Eating the Good Stuff

Right now Russell and Pearl usually split a jar of food for breakfast.  Anna fed Pearl this morning but Russell fell asleep in his chair eating kix, so I didn't get to give him his official breakfast til he woke up.  I got his out of the fridge and started feeding it to him, carrying on my running conversation like I do.  "Look Russell!  Yum!  You're eating pineapple, pear, and avocado."

"WHAT?!? That is so weird," says Anna.  I ask her if she even read the name of it this morning, since she was the one who got it out to feed to Pearl.

"No, I just checked to see if it had acid and that's all."

"Wait.  Wow, that sounds awful.  Like we drug the babies!  Oh no!"  Silly things make us laugh, and it's yet another example of something that is totally normal in this job but would be extremely odd in another setting.  Pearl's been having a little trouble with citrus lately and so we check to see if there's added citric acid in the jars.  There wasn't, by the way.  

I'm having trouble getting pictures on here lately, which is part of why I haven't posted in so long- I like to put them up.  Too many posts with no pictures make me feel like it's just Too Long: Didn't Read.  Also I've been busy, and also lazy.  Let's just be honest.  Anyway, I'll try to be better with little anecdote stuff, even if I can't figure out the picture issue for a bit.

Dumb, Yet Great

My favorite five minutes of today happened late this afternoon.  I had just finished reading The Big Red Barn and was lying on the playroom floor.  Alice came and sat on top of my back and so I was playing horsie with her around the room.  Tigger then went and sat on Kanga the same way and suddenly I turned around and we were right in front of each other.  She laughed and said it felt like playing chicken in the pool.  Alice and Tigger were both laughing hysterically and I started yelling lines from Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome.  "Two man enter, one man leave!  Who runs Barter Town?"

It was so silly.  And yet we all had such a good time.

Naming Trends

This really has nothing to do with anything, but sometimes I come across random stuff that I find interesting. I love names. I always like to know the whole names of the kids. I like knowing why they got named that and who it honored and how it got chosen. It's just fun stuff. Even though I don't plan to have more kids of my own, I still think about what I would name them if I did.

I think this Swedish study is interesting. We don't have any boys here who end in -y. I do tend to notice that a lot of little boys go by the y-nickname and then change it as they get older. Joey to Joe or Joseph, Nicky to Nick or Nicholas. That kind of thing. And I do know a grownup Billy who doesn't seem to be a criminal. :) y-names do make me think of Italian mobsters sometimes though.

Another study I read years ago has stayed on my brain. I can't find a link to it, but basically it said that moms with lower education levels tended to name their babies after expensive objects- stuff like Crystal, Porsche, and Jade. Moms who were college-educated trended names that ended in -n.

On our current roster we have no expensive object babies. However, Duchess, Tod, Copper, Alice, Tarzan, Hercules, Tigger, Roo, Lady, and Mater all end in -n. I'd say the theory works well in our case.

*of course, there are MANY lovely and educated names that just don't end in N. That's what the rest of our kiddos are. Don't be thinking that I'm trying to hate on your education level. Just mulling on a study.....

Summer Lovin'...

I carried a watermelon last night. It was heavy and as I was staggering up my walk to the front door I actually said out loud to myself that I was carrying a watermelon. Too bad I can't dance like Jennifer Grey. But yeah, I found a huge one that could accommodate our newest baby girl and so I snagged it. My husband still shakes his head and says I'm stealing their dignity and what do their mothers think?!?! They pretty much all laugh and say they can't wait to see the pictures. :)

Here's history on me and the watermelons. And the pumpkins. It makes me so very happy. I'm not quite sure why.

So. Here is my new itty bitty. Is she not fabulous?

Duchess and O'Malley are smitten with her. They keep trying to talk me into having another baby, and then I think they realize they like this one enough to just keep. So then it's "Mama? I weewee (really) want to be a big brudder. Why does her mommy have to come get her?"

Honorary big brother here. Available for permanent status whenever her current family is done with her.

For the blog I'm going to call her Perdita, the cute momma dog from 101 Dalmatians.

I put the watermelon outside in the yard for a few minutes with suran wrap around it to warm it up. A friend suggested it last night and I don't know why I haven't thought of that before. Warm and slimy is preferable to cold and slimy, yes? :) Then we set to work.

