Gramma Barb

Everyone keeps asking me, "Who watches Johnny while you're at work and Jason is off galavanting about the country?"  (Okay those aren't their exact words, but you get my drift.)  Well, it is the most wonderful story of how we found Grandma Barb and this is why I know even though I don't want to work this year, it is okay that I am working.

A coworker asked me in the copy room if I'd found someone to watch Johnathon (I'd posted about it on Facebook and got a bunch of "Oh, wish I'd known, but I'm all full's" and "Good Lucks!" and not what I was looking fors).  I told her I was still looking, but not really worried for some reason.  And I asked her who watched her kids and she said her mother in law.  And I said, "Oh that is so nice!  My mother in law would love to watch Johnny but she lives too far away.  But that is what I want for him- a surrogate mom or grandma who will love him like her own and give him all the love and attention I would if I were home."

And she said, "Well, she has talked about maybe taking some more kids.  Do you want me to ask?"

uh "YEAH!"

So she got back to me, said she'd be happy to try it out and told me she would charge half of what I was thinking I was going to have to pay.  And then I knew it was right!

I met her the next week (she is about 7 minutes from school!!!!) and she seemed really nice.  I didn't know what to ask or what to say.  What do you ask of someone who is going to watch your baby?  All the books I've read had about 800 questions.  Really?  Who wants to watch the baby of someone who has 800 questions before they've even met your kid?  I know I want him to be safe, but I don't want her to poison my kid because I'm so insane!

Well, since I obviously don't know what I'm doing when it comes to a babysitter, the first day I didn't tell her that he sleeps on his belly.  So he slept maybe an hour and a half for her.  But, Johnny is so well mannered that he was still utterly charming.

She only watches the two other kids, one is three and the other is in school all day! And both of the kids adore him.  When I come to get him early the girl in school informed me, "But I just got here.  I didn't get to play with him."

So I sent an email to my coworker telling her grateful I was that she was sharing her mother in law with me and that it was so wonderful for us.  And she said, "Oh, don't worry about it, she loves him.  Last night at family dinner she was sharing photos of him."

Yep, I found the most wonderfully perfect woman in the world to take care of my son, close to work, at a fraction of the cost and with all the love in the world for him.  It does make going to work a whole lot easier knowing Gramma Barb is taking care of him.