babysitting my nieces

i've learned a few things these last few days.

1. do whatever you can to get a 2 year to laugh after she falls, even if this means dancing like a madwoman and making high pitched circus noises. there's no shame in (pseudo) parenting

2. (much) older women with long salt & pepper hair wrapped up into a loose bun should not continue to try using a gerbil's ball with a bell inside to make a 5 month old smile at the portrait studies at Target when the 5 month old wails upon her approach. they should work instead at Pet Land and hand farrets to other people's children.

3. watching Sesame Streets' Count it Higher with Numbers can be much more entertaining than i thought, but by night 4 Count Von Count starts looking a little creepier and i start feeling like i might need a "blanky" for soothing

4. dallas is really fun at night when you're running through the fountains downtown to cool off

5. Pavlov was a freaking genius with that bell gig. you can condition a child to do just about anything, except of course bowel movements. . . you just hope to God that the prune juice you added to their formula helps their constipation so you can actually get some sleep at night. (i'm crossing my fingers now)

6. and most importantly, having a 2 year old yell "Tia!!" across the house to play with you is the sweetest sound in tejas