Ready to go outside. I have crazy eyes here because the shot before this one had closed eyes and I was trying to open wide this time. It's not really maniacal glee like you might think by looking. Perdita is happy in her towel, blissfully unaware of what's about to transpire.

Hmm... what have you people done to me? I am unsure about this...

I usually don't get full shots since modesty on the internet is an issue, but she behaved herself in such a ladylike way here that I get to show off her legs too. :)

She really did pretty well- most of the pictures are a variation of this. She's not exactly excited about it, but she's not screaming either.

My sister came over with her even smaller baby girl to use the other half of the watermelon. She was not so calm and serene about the experience. In fact she thought it was pretty terrible.


So she sat on her mama's lap for a minute and sucked her binky to feel better. And then she peed in the watermelon.

After that she felt better and was willing to let us take some more pictures where she wasn't crying.


I think it wasn't until we were back inside and ready for a nap that the enormity of the morning caught up to Perdita. She looks rather shocked, don't you think?

Noah's Ark Animal Workshop

We had a home field trip yesterday! I don't know why more companies don't do this- it's so great for small operations like us. I do not transport. Ever. There are too many littles who need car seats and aren't independently mobile, and I'd need a bus or something. Craziness. So when the Noah's Ark lady called and asked to set something up for us, I jumped on it. It was really nice to have something new and different for the kids to do. They've been excited about it for a week! We asked everybody to wear a shirt with an animal on it to get into the spirit of the day. We had monkeys, fish, frogs, pandas, lions, and a mouse, among other things.

I'd never heard of Noah's Ark before- it's set up similarly to Build-a-Bear Workshop, except she comes to the house like a Tupperware party. The kids get to choose an animal, stuff it themselves, do a little wishing star ceremony thing, and get a birth certificate. There's special pricing and just a few choices for daycares, but we were happy. She said the tie-in right now is that Zookeeper movie, so the kids got to pick a giraffe, monkey, or lion. The lion was super cute, but everyone wanted giraffes and monkeys.

After all the kids got their animal skins, Miss F talked about how to stuff them. They were careful to listen to the directions- it was actually pretty impressive. Here's Aurora and O'Malley, taking notes....

Okay, I got it! We put the fluffy stuff in here!

Tarzan begins the stuffing process...

Everyone joins in...

After the animals were all stuffed, Miss F handed out rainbow wishing stars, and they did a little bonding ceremony. It was pretty cute. First they held the stars up in the air and made a wish.

After that she asked the kids what they wanted to do with their animals and then they would rub the stars on themselves and the animals.
If you want your animal to know your voice and listen to you, you have to rub the star on your ears! Then rub it on your animal's ears so he can hear you!


Animals recognize people by their special smell, so rub the star on his nose so he will always remember what you smell like...


The most important part of all- you want your animal to always love you, so rub your wishing star over your heart, and then tuck it inside with the stuffing!

Okay, give your animal a big hug- you're all done!


We tried repeatedly to interest the younger boys in this project, but it was no use. Hercules screamed and kicked when I tried to make him sit in my lap to stuff his monkey. He and Tigger were much more excited about getting to hang out in the living room with O'Malley's big kid toys that they usually don't get to use!
At least they'll get the future benefits of having the animal to snuggle at home. It's doubtful any of these kids will actually remember making them after awhile anyhow, except for maybe Duchess. :)

Then later on in the afternoon we made foam picture frames with animals on them. I took a picture of everybody with their new special animal friend and once I get them back from Apple I'll send them home to go in the frames. We made one for all the babies too, even though they didn't make animals with us. Mater helped a lot.



Love me some chunky Mater!!

Favorite Quotes

Day 5 is quotes. I could definitely go on for awhile choosing original quotes from various of my charges. I suppose this is asking for notable quotes by famous or at least partially famous people though. I guess I'll do both. So let's see....

"Be very careful with that pig- we think he is the BEST in the world... " from Small Pig by Arnold Lobel. I call the children pigs on a regular basis. It's a great compliment around here to be called The Best Pig.

"Tell me, what did you do? Did you have any fun?" from The Cat in the Hat. Great stuff.

The ones that the kids say are some of the best, and become the things we quote more often than "real" things. One morning I was changing Hercules's diaper when Aurora arrived for the day. She's usually not nearby when I change diapers, since we do it in a different area from the play space, obviously. She marched over to inspect the process and looked horrified. Pointed, and said, "What pee-pee is THAT?!?!"

