Adventures in BradySitting -- Day 2

Yesterday, Dad was able to get away for a longer amount of time, since it appears that Brady has gotten used to the idea that I'm going to be here for awhile. Brady turned on his Nintendo while we were watching Curious George, and pointed at it, saying "Play." I said, "Who's going to play? Brady or Tita?" He looked at me like I should actually know the answer, and said, "Tita!" So that was my first time for him to say my name in person, at least so that I can actually hear it.

He requested milk shortly after that, so I went downstairs, and told him to stay on the couch upstairs. No sooner had I reached the refrigerator than I hear from upstairs quite loudly, "TITA!!!!! Titatitatitatitatita!", along with dogs growling. OK, so now I've heard my name quite often and really didn't want to hear it that many times in a row. I brought his milk upstairs to him, called out the dogs' names, and it quieted down. Brady does actually know the dogs' names, but once Cadence and Presto start quarreling, it takes very loud voices to get back to serenity. Or serenity as compared to, you know, a full circus.

He helped me play Nintendo, even knowing how to get to his actual game after the system had been turned off. The kid is smart. We went outside and he promptly picked up a rake and started doing yard work. Granted, it's one leaf at a time, and it takes him 2 or 3 sweeps of the rake to get that one leaf, but it still helps. I didn't exactly know where Mom puts the leaves that she's raked, so I asked him, and he brought over the pail so that we could transfer the leaves. He also played frisbee with the dogs and me, which is always fun, because the dogs really love catching the frisbee, especially Cadence (or "Dadence," as Brady calls her....he calls the other dog "Peeto").

He mostly played and argued with my dad for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, he didn't feel like taking a nap. I was soooo looking forward to that, but after I had been away for an hour and came back to his awake state, I realized that the nap was not going to happen. Of course, the result was that he was really cranky at the end of his day here, so we just had to deal with it until Bro arrived. Brady got mad at Dad because Dad didn't want Brady to put his hand in his mouth after touching dirt, so he cried, and then wouldn't talk to me either, nor would he share his apple with me. Dad distracted him for awhile by taking him outside to meet up with Bro, but then the dogs got all whiny when they heard Dad and Brady out front.

Oh, well. I guess the whining just doesn't stop when you've got more than one kid to look after.