The Babysitting 100

Okay, so I didn't babysit 100 children.  Only 21.  But the work definitely felt comparable to running a 100 mile race.

The three Gunn ladies with babies were the obvious childcare candidates, so Heidi, Rachelle and I took on 3 babies, 4 potty training toddlers plus one more spunky toddler, and then 12 additional kiddos up to the age of 13. Of course the oldest were a HUGE help, when they were around. If you know Taylor and Natalie you know exactly what I'm talking about.



Us three verses the following eight children:

The rest were fairly self-sufficient and played like crazies.

It was a weekend full of adventures. Most memorable include:

• Figuring out how to hold the three babies while taking four toddlers to the bathroom so the remaining toddlers won't try to pick up (Olive, Brooke, and Eva) or roll on (Mac and Seth) the babies.
• Playing referee.  I've got the "share" thing down with the younger ones, but was a little out of my element when it came to hurt feelings of 9 year olds.  Good thing Rachelle and Heidi are so on par.

• The general amount of time it takes to get 21 children ready for ... anything. We had it down to about an hour. Ish.
• The sunscreen train.

• Bathtime.  We only did it once.  I'm sure you can imagine why.
• Meals.  Set up, eating, and clean up ... took a couple of hours.  Moms usually ended up eating dinner around 9 pm after things were settled.

• The night wanderers ... I may or may not have locked my door ...
• Mac and Sampson the dog.  Inseperable.  Mac played with the dog about a thousand times more than he did any of his cousins.

• Updates were hard to come by.  Apparently everyone was busy or something.  Also, the reception was terrible.  Luckily Josh and Katie were fairly on the ball and talked to us regularly throughout the weekend.  We learned about Katie getting ditched as a crossing guard, Mark killing rattlesnakes and hunting down lost runners, Curtis verbally attacking the staff and locking the door, Ashlee's lost contact, Matt stumbling around in a sleep-deprived coma, Chris's awe-inspiring aide station (of course), and the general success of things.

The first couple of days, we three ladies decided that next year Danika, Katie, and Ashlee would be on babysitting duty and we would get to do the race.  But towards the end of the second day and at into the third day we decided ... we might stick with babysitting.

The days were complete chaos.  But the kids had a blast.  After stumbling our way through it, they would crash hard.  And Heidi, Rachelle and I would sit, chat, eat oreos and ice cream and watch chick flicks. 

It was almost ... awesome.