I almost fell down laughing and it still makes me laugh every time I think of it.


Then there are the very tongue-in-cheek quotes that I never say TO the children, you understand. But there are days when I mutter them under my breath to Kanga, especially in reference to my own kids. :) Spending all our time with small children means we have to take our snark in small doses where we can get it, just to amuse ourselves and let off a little steam.

"And then, the word she used to describe them both was tiresome...." from Dancing Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, after the distant relative the girls are pawned off with has decided she doesn't like taking care of them. :)

"It'll be so fun! We'll have ice cream!.... and bourbon...." Bebe Neuwirth's character in Jumanji. LOVE this one, as she's going up the stairs talking to herself...

And one of our moms told us that her co-worker always says, "You are making Mommy want to drink! Do you WANT Mommy to drink?!" I'm pretty sure that's one of those exaggerated-for-comedic-reaction things that she doesn't actually say to her daughter. At least I hope so. Because then it wouldn't be funny. But around the water cooler with a donut in your hand? Pretty amusing.

Getting Ready For Christmas

First of all, you know I love Mary P. She writes some of the BEST child care posts. I want to be her when I grow up. :) This post about giving and Santa and the holidays is fabulous, I think. Check it out.

Next: we baked our first batch of Christmas cookies today. Attendance is down this week due to sickness and maybe it's cowardly, but I prefer baking when not everybody is here. :) We'll do it again several times when there are different combinations of kids here so they all get to help. They're getting pretty decent at taking turns and standing in line, but they get really squirrelly if there are too many and they have to wait a "long time".


Stitch has been cracking me up through this whole process. She stirred and poured and took her turn, and then went and buckled herself in a chair. "Tray on! I ready! Eat cookie!" I keep telling her it's not time for cookies, that we're going to have lunch first, and they're too hot, but she is not dissuaded from the idea that if she just sits there long enough, cookies will come her way.


We made the cookies off the back of the candy cane flavored Hershey kisses bag, with a few allergy modifications. Usually I make my own flour blend or use one of the ones from my favorite cookbook, but I've had this bag of Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten free baking mix in the cabinet and it needed to be used. To be honest, I didn't have high hopes for it. It's got garbanzo bean flour and fava bean flour in it. I was worried the cookies would taste like hummus or something. Plus I can't get over the Silence of the Lambs reference about eating the guy's liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti. I want to make that weird slurpy noise he makes every time I think of fava beans.

Yes, I am a strange individual. But some things just stick with ya, more than you wish they would, ya know?

Here. Look at Silvermist being cute and helping, to get that other image out of your head.

Anyway. Happily, they do not taste like hummus, or anything else unsavory. The mint kisses help a lot. It's still not my favorite cookie flour but I bet it might be good for thickening sauces or something like that.

Now I have to go make lunch quickly before their heads explode from lack of cookie!

May the Fourth Be With You

Because it is. Because that's the date. Yes, I am a geek. I don't like Star Wars but my kids have forced it upon me.

Anyway. We are puny and sickly and injured over here. Several kids are home sick with various things, Kanga is still working on recovering from having Tigger the Elephant and is not up to par yet, and I fell down in a major way yesterday while out walking with the kids and tore up my elbow and nearly ripped off a fingernail. We're moving slowly and gingerly. It's pretty pathetic.

Luckily we're doing letters of the week now, and today is a great time to discuss Big Bloody Boo-Boos and Bandaids. And also Barf, in the case of the kids at home. Find the silver lining where you can, right?

Stall....

So. I lost the curriculum book somewhere. Horribly annoying. We are at a complete standstill with the safari work because I have all these cutesy pieces of paper and no instructions on what to do with them. This week is kid-driven and floor play and not so much themed until I find my silly book. Which is not a bad thing per se. I guess it's a good thing I had planned to carry it over to April anyway. Now we'll have lots of stuff to get done.

Spring Is Almost Here!

We're going to be doing all sorts of spring activities next week. I LOVE the beginning of spring. The weather here generally cooperates, although not always... grr... and it's so much fun to take walks and look at new flowers and birds and greenery. I love tulips and daffodils and hyacinths and irises and baby bunnies and chocolate ones too!

