the babysitter's club

Pop-pop is in Colorado this week enjoying a hiking trip with some high school friends leaving Nonna at home to hold down the fort. So, Nonna has graciously offered to watch the girls while John and I have a date-night tonight. We're headed out to The Plains for dinner at The Rail Stop. I'm excited.

Now, if you are familiar with the wedding and football habits of the Slacker family, you know that John and I travel sans E and A quite a bit. You also know that the girls go to "school", my euphemism for day care (this is a family trait...my mom would call the kennel where we would board our dog, Guinness, "camp"). So, what you might find surprising is that A has never been babysat by someone other than a relative, and E has only been watched by a non-relative once. (I'm not counting the couple of times we put E to bed and left her with a babysitter while she was sleeping.) Thanks family! You're the best!

The couple that holds the honor for the only non-relative to watch E are Bettie and David, and they watched her overnight while John and I went to his company Christmas party. Bettie had just moved to Dallas at the time, so we flew her up using frequent flier miles. The outing was very much a success, we returned in the morning to a happy, well rested E. But there were two minor problems: (1) they couldn't figure out the high chair, so the girl had to eat in a reclined position and (2) her diaper was on backwards. But, all's well that ends well...and if we could rope them into watching the kids again we'd do it in a heartbeat.

We keep saying that we need to find some teenager in the neighborhood -- although I think the sticker shock of the what they charge as opposed to our current babysitters (thanks again, family!) would be quite great! What IS the going rate these days?