Jackson goes to Yale (and let my Harvard shirt have it!)

I'm lucky enough to get to babysit my almost 5 month old nephew Jackson several times a month while his mom, my sister, goes to work. In the beginning, it simply meant holding him, feeding him his bottle, changing his diaper multiple times a day, cleaning up spit-up and changing clothes multiple times a day, etc.

As time goes by, he becomes more and more interactive - meaning he interacts with his surroundings and those in his surroundings. Even though I am exhausted when I get there, it's always fun to see what he has in store each time I babysit.

Take today for example. He played on the floor, had a bottle, then we played on the sofa (he likes to dance while standing on your lap), and had a bit of another bottle. Before I knew it, it was 11:30am and he was dozing off. Normally he takes quick naps, during which I take a bathroom break (I remember the day he was having a hard time and I got ZERO breaks, so now I am thankful for the ones I do get!) and eat lunch. He usually wakes up right after I finish eating, but not today...he slept for 90 full minutes! I was LOST. What am I supposed to do for that extra hour to myself?! I always bring a book, computer, magazine, whatever I happen to grab that morning on my way out the door, but since I've never had the opportunity to actually look at any of it, I didn't know what to do when I actually had time to look at it. I pulled out the trusty iPad but ended up playing with the apps I had downloaded for HIM! I played the stacking game several times, played with the barnyard animals, and flipped through a children's book.

I was tempted to wake him up I was so bored.

Finally relief came and he woke up. And he must have had some great dreams, because for the next 20 minutes he talked my ear off. This is the most he's ever talked to me, so I was thrilled for the conversation (okay, so it wasn't much of a conversation since I didn't have a clue what he was saying, but remember I was bored and at that point willing to listen to anything!). He was so animated it was cute to watch him wave his arms here and there, the pitch of his voice rise and fall, and he never took his eyes off me.

After he was done, we played bouncy on my stomach (at which point Pepe the cat decided he wanted in on the action) and then chilled while watching Yard Crashers (he likes that show, it wasn't my first choice).  Then it was change the diaper and give me a bottle lady!

As he gets older, he spits up on me less and less. The goal now is to go all day without any major messes (on either of us) and we are getting pretty good. Other than a few smears on my shoulders from where he tried to gum me to death, we had made it through the day without me being soaked through with spit-up. I was complacent, feeling rather proud of our progress when 2:15 hit. Only 45 minutes to go - I was in the home stretch. RIGHT!

BLEH! All over the front of my Harvard t-shirt. Jackson just grinned as if to say, "I'm a Yale man!"  - or maybe he just didn't want to give me the satisfaction of making it out of there clean for a change!

Ahhh....the rivalry continues!