My family is ... I don't like to say religious. That has such a negative, holy-roller kind of connotation to me. Anyway, we take Easter pretty seriously around here, and I love talking to my own kids about Jesus and what He did for us. As a teacher though, I know not everybody follows those beliefs and I want to be respectful about differing opinions. I've found that the thing that works best for me is to completely separate Easter and spring. My kids get their "spring baskets" on March 20/21 for the first day of spring. We do our spring egg hunt then, and talk about chicks and bunnies and all the cutesy sugary section of the holiday then. Then that leaves Easter open to be more focused on Biblical content. I want them to be able to have all the chocolate bunnies and silly stuff that goes along with the secular part of the season, but I'm just not comfortable with mixing the two things so closely. Spring is great for egg hunts and peeps. Easter is for Jesus. We do lots of Holy Week stuff at my church. Just not the egg hunt. We do our own.

I know that's pretty different from what most people consider "normal", and I'm okay with that. :) My kids don't do the Easter bunny. (or Santa either, for that matter, but that's a whole 'nother story...) They know that I pick the things to go in their baskets, although they are under super strict orders to not spoil the fun for their friends. It's usually not an issue since they get their baskets a few weeks ahead or behind everyone else. Little kids don't connect the two events that closely for awhile.

Anyhow... all that to say, we're going to be having our Spring Egg Hunt soon. Since spring break is next week and I am not sure who will be here that Friday, we'll be doing it on Monday, March 22. If it's nice it will be outside. If not, in the playroom. There will be lots of fun activities and that's when we'll do all the typical stuff that usually happens around Easter. And then we're closed on April 2 for Good Friday.

I'm weird. I know. :) But it works for me.

PSA

Quick before I forget-

The kids have been really excited about mixing colors and helping me cook lately. I served BRIGHT GREEN biscuits for breakfast. So if you're changing some crazy diapers in the next few days, that would be why. No need for alarm. :)

Dog Days Of Summer...

I got a new transportation playset a couple weeks ago and everyone is loving it. They played with it for over an hour the first time we got it out. It has boats, cars, ramps, helipads... all kinds of things. It's set up where the blue part can be filled with water to actually float the boats, but we haven't done that yet.


Other than that, there's not too much going on, really. Pretty much every summer I think I do at least one post where I talk about how hot it is and I feel like we're not getting any curriculum done and I feel guilty about art and blah blah blah...

Oh look, there's one here. And I know there was one on the old blog where I talked about them being addicted to watching the Aristocats and lying on the floor panting from heat, too tired to move while I said "Look kids, the Eiffel Tower..." like it was National Lampoon's European Vacation. Big Ben... Parliament... I cracked myself up and they just looked at me like I was nuts.

So I won't subject you to that again. But just know I feel like that again. I'm ready for cooler weather and back-to-school and ordering fall curriculum that I can stick to with some regularity.

We've been having lots of fun though, and learning is always happening whether I plan it or not. :) That's the joy of this business. The roster has been changing pretty frequently too- we've got a couple who are gone for most of the summer and then some who drop in from time to time. Sebastian and Ariel have switched to part time and we have a new set of siblings who are also part-time. Lots of little changes here and there.


Here are a few of the cutie drop-in girls we've had over the past month or so...


And our new sibling group. Disney names to follow, as usual. :)

This picture cracks me up immensely. Chip was not at all sure if he liked squash. He kept eating it though, so Kanga kept feeding him while I took pictures of him making variations of this face.

Simba sometimes wakes up with FABULOUS bed head. Reminds me of why I call him Simba in the first place!

And then of course, there's always getting a bucket stuck on your head for maximum entertainment purposes.

I love catching pictures of Roo in a big smile. Even if it does make her drool everywhere. It's awesome. :)

Loving To Fail

"An inventor is simply a person who doesn't take his education too seriously. You see, from the time a person is six years old until he graduates from college he has to take three or four examinations a year. If he flunks once, he is out. But an inventor is almost always failing. He tries and fails maybe a thousand times. If he succeeds once then he's in. These two things are diametrically opposite. We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work."

— Charles Kettering

This quote was in my email this morning. I really, really love it. I think it's one of the absolute best things you can teach a kid. Yes, you're going to fail. In fact, you should do it a lot. Every single day, you should keep working, and have FUN trying to figure out how to make things better and faster and more efficient. And yes, you're going to STINK at some things the first time you try. That doesn't necessarily mean you need my help. Sometimes I'm not going to help you. (and that freaks some of them right out... you don't WANT to help me? I can't do it all by myself!) Yes you can. Depending on the kid, sometimes I explain that, and sometimes I just say I'm busy or I can't right now, and if you want it done right now, you'll need to figure it out.

