A Page From the Nanny Diary (Part 1)

It’s different than baby-sitting, playing with kids, or simply going on fun outings. While nannying includes all that, there is a different element to it when you are with a child continual during the working hours of a week.  Wherever you go, they go. Whatever you are doing, you better be prepared to break it down to a small task that an eager two year old can help with.  You start to realize which words you have a habit of overusing. How? Because a certain little girl parrots them back at you in her everyday chatter. If I’m sick, I have to pretend that a band aid or a get-well kiss makes me “all better” because she can’t handle the reality that sometimes I’m not “happy”. Any man who is in a quarter mile radius *will* notice me. How could they not when she is belting out “It’s a MAN! Kelsey! It’s a nice, good man!”. And my self-confidence should never be in jeopardy when I get a steady dose of “You’re so beautiful” or “Kelsey! I love you!”.  There are the draining moments that come with being Ari’s nanny.  I swear my neighbors must get tired of me saying every day at the stairwell leading up to our apartment: “Ari. PLEASE hurry! You don’t need to pick any more acorns. Come one. Hurry up the stairs” (often the intensity of my commands is due to carrying an armload of groceries that is threatening to topple over).  Every morning when I do my hair and makeup, she gets to play in my room. And almost every day she trashes it. (but at least it keeps her occupied!)

On Wednesday, I had my other little girl with me all day – five month old Ava Grace.  I needed some ingredients for dinner so I packed everyone up and drove half a mile away to the grocery store.  I hadn’t gone shopping with the two of them together yet.  I wasn’t sure how people attach the baby carrier to the cart. (Here in the south, they call the carts “buggies”. Isn't that funny?!) Do I set the whole carrier in the cart or rest it in the front area? I remember at times seeing carts with a baby seat already attached, so I decided to bank on that and leave Ava’s carrier in the car.  But I soon realized that no such carts were to be found. “Hmmm, Kimi says that Gwen sits in the cart by herself. How old is Gwen? Maybe Ava can do it!” I thought to myself.  Since the metal cart looked so harsh in comparison to sweet, chubby little Ava, I first put her blanket down to soften it up a bit. I carefully put Ava in the front seat of the cart and all it took was a second or two of watching her wobble back and forth for me to realize that she was way too young for that.  Slightly embarrassed with myself, I picked her up, grabbed a basket, and had Ari grab one too. What entailed was a slightly stressful but mostly humorous shopping trip.  I told Ari what to take off the shelf and tried to keep the lighter stuff in her basket. She was quite proud of herself and kept repeating over and over and over again how strong she was. But that wasn’t enough – she wanted me to repeat all that to Ava (she’s not narcissistic or anything like that, Lol) Ava was an angel the whole time – snuggling up to me and gaining the affection of the workers and customers. We made it home safe and sound and now I’ll be a bit smarter on our next shopping trip. =)