normally she tries to let her computer get as backed up as possible so she can bring it to the cute guys at the Brilliance Bar," Sam said. "But lately its been mostly chicks working, so she gave up and that's why she called you."
"I'm the back up?" Freddie frowned.
"That's right," Sam smiled sweetly, giving him a quick kiss. "Anyway, dinner should be ready in a few minutes."
"Awesome, I'm starved," Freddie said. "What are we having?"
"Fried chicken," Sam replied.
"Oh…" Freddie said slowly.
"What?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you have a problem with fried chicken?"
"No," Freddie said. "It's just, well, I guess I got used to those healthy meals Colleen prepared all of last week. You know, that vegetarian lasagna, the grilled salmon, oh! That incredible cobb salad…I know cooking's not even in her job description, but man am I glad she does it. In fact, I think there's still some of that salmon left in the fridge…mind if I have that instead?"
"You love my fried chicken!" Sam exclaimed. "You've always said it's worth the cholesterol!"
"It-It's still good," Freddie said quickly. "But, um, why-why don't I have a small piece of chicken and then the rest of the salmon? You know, best of both worlds?"
"Fine," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Do whatever you want."
"Awesome, thanks," Freddie smiled, clearly not sensing his wife's tone. He turned to the sink, which was filled with dishes. "Oh…wow…that's a lot of plates."
"Relax, I know it's my night to do the dishes," Sam said. "I'll run them through the dishwasher in a sec."
"Okay, but, um, you-you might want to pre-wash them," Freddie said.
"Pre-wash?" Sam repeated. "So…you want me to wash the dishes only to turn around and wash them again? It's bad enough doing them once!"
"I know, but the pre-wash really creates a nice, deep clean," Freddie said. "Colleen does it; hey, maybe she can show you how to do it properly some time."
"Oh that would be just wonderful," Sam muttered under her breath.
"Speaking of Colleen, maybe we should see if she's available on the weekends," Freddie said thoughtfully.
"Why?" Sam demanded at once. "We don't need her to watch Jason."
"I know, but it would still be nice to have her around," Freddie said. "To help out with the cleaning and the cooking. Plus Jason loves her. I bet he'd be ecstatic if she were to come on the weekends."
"I bet," Sam mumbled.
"Well, I'm going to go run and take a quick shower before we eat," Freddie said, giving Sam another quick kiss.
As Freddie retreated upstairs, Sam turned and stared at the dishwasher.
Prewash…Sam thought as she rolled her eyes. As if! You know what…I think Colleen and I may just have to have a little chat…
…..
"You know, I'm actually really looking forward to work today," Freddie said happily as him, Sam and Jason all sat down in the kitchen Monday morning. "My boss got a new cappuccino maker in the break room."
"Lucky," Sam frowned as she helped Jason spread peanut butter on his toast. "All we have in our break room is a microwave that smells like old tacos. You better bring me home a cappuccino."
"I will," Freddie promised, looking at his watch. "Huh…this is weird. I wonder where Colleen is; she's always early, and today she's running late. Oh well, I'm sure she just had a little bit of car trouble or something."
"Oh no," Sam said brightly. "Actually, Colleen won't be coming today."
"No 'Leen?" Jason gasped.
"No sweetie, I'm sorry," Sam said. "No more 'Leen."
"What happened?" Freddie whispered frantically to Sam. "Did she quit? Did we do something to offend her? Tell her we can do better! We'll give her a raise or-"
"She didn't quit," Sam said softly to her husband. "I let her go."
"What? You fired her?" Freddie frowned. "Sam! Why would you do that? She was perfect!"
"Well I guess you'll just have to learn to get a long without her," Sam shrugged.
"But-But her healthy food," Freddie said weakly. "And-And her organization systems…"
"Hey, you don't need that junk," Sam said. "You got along just fine with out all that before, you'll be fine now."
"But she color-coded the medicine cabinet," Freddie sighed. "And-And who's going to watch Jason while we're at work now?"
"Oh don't worry, I got that covered," Sam said just as the back door opened and Pam Puckett walked in, still in her pajamas.
"Alright, I'm here," Pam yawned, scratching her left armpit.
"Er, hi there, Pam," Freddie cringed.
"Hi ganma!" Jason said.
"Okay, looks like we're all set here!" Sam smiled. "Mom…I hid the coffee and brought out the fire extinguisher. Don't bring anybody over, and call me at work if you need anything."
She leaned down and kissed the top of Jason's head. "Bye-bye, sweetie. I'll see you after work."
"But I miss you," Jason frowned, hugging his mother tightly.
"Aw," Sam smiled. "Mommy will miss you too. But we'll have lots of fun together when I get back, okay?"
"Fun with mommy," Jason nodded.
"That's right," Sam chucked. She turned back to Freddie. "Come on, nub, let's get going. Oh, what do you want for dinner tonight?"
"I don't know, I guess your special ham's fine," Freddie said. "You think we can have that?"
"Sure, I'll even buy the special barbecue sauce," Sam said. "The extra tangy kind."
"Sounds good," Freddie said.
As Sam headed out the front door, she couldn't help but beam triumphantly.
Back to normal, she thought to herself. Thank God.