Working through your frustration is good for you, and it's true that flunking in school sometimes sets us up for not wanting to try. I mean, nobody likes to fail. That's something I can't really do anything about. But at home? Work it through! Help less, ask questions and LISTEN to the answers, and your kids will surprise you.

I think as parents and caregivers we all tend to get into the pattern of helping our kids too much. Sometimes it's because oh my heavens they take SO LONG TO DO THINGS. It is easier to just do it for them, and it makes less mess for us to clean up afterwards.

Sometimes it's because mamas can be control freaks. We like for things to be done our way. Our way is the best way, and that means it's the only way it should be done. I have learned so much by sitting back and watching the way that kids choose to do stuff. Lots of times it doesn't get done the way I wanted it to. That matters in some things, but in others? It doesn't. It really doesn't. And it helps kids so much if I let go of my preconceived ideas in that areas. It still gets done. And they are doing it.

Talking them through a failure is something I'm still learning how to do. It's my conditioned response to leap in with the NO NO voice sometimes and go, "That's not the way that works! Oh my goodness you're going to hurt yourself/ break that/ whatever! Do it like this! NO! LIKE THIS! never mind, here, just let me do it...." And for me, that's a huge fail on several levels. It teaches them that I will step in and do it for them and so they can (okay, I'm not finding a better phrase than "half-ass it"... usually I don't like to cuss on the blog, but that's what they do). It also doesn't help me back off and let them learn. It doesn't allow them to fail in a safe way so that they can try again next time.

I find that the older they get, if I just call their name and get their attention, I can say things like, "I think if you do it that way you might drop it. Then you'll have a mess to clean up. (because yes, they will be cleaning that mess, not me.) Can you think of another way to do it that might be better?" Everybody stays calm and the kid gets to think about it himself and do it himself.

I also think we do it to ourselves while we raise kids. I have been working at trying to get my kid to drop a binky/ sleep through the night/ potty train for so long now! It doesn't happen easily or quickly and we get frustrated. This is the invention process. You get it right once and it works! True, what worked before may not work today, but if you start feeling like you've flunked out, it's not good for anybody.

Anyway. There are some thoughts for today. :) What can you add that I haven't thought of?

6 Kids 5 And Under

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it would be like to have a big family. That's something I do on a regular basis, actually, but it's easier to visualize right now. Generally I've got a cluster of kids that are all pretty close to the same age. When we take the quad stroller and go walking, it's obvious to anybody paying attention that there is no way these kids could all be mine. Oh look! Four babies all around the same age-ish and then two more who just learned to walk! Not physically possible, not to mention one is Asian, two have red hair... whatever.

However, right now I've got two sibling groups who dovetail into each other, and then two infants. Today we went walking and I had Aurora, my Friday girlie who still needs a good Disney name, O'Malley, and Sebastian in the quad, and Duchess and Ariel walking. A man and his dog stopped to talk to us and made the predictable comments about my hands being full, just seeing the big kids who were petting his dog. Then he walked on by and saw the girls in the back of the stroller and just stopped in his tracks and goes, "HOLY CHRISTMAS!"

And I realized that for the first time in awhile, ALL the kids could conceivably be mine, biologically. The four bigger kids are all about 15-16 months apart, and Aurora and {help me think of a name for this new baby} are 6 weeks apart but look like they could very easily be twins.

5 1/2, almost 4 1/2, 3, almost 2, and 6 month old twins.

Good grief. This could be real.

I did tell him that most of them are my day job and only 2 belong to me. I have a feeling I'm going to want to start claiming them all though, just to see what people say to me. :)

Pumpkin Pie

I think it has been established (although, actually I think it was on my previous blog, not this one, so I'll see if I can find pictures of the last time...) that I enjoy stripping babies and taking undignified pictures of them in large melon-type containers. :) They are just too cute, even if they get mad about it! There's such a small window of time where they fit into fruits and vegetables that I just have to go for it whenever I get the chance.

Last spring I put O'Malley and Eeyore into watermelons. Oh look, I found the pictures! Eeyore was okay with it.



O'Malley not so much.

But now it's fall!!

