For anyone else who borrows small children, but doesn’t have their own (and by that, I mean babysitting, rather than anything illegal), here are a few things I learned this weekend that may be useful.  Parents, feel free to just laugh at me.

• When trying to get that snotty bit cleaned from under a Little Person’s nose, wring out the sponge first.  If you don’t, the Little Person will look up at you and smile in a trusting sort of way….and then scream the house down as you pour vast quantities of water down his throat.
• While relaxing on the sofa while the Little Person sleeps upstairs, be aware of your surroundings.  It can be very confusing to hear torrential rain outside, but notice the ground is bone dry when you go to take a look, until you realise you’ve been sitting right next to the baby monitor.  And the Little Person has a ‘rain sounds’ or similar CD playing in their room.
• When checking on Little Person, remember that they do occasionally move.  Just because in the pitch black of their room, you can’t find their head – or any other part of their body for that matter – does not mean that they have been abducted by aliens, managed to get out the cot and through the front door without you noticing, or vanished into thin air.  There is no need to have a panic attack.  They could actually be snuggled comfortably right at the far end of the cot, nowhere near where you actually put them down.

A happier bath time. (Sister 1, I stole your photo…I hope that is ok. x)

And added to that, I had the challenge of trying to eat my pizza without ‘help’:

But in the end, everyone (Little Pea included) slept soundly.  I can hear rain at all hours of the day and still have that panicked feeling when I think of empty cots, but next time has to be better, doesn’t it?  That’s assuming Sister 1 doesn’t remove me from her baby sitting list after reading this :o)