A WEEK

So it's been a week since I posted? Wow. My neighbors, Doug and Cindi, are looking after his niece as DFCS pulled her out of her parents' home. So I have been helping Cindi out by watching Emily. Emily is TJ's age. Two. TJ is having to adjust to another personality. Emily is overall a good enough child to look after. She is used to playing on her own so she's not a child I have to entertain. We are having to address her hitting and pushing on TJ. But she eats well, rarely cries, even when she hurts herself!, and just overall is easy to look after. I don't mind helping Cindi at all because she's going to have to decide whether or not she wants this commitment if in 3 months DFCS decides Emily is not going back to her parents. Doug, of course, wants to keep her if the alternative is foster care. Which I completely understand. Heck, I'd even consider adopting her! But it is a life change for Cindi who is 40 something and is used to doing her own thing and living her own life. I figure she has some time to think it through.

Watching Emily has changed my life, too. Night owl that I am, I haven't been staying up to the wee hours of the morning (which is usually my blogging time). I've been going to bed at 8:30 and 9:00 at night! Imagine that! But I get up at 5 am to prepare for Doug bringing Emily over at 6 am. I figured out this week, however, that after Doug brings her over, I can just put her right down in bed and she goes back to sleep! So we get up about 8 or 8:30 am when CeCe, our cousin, comes over. She will be starting school on August 15th, so thankfully, I only have her for one more week. Remind me next Summer not to volunteer to look after her. I thought it was for a day or a week...I don't know what I thought, but it certainly didn't register that it was for the Summer Break! Whew! Of course, the girls have enjoyed having her over and we have been able to "tame" her wild streak down a little bit. She's an only child and used to getting her way. So she has calmed down a bit these past months. And all of them have learned how to play along with a personality different from their own.

And now I'll be letting one go, but I've gained another! Yes, Juli, why do I do this to myself? But then, it's not all about me, is it?