My sister brought her baby Peanut over today and asked me what I was going to do with my big pumpkin now that it's November. I said I should probably get rid of it, so she cut leg holes in it and scooped all the gunk out. She had that boy down to a diaper and wearing that pumpkin in less than fifteen minutes.

He was a little uneasy about it at first, but then he settled in and decided it was okay.


I love that one with the lid on his head like a hat. It only stayed on for about four seconds at a time so we had to work together to get that picture.

Yum, first taste of pumpkin. I'm pretty sure it's better cooked!

Then Aurora woke up. She's younger and I wasn't sure if it would make her really mad, but I figured it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime event, because Peanut barely fit in there. She'd definitely be too big next time watermelons are in season. So I stuck her in there too.


It was kind of heavy and I didn't want to get pumpkin guts in her hair so I just held it on there.


I love this one, she looks so serious hanging on the side like that.

She only got mad when I took her out. Maybe it felt a little slimy on her back or something? This is a great face though- it's like she's just now realizing the indignities perpetrated upon her. :) Sorry Aurora and Peanut, but this is too much fun to pass up!

Attitude Adjustment

This morning with the big kids has been .... I hate to use the word "abysmal", but that's what springs to mind. There has been snarling, crying, snot, rolling around on the floor yelling, toy grabbing, and a few other lovely things. I remember days like this when I was teaching middle school and I am SO grateful to be where I am. Then, all I could do was assign them more work that they would likely refuse to do, all the while giving me dirty looks, and tomorrow when they walked in they would still be holding a grudge.

It's really wonderful to be able to say, "Honey, I need a hug. Would you come and hug me?" Because they all do, and most of the time it cuts off whatever yucky behavior is getting started. Then I say something like "You look like you feel grumpy. What can I do to make you feel happier?" For Sebastian, it was a Kleenex. Although he's still really annoyed that today is not his birthday, and he will cry if anybody mentions it, he's coming out of the funk. :)

Then I decided October 1 is plenty early enough for Christmas music. I pulled out my Target Sounds of the Season and a big handful of jingle bells, and we're grooving to Sleigh Ride as sung by the Spice Girls.

And just like that, my day is a little better already. In half an hour they won't remember, and tomorrow is still a whole day away. No grudges, no dirty looks. Way more snot, but that's a small price to pay.

This Does Not Bode Well

Snow White: I smell poop.
Duchess: That's not poop. It's our lunch.
Snow White. NO! What is she cooking? It's poop! Not lunch!
Duchess: (coming over to see in the pan) It's not poop, right Mom? It's lunch?
Me: Yes. I'm making quesadillas. You're smelling tortillas and butter. NOT poop.
Duchess: Well, it smells like poop if you BURN it.
Me: Shut up. I did not burn lunch.
Duchess: You shouldn't tell me to shut up.
Me: You're right. But I'm not burning lunch. And you like quesadillas.

Daycare Nightmare

I don't know why I had a nightmare about the job last night- I almost never do. Nothing like waking up in a cold sweat afraid for other people's kids. It's almost more terrifying than thinking about something happening to my own. The sense of responsibility and knowing how parents would feel- yuck. Makes me want to throw up.

So in the dream, it was a normal morning, kids were showing up, and I was making breakfast. My sister came to visit with her four kids, it was the first day for the new baby who actually is starting next week, pretty much every drop-in or part-time I've ever taken was here.... BUSY. I looked up and counted heads and realized I had 15 kids running around. How did that happen? Way too many, over ratio, how will I feed them, etc...

Then the doorbell rang. And I just knew it was the state coming for my surprise inspection and I would get in trouble for having so many extra kids. So I told my mom, who was also here, and my sister to take her kids away, quickly. I answered the door and it was somebody trying to sell me curriculum, but she'd set it all up in my front yard with big colorful backdrops and wouldn't take no for an answer and it took forever to deal with her.

I got back inside to find that ALL the kids were gone, not just my niece and nephews, and I didn't know where they'd taken them. My mom called after awhile and said they went to vacation bible school and would be back soon. Turns out it was three hours away and nobody got home until 8pm. I was sitting there all day freaking out about where the kids were and if they were safe and how angry all the parents were going to be that I just let them go off someplace. The family of my new baby came to pick up and fired me on the spot. People were yelling at me right and left.

Luckily, all the kids actually were safe and made it home okay at the end of the dream. But still. What is up with that?