Surprises in babysitting

Earlier this week, a parent of one of my former students called and asked if I’d be interested in taking care of her son today. And not just for a few hours in the evening, but how would I feel about having Andy stay overnight? Well, heck. I like kids, and we’ve become friends since he was my student last year, and of course, though I’m not supposed to have favorites… well, Andy’s one of them. Anyway, I called Sarah and asked if Nate, who’s about Andy’s age, had any plans for the weekend. Nope.

So right now I have a ten-year-old boy on the sofabed, and an eleven-year-old (last week!) in the guest room. It took them a little while to hit it off, but hit it off they did. They spent a lot of time playing Simpsons on the Wii, and then we tried to find something to watch that we’d all agree on. I had no idea Terminator 2 was rated R, so when they asked for that, I had to call Sarah to make sure it would be all right. But she was out picking up Eldest Boy, so we didn’t get a call back and it got later and they got bored. We watched something called Ninja Warrior, which is a Japanese game show. One of those feats of strength things. It wasn’t as dumb as some of the others, and the last thing the contestants had to do was climb a 50-foot rope in 30 seconds. None of them made it. Nate and Andy argued about whether or not Nate could do it. That got us on the subject of how good a climber Nate was. Which got us on the subject of the rock climbing gym. I told the boys that I know of more than a few climbers who could easily climb 50 feet of straight rope in 30 seconds, half of them using only their arms. And then I thought a little. It was about 9 p.m. I said, “Hey, what if we just run over to the gym right now and do a little climbing of our own?”

“Really?”

“Why not? I’ll give you an hour.”

So we went. I was a little rusty at first, not having tied a figure-eight knot since May, but I got it, and the boys climbed three party routes and a 5.6. Unfortunately, there was a lock-in, so I couldn’t get anyone to belay me for a climb. Next time.

It took me a while to settle them down, but I’m pretty sure they’re both sound asleep right now. If I can just keep Tig up here and not down there trying to get Nate to wake up and play with him, they’ll stay asleep.

I’m dropping them both off at religious school tomorrow. Then I have the rest of the weekend to myself. Although it’s going to be awfully quiet here after tomorrow morning.