| Babysitting (5-4-03) The most wonderful people sometimes come in miniature packages, little limbs and tiny features, but boundless curiosity, nonstop chatter, uncompromised laughter, and oodles of energy. In addition, my charge, twenty-one months old, had a round belly jutting out from his otherwise lean frame, and I came to understand why when he repeatedly pulled me to the food closet or the refrigerator, and then devoured oatmeal and cereal bars, strawberries and banana, bread and juice and milk in our few hours together. Of course, the more that goes in, the more that comes out, and this diaper neophyte changed his first soiled child on this occasion. It went, to my relief, about as well as such things go. We watched toddler videos together, lying on the floor, and he climbed on me to sit or lie down. He pressed every button, flicked every switch, and tried to open every door in the apartment. I chased him and tickled him and reacted with amazement every time his hands parted to reveal a smiling face as I called out �peek-a-boo!� And then, with the sun still up, Luke began to rub his eyes, and acquiesced to putting on pajamas and to being carried into his bedroom, head resting on my shoulder as if I were more than a temporary sitter. His breathing soft and steady, I attempted to lower him into the crib. That is when the crying began and, because I don�t do this all the time, I went to him and cradled him again. It wasn�t until the fourth attempt at setting him down that I was able to leave the room despite the screams, and they dissipated in minutes. Then I lay down next to the baby monitor, listening from the next room to the rhythm of his sleeping breaths. |